Recommended ram specs for DC

[Guest ZFarnworth]

Hi folks,

 

I’ve got 2 new brand new servers and 1 will be primary DC and has 8GB ram and I just wanted to ask the simple question is it enough 8GB ram?

 

Thanks

[DalekSec]

8GB of RAM isn't even enough for Windows 10 now!

 

Should be ok if Server Core, if not i'd up to 16GB if possible. Ours are Server Core 2016 and 8GB

[3s-gtech]

Be careful with the term ‘primary DC’. ‘FSMO role holder’ maybe, but these things are much less rigid than back in the NT days.

 

For a DC doing little else, 4GB works fine with Server 2019 (not tested 2022). 8GB better, especially if it’s doing the usual DHCP and DNS roles too.

 

If this is all bare metal, have a look at what virtualisation of this server can do for you.

[Davit2005]

Personally I've never setup a DC with more than 8GB and that includes some used in a small college too with around 3k users but that was a few years back on Server 2012r2

 

For a more technical answer from MS https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/performance-tuning/role/active-directory-server/hardware-considerations

Edited December 13, 2021 by Davit2005

[Guest ZFarnworth]

Thanks for your replies, I’m only running 1 DC with at least 30 users at a push so its not going to do much.

 

I’m glad I reached out though.

 

 

Thanks

[Davit2005]

Thanks for your replies, I’m only running 1 DC with at least 30 users at a push so its not going to do much.

 

I’m glad I reached out though.

 

 

Thanks

 

Jus keep it clean with jus the Domain necessary roles i.e. DNS, DHCP and the AD DS services. Or consider adding more RAM and storage and virtualize as others have said (if the host is suitable) but if you do virtualize I wouldn't domain join the host itself into the domain environment with the only DC on that host.

Edited December 13, 2021 by Davit2005

[Jcx500]

4gb of ram for the larger environments , 2gb for the smaller.

[Guest Guest]

Ours are dynamically allocated with a max of 6GB, they rarely exceed 4GB and they're our DNS, DHCP and NPS Servers too

[Sonic007]

A DC just doing the role of DC will be fine on 8GB.