Building a PC to be used as a Active Directory domain controller?

[htcz]

If this is just to play around with, make a VM?

Not only is it not the same thing, my current system does not have capacity to do it.

In The Neobahn section of Neowin, I do not see threads titled "What car should I buy?" and people replying "Buy a bike" :) Please, lets stay on topic and nothing else.

[HSoft]

Hardware wise, for a DC for playing about with as you are saying, you need very minimal. Even running Win2K8 R2 you can get away with just 2Gb of RAM if all you are doing is running the DC on that box. If you don't have a really old PC you can use then just try to find the cheapest one you can lay your hands on, chances are it'll be fine.

You don't need 2 NICs, one is just fine and you should never expose your DC directly to the internet as someone suggested, infront of the switch. All your PCs will be going through the DC to connect to the internet anyway.

[ShMaunder]

I would say your build is over the top. Doing an Atom or Celeron build will be fine. Also, it might be a good idea to invest in a 80+ PSU if you're going to leave it on 24/7 - running at ~60 Watts all year round will cause some increase on your energy bills.

Did you looked at sc302's suggestion of a HP Microserver? These are good value for money and I believe they are quite energy efficient.

[htcz]

I would say your build is over the top. Doing an Atom or Celeron build will be fine. Also, it might be a good idea to invest in a 80+ PSU if you're going to leave it on 24/7 - running at ~60 Watts all year round will cause some increase on your energy bills.

Did you looked at sc302's suggestion of a HP Microserver? These are good value for money and I believe they are quite energy efficient.

I saw him mention something about a cheap supermicro server but nothing else....

[htcz]

Searched for HP's MicroServer but I cant find a link for it in my country so Im GUESSING it isnt avaliable :(

[PGHammer]

:/ Im not arguing. PGHammer's specs were WAY over the line/budget for a simple physical test. Ive player around with a Virutalbox but it is not the same. sc302 misunderstood me in the first post he made and now I read his second (did not notice it)

Thanks to all for the help.

Domain controllers are heavily dependent on what the OS will be - since you didn't specify, I went with Server 2012 (the Windows 8 Server beta) as being the most likely you'll see in a production environment - it (the server OS) also has the advantage of being free. Also, the entire server has the advantage of being re-purposable later (you may not want to use it *as* a server later), - therefore why I went Z77 (so you could even repurpose as a desktop simply by changing the OS and adding discrete graphics). You *could* go as low as Pentium G620 (or i3) if you wanted to really low-ball the DC (same server OS); however, I have no idea what you plan on the DC doing in your lab.

Server-targeted motherboards (and especially Supermicro) are far from cheap unless you go used/eBay - and you generally can't repurpose even a Supermicro-based server board as a desktop board.

[sc302 Veteran]

It isn't hp

http://www.supermicro.com/products/system/

I believe they are global. Low end server would be enough.

[ShMaunder]

^^ My bad, I thought you mentioned the HP Microserver. Over here you can get them for ?150 after cashback.

[htcz]

OK, searched some more and finally found it. 290 euros.

HP ProLiant MicroServer N40L, 1P, 2 GB-U, Emb, SATA, NHP, 250 GB,150 W PS

AMD Turion II Neo N40L

2GB PC3-10600E DDR3 UDIMMs (only 2 Slots)

250GB HDD

1 NIC

4 SATA RAID ports

150W PSU

No optical unit

Bright side: Made for server enviorment, recommended by some of you.

Bad: Half the bang for more bucks

[ShMaunder]

^^ Do you get cashback on that? They should be somewhere round the region of 180 Euros based on the conversion from pounds.

[htcz]

It isn't hp

http://www.supermicro.com/products/system/

I believe they are global. Low end server would be enough.

From what I read, they are on a "pre order" basis which means each other is "custom" for each person. It is a option but without prices on their site (at least none that I could quickly see) I have no idea.

