Hi, I am designing a SCCM implementation for one of our customers, where the following questions came to my attention: 1. Does Microsoft officially support/recommend installation of any SCCM role on a domain controller? (Is there any documentation available) 2. Do I need to place a PXE on each site that needs to be able to use the OS deployment feature? 3. Is there any documentation about the different roles and there recommended placement? Cheers, Kenneth

SMS 2003 wasnt' supported when installed on a domain controller therefore I have to assume neither is ConfigMgr. All the planning is well documented here. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb680397.aspx

Yes it is supported to install roles on domain controllers. As to recommended - not normally, butreally because most IT shops don't want additional services installed on the DCs. Other than that, the other area of concern is that a lot of Configuration Manager roles now require IIS, and again, most IT shops don't want IIS on DCs, as it exposes IIS attacks. But often you don't have a choice, such as remote offices that only have one server - that being a BDC. It works fine, and is fully supported. You don't need WDS at all to do OSD. There are numerous ways to deploy our OS images - network boot is one of them, but not the only way. If you do want PXE boots at each site, then you would need a PXE service point at each site - I believe this is correct. You could search the OSD forum for the answer to be positive. As to the site roles, the online docs have lotsof information. You might want to start here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb680397.aspx

That's not quite correct. SMS 2003 also supported installations on domain controllers. Again it wasn't normally recommended, but it is supported.

Shows what I know. I always understood that it wasn't supported.

There's a big difference between supported and recommended :-) It is supported, always has been. But not normally recommended - with that said we have lots of customers that do use DCs, and it works fine. I do it all the time in my hands-on lab/VPC images - but really just to cut down on the number of images running at the same time. I understand that the majority of customers don't install on the DCs.

Hey Wally -- I've been enjoying reading your posts and knowledge you put out here, thanks! I have been searching for documentation on the validity of installing SCCM on a DC. Can you point me towards and documentation that says so? I got a chuckle out of this post: I can't just tell my boss that "Wally Mead on the forum" said so. Thank You! Tom

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb694127.aspx: "Install Configuration Manager 2007 on a member server instead of a domain controller"

Thanks Torsten!