SQL Server on a Domain Controller

Much has been said about installing SQL Server on a domain controller. It’s bad practice. Period. If you wouldn’t believe me, then ask the SQL Server installer…

However, there are naughty little girls and boys such as yours truly, who due to lack of funds would want to do the same, maybe on an Azure instance, just so that you don’t have to pay for two VMs, to do some database development. If you indeed choose to go down this path, the default user accounts that are associated with the various SQL Server services would not fly.

Microsoft, in its Requirements for Installation, state that despite it not being recommended, they will still let one go through with installation. It’s just that you need to ensure that you use a local service account to run the SQL Server services. If you do not heed this “warning” and still go ahead with network services and what not, at one point during installation you would error out, and several components would fail to install. This would result in an uninstall of SQL Server and a retry. Hence to make things simple this is all you need to set as the service accounts, and you are on your way to a successful install at the first go itself…