Exchange Server Cookbook

2.8. Installing Exchange on a Domain Controller

Problem

You want to install Exchange on a domain controller.

Solution

There aren't actually any technical barriers preventing you from doing this, although there are plenty of reasons why you may need to consider alternatives. The main technical issue is that when the server is rebooted or shut down, the Active Directory services stop before the Exchange services, which cause Exchange to pause while the DSAccess component waits for its AD queries to time out. This problem mainly arises when Exchange Server 2003 is installed on Windows Server 2003; the AD services on Windows 2000 don't shut down as quickly. Of course, you shouldn't be shutting down your servers that often. A more likely obstacle is that, depending on the size, configuration, and load on your server, you may find that performance of the combined services isn't as good as you'd like. For organizations with limited budgets and a small number of seats, Microsoft sells the Small Business Server (SBS) product line, which combines Exchange with the DC role and several others on a single server; however, most production Exchange installations keep the roles separate.

Installing Exchange 2000 or 2003 on a DC is a supported configuration, even though most Exchange professionals will rightly tell you this is not the optimal or even recommended way to deploy Exchange. Avoid installing Exchange/DC combinations on clusters, though; this is not supported by Microsoft.

Discussion

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