Question 6: Will You Use Cross-Forest Trusts?
Windows 2003 doesn't bring the nirvana of AD "pruning and grafting" that many systems administrators have hoped for. You can't take another company's Windows 2003 or Win2K domain and "glue" it to your AD forest. However, Windows 2003 does offer one compelling feature for intracompany sharing: cross-forest trusts.
With a cross-forest trust in place, two Windows 2003 forests can more effectively share data and resources between their domains. (For more information about cross-forest trusts, see "Multiple-Forest Trusts," April 2003, http://www.winnetmag.com, InstantDoc ID 38280.) This improvement can be especially helpful should your company acquire another company and want to perform a quick integration. However, all the DCs of both companies must be running Windows 2003 and the domains and forests must be switched into Windows 2003 functional levels.
Windows 2003 also adds the ability to easily rename DCs, as well as the ability to rename domains. However, the procedure for renaming domains is exceedingly painful, and you should resort to it only if absolutely necessary. Still, the capability is nice to have.
If you already have
- more than two domains and two forests, add 5 points
- two domains or two forests, add 4 points
- one domain, add 1 point
If you're planning an acquisition in 3 to 12 months, add another 3 points. Also, if you're planning to rename your company in the same time period, add another 3 points.
Question 7: How Much Do You Leverage Terminal Services?
Both Windows 2003 and Windows XP contain a mechanism for providing inbound connections through Terminal Services. The OSs share a new version of the RDP 5.2 Terminal Services server-side protocol. In general, the RDP 5.2 protocol is more forgiving than earlier versions if you're connecting from a computer over the Internet. Earlier versions of RDP tend to drop the session if even one packet has been lost in transit.
Additionally, Windows 2003 and XP offer a new version of the RDP client-side protocol. The RDP 5.1 protocol adds some whiz-bang features (e.g., 24-bit color, native clipboard redirection, native client printer and driver redirection, bandwidth throttling when connected through LAN versus dial-up connections, time-zone redirection, and Console Session '0') to your Terminal Services experience. You can benefit from these new features only if you use the combination of RDP 5.2 on the server and RDP 5.1 on the client. These features definitely improve the Terminal Services experience so that users feel as if they're using the same system.
If your business's current use of Terminal Services is
- heavy, add 4 points
- moderate, add 3 points
- light, add 2 points
- nonexistent, add 0 points
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