[htcz]

^^ Do you get cashback on that? They should be somewhere round the region of 180 Euros based on the conversion from pounds.

This is simply what HP says on the site of my region. Nothing about cashback at all.

[sc302 Veteran]

Check your local computer sites and your amazon site for your country.

[htcz]

(Replying tommorrow. Sleep time)

[Krome]

I used to run a DC server on a 500MHz and 800MHz ... took 15-20 minutes to load into the OS lol

[ANON86364]

If it helps you sleep at night, so be it.

Very nice but first, I am not in the US when this (seems) to be a US product. Second, I dont see any price tag but I imagine that this can be configured and ordered.

And third and what I guess is your contribution to the "hilarity" in my threads is that you say also that I dont need dual NICs (which I completely understand the reason why I dont need it, since people keeping on whining about it) yet you point out a product that you use as a secondary DC, which by posting it in this thread, I imagine you point it out as a recommendation to me and it itself has dual NICs.

Yes, I find "hilarity" in the hypocrisy of your posts as well :)

BUT

Once again, Ive said it again and again (this is not aimed at you Xenosion as you recommended a product so thank you) please lets focus on hardware side of things and not logical network typology.

Hackersoft MS MVP, I read your post but have you take the time to take a look at mine? :) I mentioned this build: http://www.neowin.ne...#entry594827313 and see some advice to see if anything is wrong with it or/and if some part is missing. Its bare min so like you mentioned should be more than enough.

1. Having two NICs does not mean you have to use both. Even if you did use both, that still doesn't mean one has to be for inbound and one for outbound. You could use some form of redundant configuration. An extra NIC is not mutually exclusive with a viable product. You put an awful lot of effort into creating an irony in what I said (hilarity) when you could put that same effort into understanding what some knowledgeable people have to say.

2. Supermicro is a manufacturer, not a distributor. Put some effort and do a search on the model to find an appropriate distributor available in your area.

[htcz]

1. Having two NICs does not mean you have to use both. Even if you did use both, that still doesn't mean one has to be for inbound and one for outbound. You could use some form of redundant configuration. An extra NIC is not mutually exclusive with a viable product. You put an awful lot of effort into creating an irony in what I said (hilarity) when you could put that same effort into understanding what some knowledgeable people have to say.

OK

2. Supermicro is a manufacturer, not a distributor. Put some effort and do a search on the model to find an appropriate distributor available in your area.

Sadly, none in my area. There are some in my country but like I mentioned I had to go to sleep yesterday so Ill try to get some more information about them. Having said that, I looked at one (very quickly) and I think they only sell to businesses :( There were a few others so Ill try to look at them today.

Thanks to all from getting back on topic :)

[Daedroth]

OK, then I guess, since we continue to make the software side a issue, we will have this setup:

(Internet)

|

|

|

[MODEM]

|

|

|

|

V

[sWITCH/ROUTER (Firewall)]

| |

| |

| |

| |

V V

[PC] [DC]

You do know a NIC isn't software, right?

[Dan~]

You don't need the PC to be anything great but it depends on how good you want it to be. Ideally the DC should ONLY be that, but in your case your DC will have to hold the profiles and home drives aswell (if you go down that route) you want the network to be gigabit aswell.

Another thing you need to consider is cooling for the PC, as it's the DC it'll need to be on 24/7 365days, so you don't want it to overheat. Have fun

[htcz]

You do know a NIC isn't software, right?

Please present me someone that knows what a DC is and doesnt know what a NIC is..... :s

You don't need the PC to be anything great but it depends on how good you want it to be. Ideally the DC should ONLY be that, but in your case your DC will have to hold the profiles and home drives aswell (if you go down that route) you want the network to be gigabit aswell.

Another thing you need to consider is cooling for the PC, as it's the DC it'll need to be on 24/7 365days, so you don't want it to overheat. Have fun

I have in mind that his DC only be used for authentication and a GPO. Nothing else basically.

