The first thing i need say is english isnt my native language so i hope u guys can understand me. I`m willing start host an website and mail services on my home, the problem is i dont have many computers, just an old but "good" computer able to use vmware and run 3 o 4 windows 2008.
The first idea i have is do this setup:
Host Windows 2008 DC Start an exhchange server in one Virtual PC Start an webserver in one Virtual PC Start an database server in one Virtual PC
My question start about the basics, the DNS, reading the microsoft docs, i see is an good pratice do a subdomain for DC and set the main domain on webserver, but i dindt get how this works... The link where i get this info:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc759036.aspx
So the point is i do the DC, install the Webserver, start an dns, set the DC DNS as forward to webserver DNS? Then the DC dns become something like as secondary DNS is it?
The setup i`m planning is the best option? Someone could gimme an hint if i would start by this setup or where i can get more info to my limited structure?
My PC Hardware:
16 GB RAM
3 HDs 1 TB each RAID 1+0
Processor Intel Core 2 Quad Extreme 3.2 Ghz
You could use VMWare ESXi 4.x or 5.x free to run several VMs. I have a similar setup on an old HP server with less hardware resources running 4 VMs with 1GHz CPU, 1GB RAM and 16 GB hdd each one. First VM is the DC and has DHCP, DNS, NTP, TFTP, Web, Ftp, Mail and some more services, apps and shares, second has WSUS for Windows/Office patching, third with 2 NICs is our proxy/fw and external dns server, the last VM runs Spiceworks and The Dude for monitoring, inventory and helpdesk.
Almost forgot, OS is Windows Server 2003 SP2 fully patched, I think for 2008 you need to allocate more resources to each VM, also if you run Exchange for mail services you should use a dedicated VM, runnig the mail server in the DC is not a good idea anyway.
On the topic of DNS, I suggest you use just a domain for everything [yourdomain.net] or an internal (non exposed to Internet, configured in your internal DNs server on the DC) dns domain [yourdomain.local] and another public dns domain [yourdomain.net]. If you got more doubts or bump into something let me know and I'll try to help. Have a nice weekend.