Designing and Implementing a Server Infrastructure — Question 19

Your company has a main office, ten regional datacenters and 100 branch offices.
You are designing the site topology for an Active Directory forest named contoso.com.
The forest will contain the following servers:
* In each regional datacenter and in the main office, a domain controller that runs Windows Server 2012
* In each branch office, a file server that runs Windows Server 2012
You have a shared folder that is accessed by using the path \\contoso.com\shares\software. The folder will be replicated to a local file server in each branch office by using Distributed File System (DFS) replication.
You need to recommend an Active Directory site design to meet the following requirements:
* Ensure that users in the branch offices will be authenticated by a domain controller in the closest regional datacenter.
* Ensure that users automatically connect to the closest file server when they access \\contoso.com\shares\software.
How many Active Directory sites should you recommend?

Answer options

Correct answer: D

Explanation

The correct answer is D, as each branch office should ideally have its own site to ensure users are authenticated by the nearest domain controller and connect to their local file server. With 10 regional datacenters, and the addition of the main office, you would have a total of 11 sites for the domain controllers, but each of the 100 branch offices would also require a site for optimal DFS replication, totaling 111 sites. Options A, B, and C do not account for the number of branch offices, making them insufficient.