Do I need to install administrative templates and/or set GPOs on every Domain Controller (DC) / DPCA Server?
No. However, to view Group Policy settings, generally yes, administrative templates need to be present. Administrative templates and GPOs are stored in AD and need only be set once (from any AD Users and Computers or GPMC console) and then they exist in AD and are replicated by AD among all the DCs and to clients. On Windows 2003 Server .adm files need to be added to GPOs for settings to be available. Windows 2008 Server uses .admx/l files, so this step is no longer needed. If using Microsoft Central Store then .admx/l files need to be manually copied from the default locations to the PolicyDefinitions location. In addition to the Administrative Templates node, DPCA AD extends the Policies/Software Settings node via a GPMC snap-in extension, which is part of the Administrative Tools install.
