how long can a domain controller be disconnected from the WAN?

[shivinder]

Is there anyone who can let me know how long can a domain controller be disconnected from the WAN before it stops authenticating or does it authenticate indefinately? Is it depending upon if it is a GC server? Thanks for any info.

[MattyBoy]

I think that the longest is 59 days, 23 hours, 59 minutes and 59 seconds. It is because of the default 60 day tombstone lifetime of all AD objects. Anything beyond that gets deleted from the AD database. If that is the case, then the DC will need to be demoted by a forceremoval and the AD database cleaned up of its reference. Can you tell us whether you have a DC that has been offline longer than that or so?

[Tomthegreat]

You can check the tombstone lifetime which is your limit from the below link:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/l.../cc784932.aspx
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/924890