Hi Everyone. Is there a way to create a 2-node or more cluser for the primary domain controller. This is so I can have a backup PDC when the primary PDC node goes down....so my users would not feel the loss of 1 PDC cluster node...since the other one take over..... JGALT

In Active Directory, there is a PDC emulator FSMO role holder, but there's no PDC in the sense there was in NT4. The immediate impact of the PDC emulator going down is loss of backward compatibility with NT4 legacy apps and clients. Therefore, you do not need to cluster domain controllers in Active Directory. If you need to ensure you don't want to lose the compatibility mentioned above, you can create NT4 BDC's. For high availability for Active Directory, have multiple DC's with multiple Global Catologs, along with multiple DNS servers. "How many squirrels had to die to make you look fly?!"

P.S. Who is John Galt? "How many squirrels had to die to make you look fly?!"

clustering does not work that way. AD is a cluster, install 2 AD controlers, add each of them to the clients ip settings and your good.

"install 2 AD controlers, add each of them to the clients ip settings and your good." It's not that simple. For authentication to AD to take place, clients must be able to query a DNS server they are configured to use to find the resource records for domain controllers for the domain along with global catalog servers. As I stated earlier, you must have multiple DNS servers for high availability. Installing two domain controllers doesn't cover this because, by default, the second DC would not be a DNS server. Also, incidentally, you don't configure clients within their IP settings to use domain controllers; you configure them to use DNS servers, which can and often are the domain controllers in a domain. Still, this is for DNS services, NOT active directory services. The client subsequently queries DNS for the domain controllers and global catalog servers for its domain/site. DNS servers do not have to be on domain controllers! You must have multiple Global Catalogs for high availability. By default, only the first DC would be a GC, while the second DC installed would not be a GC by default, so again, simply installing two domain controllers wouldn't provide high availability as you are stating. Please help survivors of Hurricane Katrina! www.redcross.org