Hi Guys, I have just leased a server with the idea of learning more about running a server in a production-like environment. I now have a clean install of Windows server 2008 R2 Web and an IP Address. I plan to host a few websites using IIS, host an Email server (probably Mail Enable) and install SQL server Express. Currently the machine name is some random name with the work group set to “WORKGROUP”, should I change the name to something like Server1.{MyDomain}.com and make the workgroup {MyDomain}.com or does this not really matter?

The main purpose of the domain is to centralize authentication and authorization services. If this is a stand-alone box, there would be no reason to create a domain for this one server. You can assign a parent DNS suffix to the box so that the server is called whatever you like, such as webserver.domain.tld Visit: anITKB.com, an IT Knowledge Base.

Thanks, that what I thought but best to check.