Domain Controller and File Sever on same Server???

[mikepg]

I have a question about the way I just saw a Windows 2003 Server setup. Here is the background on the network. There are roughly 250-300 PC's ont he network at one time. Some are point os sale machines (maybe 40) (35 are PC which are mainly Time clocks) the rest are PC's. The network is set up with the Domain controller running Win Server 2003. It is also the File host for the entire network. This is where all the users have thier "my documents" and other "save" folders syncronized to.

In my onpintion, this is not a good setup at all. The network has been migrated from NT 3.5 - 4.0 - 2000 and now 2003 server. I'm guess most of you are aware of the comaptibility issues with old NT domain account and Server 2003. There just seems to be somewhat of a problem with Active directory and old account. At least on this system.

The network PC are mainly running 75% XP pro, 17% Windows 2000, 5% xp home and 3% Win 98.

We have a lot of network issues where the fibre lines are cut, or sections of thenetwork go down due to construction. This causes problems with the domain controller, which needs to be rebooted when there is a major issue.

I brought up the idea of putting the file server and the domain controller on different servers (boxes) to my manager. He thinks that this is not really an issue but I see it as a major issue. Whenever the domaincontroller/file server is re-booted, the next day or 2 is nothing but emails saying they couldn't log in or they lost documents, etc.

Please let me know your view points on this situation. If there is any other information that is needed, please ask and I probably left some out.

 

[NeoExtreme]

The file server and AD controller on the same box is fine,but however the downtime is not good.What is the back-up scheduling like?There are no other machines that can be a server?Has your boss considered DFS for the file shares?

 

[ShadowFalls]

depending on which version of 2003 (requires Enterprise Edition) you have, you might benefit from having multiple servers and use Clustering, so you can increase performance and ensure constant access to the files if one server needs to be rebooted.
Though Neo here is quite right, DFS would be an option to use as well, but I really wouldn't suggest DFS without at least another server, and Clustering requires at least two and the Enterprise Edition of 2003.

You really need to convince the boss if you feel that an extra server is necessary which it very well might be, also it would be planning ahead so later you aren't so overwhelmed, you don't want everything on one server, that is just waiting for disaster to occur...