Thank you for the response once again Gordon. It's really good that I get some help with this.
Just to make sure first, I have configured all our machines in the 144 network to use our server as primary DNS server @ 172.17.144.160. The 6 and 144 networks are configured to server with two ethernet ports. One for 6 and one for 144. So far, I have managed to get the OD system to work pretty much the same in both networks and with same settings and services (You can use same account information from both networks and login, no problem).
Gordon Davisson wrote:
Another thing I'm a little confused by is that the 172.17.6.x network seems to be split between your two two departments, even though they're connected by a WAN link -- normally, a link like that would be a routed connection, so the networks at the two ends would need separate network addresses. Do you know enough about the setup to clarify?
I'm afraid that my knowledge about how this was setup is not enough. All I can say, is that when I approached the ISP with this, they explained to me that this can be done, that the 172.17.6.x network is the same in both departments. But for instance, I cannot see any main departments computers in "Shared" tab in finder @ second department, and vise versa. But, the Remote Desktop still can search the network and find all computers from both departments in the same 172.17.6.x network, and I can connect our machines to the main server from 2nd department. Does this help at all?
I was actually thinking that the DNS name would be a problem. I need to change that. I don't want to change the main server, so I just reinstall the whole mini server. Need to order external cd drive i guess.
So, to make sure what you suggested:
1) I add the sibeliusopisto.janakala (new name janakkala.internal or something) in the main servers DNS as an A record with its IP
2) (You didn't suggest this but) Re-install the mini server with proper settings this time
3) Setup the janakkala.internal to use our sibeliusopisto.internal as DNS?
4) Setup client machines at 2nd department to use sibeliusopisto.internal as DNS (Information there leads to janakkala.internal)
(Do I have to enable any DNS service at janakkala.internal then? If the records are made in the sibeliusopisto.internal, does the mini server need a DNS service running?)
5) Setup the replica in the janakkala.internal when DNS is tested and working
6) Setup clients to use janakkala.internal as network account server
7) Make the configurations for the 2nd department users (move the home folders in the mini etc we spoke earlier)
Thank you again Gordon. This is really stressful for me 'cos I'm afraid that I'm the only one here who has some kind of understanding of Macs, or even mac servers. Studied the Snow Leopard Server setup from Lynda.com , pretty helpful but it doesn't cover everything.
Thank you for your help