Q: What is automatic site coverage
and how do I disable it?
A: Usually domain controllers
(DCs) register site-specific
records for their local site in DNS,
enabling clients to easily find DCs
and other services that are closest
to them. If a site contains no DCs, then DCs in the sites closest
to that site (calculated by site-link
costs) will register site-specific
records for that site as well, to help
clients find a DC as close as possible.
This is known as automatic
site coverage.
With Windows Server 2008,
your Windows Server 2003 DCs
might have problems because
they won’t see read-only DCs
when they check for a DC. Therefore,
the Windows 2003 DCs will
register records for the site containing
the read-only DCs, which
isn’t desirable.
To disable automatic site coverage,
perform the following steps
on each of the DCs:
- Start the registry editor
(regedit.exe).
- Navigate to the HKEY_
LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM CurrentControlSet\Services Netlogon\Parameters registry
subkey.
- From the Edit menu, select
New, DWORD value.
- Enter a name of AutoSite-
Coverage and press Enter.
- Double-click the new value
and set it to 0 to disable it (1 enables it). Click OK.
—John Savill