Active Directory and Exchange in one Server

Question

I have read some answers in forums that an Active directory and exchange in one server is not an advisable setup. Is it true? Can you explain to me why? By the way its just for our project in school, and we are using windows server 2003. thanks

Answer 1

Sure it is. Generally, running several services in one box is not good idea, because: 1. In case of crash (hardware failure, BSoD, etc.) ALL your services are down. 2. When one service is compromised, you cannot trust the others. 3. It is good to have two domain controllers to have a failover. Also there are other reasons.

However, if it's a school project, and downtime is not very big problem, you might set up single server. But don't forget to make backups.