DC as a file server?

[branigan]

I have a client that is using a DC as a file server. I have basically told
them that this is not recommened and they should get another server for file
services. However, they said this computer is the only machine at this plant
location and they would not want to purchase another server. Is there an
article or anything doucmented on why you would not want to do this?

Thx, L

 

[Scott Harding - MS MVP]

This is actually very common and I don't see any problems with it unless the
machine is over taxed. Typically you don't want DC's being Exchange/SQL
servers as these apps will eat up RAM but a simple file server sounds fine
to me.

 

[Ken B]

We're using a DC as the main file server (it had the largest harddrive space
available at the time) in my org. The only issues that arise with using a
DC for file sharing is that when you have to reboot the DC for updates or
whatnot, you can't take advantage of the 'fault tolerance' that DC's
provide, as you would not be duplicating the user's files to another server.
But if they can deal with having to warn people before rebooting (to save
and close out files, etc.), then it should run fine, provided the partitions
set up on the dc allow for shared space.

HTH

Ken

 

[branigan]

I guess my thoughts were that if a file server was a dc you would not be
able to delegate admin rights. I server admin would have to be a domain
admin? That is if a FS was a DC, anyone having admin to the server would
have to be a domain admin...

L

 

[Andrei Ungureanu]

from this point of view you are right ... your DC will be exposed to the
file server admin. Domain admin group is not a good ideea .. try using
server operators group.

Andrei Ungureanu
www.eventid.net

 

[ptwilliams]

You could achieve this by delegating certain control to the people you wish
to administer the F&P side of things, and granting them the logon locally
right; server operators could be giving them too many rights...

--

Paul Williams

http://www.msresource.net
http://forums.msresource.net
______________________________________
from this point of view you are right ... your DC will be exposed to the
file server admin. Domain admin group is not a good ideea .. try using
server operators group.

Andrei Ungureanu
www.eventid.net

 

[ptwilliams]

I would think that this would only be a problem from a load point of view
(excluding Scott's excellent observations) if you had thousands of users
authenticating with this DC and a large subset of these users also using
this server for file and print. Then again, even then, this is dependent on
hardware.

Another server that shouldn't run on the same box as a DC is ISA.

A DC and File and Print server is very common in remote office deployments.

--

Paul Williams

http://www.msresource.net
http://forums.msresource.net
______________________________________
This is actually very common and I don't see any problems with it unless the
machine is over taxed. Typically you don't want DC's being Exchange/SQL
servers as these apps will eat up RAM but a simple file server sounds fine
to me.

 

[David Andrew]

I would agree with the previous posts...as we do the same in a remote
office.... We also run the following services on 2 of our domain controllers
and do not have any performance issues. we run DHCP DFS DNS on a DC
(Although we know DHCP and DNS on a DC is not recommended)

No performance issues and 100% uptime so far.... this is also good because
this has always been a point made for the Linux unix gurus who run multiple
services on the same machine, ann say Windows was not good at this.

Regards

D

 

[ptwilliams]

The whole DNS and DC issue is a confusing one. I would say it is
recommended, as AD-I DNS is superior to standard DNS. Fault tolerance, and
traffic localisation means more to me than worrying about things getting a
little slow for user 1001 on a particular DC ;-)

(Just kidding with the numbers; you'd need a shed load of authentication
traffic to kill a DC. Do you run Windows 2000 on the minimum spec? I doubt
many do...)

--

Paul Williams

http://www.msresource.net
http://forums.msresource.net
______________________________________
I would agree with the previous posts...as we do the same in a remote
office.... We also run the following services on 2 of our domain controllers
and do not have any performance issues. we run DHCP DFS DNS on a DC
(Although we know DHCP and DNS on a DC is not recommended)

No performance issues and 100% uptime so far.... this is also good because
this has always been a point made for the Linux unix gurus who run multiple
services on the same machine, ann say Windows was not good at this.

Regards

D

 

[Andrei Ungureanu]

ok. how can you give them the right to share folders ? (in addition to logon
localy right)

Andrei.

PS: even the "log on localy" right is too much from my point of view

 

[ptwilliams]

PS: even the "log on locally" right is too much from my point of view

Here here. I agree. Users are stupid

how can you give them the right to share folders ?

Heh heh. You can't. I guess that's one of the reasons for the original
poster to separate the DC/ F&P server role. You can delegate most other
tasks though <g>

(Good call by the way ;-)

--

Paul Williams

http://www.msresource.net
http://forums.msresource.net
______________________________________
ok. how can you give them the right to share folders ? (in addition to logon
localy right)

Andrei.

PS: even the "log on localy" right is too much from my point of view