I dont think Ill have it on 24/7/365 as it will simply be for test/messing around purposes.

Im going to look at Supermicro now but someone did mention that if I get one of those PCs, if I get bored of DC, to use it as a general purpose PC, is someone what troublesome.

[htcz]

Looked at Supermicro's offerings and first thing is that the location is 2 hours away from me. That would be get a bus 2 hours from and 2 hours to.

I looked at Amazon and from what I understand they have

Supermicro CSE-512L-260B 14" Mini 1U 260W, 427 mm, 356 mm, 43 mm, 6400 g, Black, 260 W at 94,01 euros

Supermicro C2SBC-Q, 1.8 V, DDR2 800/667MHz, 256MB/512MB/1GB/2GB, Intel, Socket 775, Intel Core 2 Extreme/Quad/Duo 176,81 euros

That alone costs 270.82 euros which is higher than my build here: https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1073133-building-a-pc-to-be-used-as-a-active-directory-domain-controller/page__st__15__p__594827313#entry594827313

I think you guys may be thinking too profesional and serious on this: I just want to toy around and a virutal machine is simply not enough.

[ANON86364]

Looked at Supermicro's offerings and first thing is that the location is 2 hours away from me. That would be get a bus 2 hours from and 2 hours to.

I looked at Amazon and from what I understand they have

Supermicro CSE-512L-260B 14" Mini 1U 260W, 427 mm, 356 mm, 43 mm, 6400 g, Black, 260 W at 94,01 euros

Supermicro C2SBC-Q, 1.8 V, DDR2 800/667MHz, 256MB/512MB/1GB/2GB, Intel, Socket 775, Intel Core 2 Extreme/Quad/Duo 176,81 euros

That alone costs 270.82 euros which is higher than my build here: http://www.neowin.ne...#entry594827313

I think you guys may be thinking too profesional and serious on this: I just want to toy around and a virutal machine is simply not enough.

If you can't find a Supermicro server similar to the one I posted that's available in your area, that's one thing, but to say it's not cheaper is not true. I can get one of those simple servers for $299 USD.

Anyway, I posted the Supermicro build because of the hardware in contains. A simple Atom processor. Surely you can build a box with an Atom cheaper than what you posted.

I put this together really quick:

Intel BOXD525MW $74.99

Antec ISK 300-150 Black $79.99

OCZ Solid 3 SLD3-25SAT3-60G $74.99

Crucial 2GB 204-Pin DDR3 $19.99

Totals at $249.96 USD

Is it going to be as powerful? No, but it is sufficient for a budget system.

By the way, I have that same case for my HTPC and it's fantastic ;)

[tomasarson]

Storage (RAID) - Western Digital Caviar Green WD15EARS x2 - These are the non-IntelliPower members of the Caviar Green family in this size (1.5 TB each) - $219.98 for the pair at Newegg.

using wd green drives in a raid setup is a bad idea. (unless you reccomended non-intellipower members because of something i haven't read about.)

[ANON86364]

using wd green drives in a raid setup is a bad idea. (unless you reccomended non-intellipower members because of something i haven't read about.)

I have been using 4x1TB in a RAID 5 and 2x250GB in a RAID 1 all green drives for about 2 years now without a single problem. It is not recommended only because of the increased time outs the drives allow. But the same goes for drive that isn't sold as an "enterprise" or RAID drive.

[tomasarson]

I have been using 4x1TB in a RAID 5 and 2x250GB in a RAID 1 all green drives for about 2 years now without a single problem. It is not recommended only because of the increased time outs the drives allow. But the same goes for drive that isn't sold as an "enterprise" or RAID drive.

i'm glad that you're having a good experience with them but from what i've read online and seen many times in person green drives are not the way to go for raid. unless you're just going for speed i would not depend on them to keep my data safe. and even for speed in raid 0 the lowest i would go is blue.

just my two cents.

<3