Does your AD structure follow the HQ -> Region -> Branch model? If so, you could just walk up the AD structure.

If not, how about using a simple group hierarchy?

  1. A "branch" group whose description defines the locally elected branch server(s). This group is a member of:
  2. A "regional" group whose description defines the next tier of server(s). This group is a member of:
  3. An "HQ" group whose description defines the top level of server(s)


Determining the order of hosts to try by walking up the group tree.

You don't *have* to populate the branch group with all your machines - if you have a reasonable OU naming standard you can give the branch level group a name that is easy to deduce.

You can create as many tiers as you want of course.

The description which defines the server to use (or other AD field if there is something more appropriate) can be set programatically so you can do lots of tricks with it such as updating the description record when the service is installed or rotating multiple servers for simple load balancing.