Can there be multiple roles on one server?

Question

Windows Server

I am studying to be a local network administrator. I can’t understand - there is a server with OC Windows Server 2016. If you need roles such as Active Directory, ISS, DHCP, File Server and MS SQL Server, do you need separate servers for all this or not?

Answer 1

It is potentially possible to cram everything onto one server, but you will get inconvenience in management and security risks. Here are some obvious examples:
terminal server+AD = terminal server users must be
MSSQL domain admins + AD = https://www.concurrency.com/blog/february-2017/ins...
IIS + AD = security issues (or user , under which the apppool is launched, there are not enough rights - "glitches" in the operation of the web application, or, conversely, the access level of the account under which the application runs is too high - the risk of AD hacking through IIS)
Also, understand that once AD ​​comes along and workstations join it, it is the central server of your network. Its failure will cause a wave of work to restore, reconnect, reconfigure accounts, and so on and so forth. You add additional services to its configuration, which carries additional risks for AD
. However, MS has always had a Small Business Server solution that combines on one server the roles needed by a small organization. At the moment, my knowledge of SBS is outdated, but the product exists in the form of Windows Server Essentials - perhaps, in order to understand what roles can now be combined on one server (as recommended by MS), you can look in his direction

Answer 2

Separate servers are not needed, but shoving everything into one basket is bad practice.

Answer 3

It all depends on the specifics of the work on site.
If this is a small "Horns and Hooves" for 15 computers, then HP Gen10 is installed and everything is started on it, there is no load on services and the hardware and the axis swallows it imperceptibly, and more is not needed.
If this is a Gazprom holding with 15,000 end users, then there will be at least 20 dedicated servers per AD alone.
In general, first of all, we look at the load and logical organization. If you just need - then one Windows and a handful of services, if it's more difficult and with a real growth prospect - then one platform with a hypervisor, well, then we look at the loads - if it can't cope - either we upgrade or split up and spread the roles - if it still can't cope - building clusters.