Resolution
What is recommended when using single repository or muliple repositories to manage multiple domains with NetIQ Group Policy Administrator?
goal
What is the best practice for configuring Group Policy Administrator to manage multiple domains?
fact
NetIQ Group Policy Administrator 3.0
fact
NetIQ Group Policy Administrator 4.0
fact
NetIQ Group Policy Administrator 5.0
fix
The recommended configuration is to have a single repository server with all domains added to a single repository. This is the easiest configuration to administer and requires setting up the security model for the repository only once. It also allows you to take advantage of the NetIQ GPA functionality of being able to migrate a GPO in the repository between domains and within each domain. If you have multiple repositories, one for each domain, you loose the functionality and flexibility of being able to migrate a GPO from one domain to another unless you backup the repository database from one SQL server and manually import the repository from one SQL server to another. It is a manual process with the potential for perils and problems.
The only caveat to this will depend on the bandwidth between the Repository and the client machines. If the bandwidth is good, a single Repository is the preferred configuration. If the bandwidth between the Repository and the client machines is slow then multiple Repositories may be an option. When performing a checkout, the GPO is copied from the Repository to a share on the client's machine called Local GPOs under C:\Program Files\NetIQ\Group Policy Administrator\Local GPOs. For the checkin operation the GPO is copied back into the database. If the GPO is large in size, this can be a fair amount of data being copied back and forth from the Repository to the client.