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How do I specify a bridgehead server?
John Savill
January 8, 2000
1 Min Read
A. To minimize bandwidth usage during intersite communication, the Knowledge Consistency Checker (KCC) dynamically chooses a server from each site to handle the communication. These servers are the bridgehead servers. Rather than letting the KCC choose the servers, you might prefer to nominate domain controllers (e.g., a domain controller with the best network connectivity, a domain controller that is the proxy server in a firewall environment).
A server that you nominate is a preferred bridgehead server. You can select multiple preferred bridgehead servers for a site, but only one of the servers is active at a time. If the active preferred bridgehead server fails, then another preferred bridgehead server becomes the active server. If no preferred bridgehead servers are available, a regular Windows 2000 domain controller becomes active for intersite communication. Letting a regular Win2K domain controller handle intersite communication might cause problems if the server lacks sufficient resources.
To nominate a server as a bridgehead server, start the Active Directory Sites and Services MMC snap-in. (Select Programs, Administrative Tools, Active Directory Sites and Services from the Start menu.)
Expand the Sites branch.
Expand the site containing the server, and select the Servers container.
Right-click the server, and select Properties.
Select the protocol you want the server to act as a preferred bridgehead server for (i.e., SMTP or IP), as the Screen shows, and click Add.
Click here to view imageClick OK.
When the KCC runs the next time, the connection objects will change to use the bridgehead server you specified.
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