Is it possible to design synchronization services with failover or load balancing? Assuming that I had two sync servers with the same MA's configured on each server it doesn't seem very feasible to try to build the load balancing into the projection logic. Also, is it possible to have a live failover system for the synchronization servers?

We support hot-standby. You have two servers using the same SQL database but only one is active. When you need to failover you will run miisactivate to move the active server. Most customers will do this manually, but some will do it in an automated fashion. More and more customers put the FIM Sync server in a virtualized environment and let the virtualization server manage the fail over. /AndreasThis posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights. Use of included script samples are subject to the terms specified at http://www.microsoft.com/info/copyright.htm

Do you need to make sure that the FIM groups are domain and not local? The default is local (as on my installation) but I have read that they need to be domain groups to allow failover like this. Do I need to transfer all of the MAs and other config to the new server?

The reason you want domain groups is because the SID is stored in the database so if you fail over the SIDs will change (since they are local) and no one can use the Synchronization Service manager to manage the server. This can be fixed by re-installing FIM Synchronization Service, but it will defy the purpose of a failover. You do not have to transfer any configuration. Everything is stored in the database, including DLLs if you use scripted provisioning. /AndreasThis posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights. Use of included script samples are subject to the terms specified at http://www.microsoft.com/info/copyright.htm

Great, thanks very much. I am only implementing a test system at the moment but it's nice to know this for future reference.