Server 2012 R2 domain controller computer minimum?

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NetTechie

Limp Gawd
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Jan 10, 2014
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I just got a Dell Optiplex 755 Core 2 Duo 2.33ghz with 8gb ram, 120gb hard drive, 1gbit ethernet, and running Server 2012 R2 Standard as the OS for the domain controller. Will this system be sufficient as a full time domain controller for a home network on this OS? I hope it's fast enough to do what's needed. I also plan to remotely manage it. The computer was $150 as configured, including the ram I had to order for it.

It's not ECC ram, would this be a problem?
 
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Way more than good enough. The DC VMs I use for home as 1 vCPU and 1.5GB of RAM each. You can run a DC off an intel NUC for home use.

Non-ECC is not really an issue in this case.
 
Wonderful, wanted to make sure. I may run other stuff on it too, since it will be on 24/7. The processor can run Hyper-V as it is an E6550 with hardware virtualization.

Is there is a reason not to run anything else on a DC?
 
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What do you mean "run anything"? I would not run most other apps (especially no 3rd party apps) or services on a DC, no (other infrastructure services, such as DHCP would be OK). Primarily from a security stance, but for a variety of reasons.
 
Yes, you fine, i do dual cores and 60G HD and 2G of ram for mine, just incase, but 1 core and 1G of memory is enough for them, with so few users.

For home usage... you can run other things, business side of things, a big security no no.

my boxes are AD/DC/DNS/DHCP and that is it, the only other thing on it is antivirus
 
MrGuvernment said:
Yes, you fine, i do dual cores and 60G HD and 2G of ram for mine, just incase, but 1 core and 1G of memory is enough for them, with so few users.

For home usage... you can run other things, business side of things, a big security no no.

my boxes are AD/DC/DNS/DHCP and that is it, the only other thing on it is antivirus
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Yeah dual core/cpu is plenty. I don't run a DC or anything at home, but my work DC's are all VMs and they are 2 core/4GB ram. I run a good number of them so they share the load, but I also rip the GUI out.
 
I was considering running DLNA, and hosting multimedia stuff on it for this box as it will be on all the time (not important at all to do this though).

I was also considering running DNS and DHCP. Glad to hear those are ok.

I wasn't planning to "run anything" per say. Maybe I may have further needs in the future though I don't know at the moment. I guess a better way to phrase it would be what would be a bad idea to run on a DC? What to watch out for and not plan to host on it? What is the biggest concern? Security? Or are there other considerations (corrupted database from running something alongside it for example)?

Thank you for all the replies!
 
What are your goals with the AD server as a whole?
If you're intending on learning what "real world" may be like, and also want to adhere to sound security practices, you'll limit the amount of roles, services, and applications on core infrastructure machines like this as much as possible.
If you just want a "do everything" server and don't particularly care about security, go ahead and install Java, Flash and Minecraft or whatever.
 
Hmm, I doubt I'd be hosting a minecraft server. :D

Actually my goals at this point are educational.
 
Do you mean like labs and such? Good on you either way, I always like it when I hear of people with home labs for learning.

For learning and home use, you can do whatever you want of course. I still would look up and stick with best practices as much as you can, as that's what you're more likely to run into as a professional. However, you also don't have the budget and resources businesses do, so you'll have to make decisions. I would just make absolute sure that you do keep security at the top of your mind as you progress. Even if you're pretty locked down at the edge, the best security approach is multi-layered. Every app or service is a potential attack vector - I'd rather an attacker gain access to a web box in my DMZ than my Domain Controller that is also acting as an IIS server. :)
 
Yes, home lab basically, though for educational purposes I'm considering switching all my computers onto the domain eventually, and making them controlled clients of my AD server. Get some practice limiting myself and see what problems I run into.

On the note of security though, there is a risk I could be locked out of everything if someone hacked my network. Not probably likely, but it could happen I suppose if someone got inside of it.
 
That actually might work. However, aside from the option of using a evaluation version of windows, could I use my retail edition of vista to install on the VM? Or would that do something to my activation?

Also, would you recommend using VirtualBox for the VM?
 
NetTechie said:
That actually might work. However, aside from the option of using a evaluation version of windows, could I use my retail edition of vista to install on the VM? Or would that do something to my activation?

Also, would you recommend using VirtualBox for the VM?
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hmm Id just stick with the eval version.
Never used Virtualbox, I use VMware since it also connects to esx.
 
Eulogy said:
Way more than good enough. The DC VMs I use for home as 1 vCPU and 1.5GB of RAM each. You can run a DC off an intel NUC for home use.

Non-ECC is not really an issue in this case.
Click to expand...

I'm thinking about these NUC devices, omg they are small! What performance would do the trick? I could get a fast one, in case a future need arises. Any one in particular seem like a good choice?
 
Considering this one Intel BOXDN2820FYKH0 as it's $135 on newegg, put a laptop 160gb hard drive in it and 4 or 8gb of ram. It's got a Celeron 2.2ghz processor. Any thoughts?
 
I have one of those that acts as my portable MDT server. Works great with a 256gb ssd in it & 8gb ram. Plenty fast.

One note, you can not run esxi on that particular model, it craps out for some reason on the installer, and nobody has found a way around it.
 
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