Installing Exchange on a domain controller is not recommended
Applies to: Exchange Server 2013
Microsoft Exchange Server 2013 Setup has detected that the computer you're attempting to install Exchange 2013 on is an Active Directory domain controller. Installing Exchange 2013 on a domain controller isn't recommended.
If you install Exchange 2013 on a domain controller, be aware of the following issues:
Configuring Exchange 2013 for Active Directory split permissions isn't supported.
The Exchange Trusted Subsystem universal security group (USG) is added to the Domain Admins group when Exchange is installed on a domain controller. When this occurs, all Exchange servers in the domain are granted domain administrator rights in that domain.
Exchange Server and Active Directory are both resource-intensive applications. There are performance implications to be considered when both are running on the same computer.
You must make sure that the domain controller Exchange 2013 is installed on is a global catalog server.
Exchange services may not start correctly when the domain controller is also a global catalog server.
System shutdown will take considerably longer if Exchange services aren't stopped before shutting down or restarting the server.
Demoting a domain controller to a member server isn't supported.
Running Exchange 2013 on a clustered node that is also an Active Directory domain controller isn't supported.
We recommend that you install Exchange 2013 on a member server.
Having problems? Ask for help in the Exchange forums. Visit the forums at Exchange Server.
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