Terminal Server Domain Structure Considerations

ID: Q186567

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Windows NT Server version 4.0, Terminal Server Edition

SUMMARY

This article discusses ways in which Terminal Server will be integrated into existing Windows NT domains. Terminal Server can act as a member server or a domain controller in a Windows NT domain and can be related to Windows NT domains through trust relationships. In these ways, Terminal Server is no different from Windows NT Server.

MORE INFORMATION

The user accounts database (SAM) is also no different from Windows NT Server, although there are many new Terminal Server user configuration options. The user configuration options in Terminal Server's User Manager (and those in Citrix Winframe 1.7) are stored in original equipment manufacturer (OEM) fields built into Windows NT's security account manager (SAM) file. In Windows NT Server, the fields contain null values. Account replication should not be an issue between Terminal Server and Windows NT 3.51 or Windows NT 4.0.

Although compatibility is not an issue, administrators may want to consider the following:

Assigning Terminal Server-specific user configuration options to users will increase the size of the SAM from 1 to 8 KB per modified user.
Modifying user configurations must be done through Terminal Server's User Manager.
Any modification to user accounts must be made in the user's logon domain.

One obvious concern for administrators is the size of the SAM. Terminal Server user accounts can be significantly larger than normal user accounts. Consider the configurable options and additional path information that can be added to an account. A fully configured Terminal Server account is about 8 KB, compared to 1 KB for a normal Windows NT user. This means that every field is filled in, which is seldom the case. In fact, if a user is created and defaults are used, the accounts are no bigger than the default size for Windows NT users. So, depending on what information and options are stored in the accounts, a Terminal Server account will be from 1 to 8 KB, with an average of 2 KB.

Domain structures are also potentially more complex with Terminal Server. For Beta 1, Microsoft recommended a member server role for Terminal Server. This creates some immediate problems. There are no domain issues related to initially connecting to a Terminal Server computer, other than that the Terminal Server needs to be related in some way (be a member or domain controller in the accounts, or a resource domain) to the domain(s) the users want to log on to. But logging on is more complicated.

If users are created with default configurations, there is no difficulty. Terminal Server client user accounts do not have to be modified for the user to log on. However, if the administrator wants users to have Terminal Server Profiles rather than User Profiles (see the section on User Manager for more detail), then the logon domain's user account database must be modified using Terminal Server's User Manager. For example, if the administrator created a resource domain specifically for Terminal Server computers, to avoid having all that additional user information in the accounts domain SAM, then she or he would also not be able to use any of Terminal Server's user modifications. These modifications have to exist in the accounts domain's SAM.

To work around this issue, an administrator could create a master domain of Terminal Server computers and create a two-way trust with any other master domains. This could lead to a proliferation of trusts.

Administrators need to think carefully about how Terminal Server will be integrated into existing domains. If administrators want to use the Terminal Server-specific user account modifications, those changes need to be made in the user's logon domain using Terminal Server's User Manager. This will increase the size of the domain SAM, perhaps considerably. For users to log on to the domain after connecting to the Terminal Server computer, the Terminal Server computer needs to be related to the logon domain in some way, either by being a domain controller or a member server in the domain or through a trust relationship.

Additional query words:

Keywords :
Version : WinNT:4.0
Platform : winnt
Issue type : kbinfo