Overview
The Sites and Subnets of an Active Directory define the association between domain controllers and locations and enable association of domain-joined clients with specific domain controllerswell-connected locations. Each Site is a named collection of one or more domain controllers as well as one or more subnets. Domain-joined clients locate the closest domain controller by querying Windows devices connected to Active Directory will, by default, leverage the Site configuration to locate the nearest domain controller by performing the following steps:
- Query Active Directory for the sites and subnets
...
- information
- Identify the site that has a subnet value which best matches the IP address on the client
...
- Select a domain controller from the site identified in the previous step
The site selection behavior can be overridden via Group Policy. The "Specify site name" policy in Computer policy can be configured with the full Site Name from the table below to force a device to use a specific site.
Site Codes
The Austin Active Directory also defines abbreviated three-character site codes to provide a shortened an abbreviated reference to an appropriate a site. The site codes are split into two general groups: campus site codes are defined for sites associated with networks on campus and cloud site codes are defined for sites associated with networks hosted by cloud providers. Campus site codes are simple abbreviations (aus, atx, pub, etc.) while cloud site codes follow a general rule:
- the first character is
...
- an abbreviation for the cloud provider
...
- : sites in AWS start with 'w'
...
- and sites in Azure start with 'z'
...
- the second and third characters are abbreviations for specific regions in the cloud provider .
Site Details
The Austin Active Directory defines multiple sites and subnets to associate domain controllers with specific physical locations both on-campus and in the cloud.
Sites in the Austin Active Directory - Current
...