Running SharePoint on a Domain Controller

Question

We are tring to test a SharePoint Solution.

In order to reduce the number of servers that we use, is it possible to run a Domain Controller on the same machine as the SharePoint Web Site?

Answer 1

I certainly would not advise doing this, however, the only "real" issue I have ever seen with this is when trying to use document conversion. This particular service requires a local machine user account to write to a local directory when performing the conversion, and local machine user accounts are not available on a server configured as a domain controller.

The above could also be true for other services, but I didn't continue any further once this was noticed. I think you will find that Microsoft would not recommend this approach either.

Update: As Jaap has just stated, it is likely that this scenario can be used to simplify development, this blog post (http://blogs.msdn.com/martinkearn/archive/2007/03/28/how-to-install-sharepoint-server-2007-on-a-single-machine.aspx) looks like a good guide to doing an "all-in-one" MOSS installation, however I would avoid doing this for any testing servers and certainly not in production - the DC's in a production environment are better left alone to do the job they are meant to be doing.

Stuart

Answer 2

I guess for lab machines it should be ok. I believe that Microsoft's Hands On Labs VM's are single server farms that serve as domain controllers as well.