Active Directory and WORKGROUP

Question

Is is possible to run an Active Directory on a network and still have WORKGROUP computers on the network and have them still able to access each other?

Would I have to use IPs over NetBIOS names or the computer names.

Answer 1

In my experience, yes they can access each other.

In the past I have worked in an AD environment where some of the test servers were isolated from the domain. I never had any issues referring to them by hostname when connecting to file shares, RDP, etc.

Answer 2

There are times when you may want computers/servers to stay in a workgroup or at least start out there until you are finished provisioning them. Things that come to mind are DMZ servers, VMware hosts, test computers, digital signage computers, lab computers, triaging PCs, etc.

It's not a requirement either way for the above...but there is nothing wrong with keeping them in a workgroup.

Accessing domain PCs/Servers from them will require authenticating with domain credentials, while the reverse would require authenticating with local credentials on that workgroup computer/server.

If the workgroup computers are getting DHCP IPs from the same DHCP servers as the domain PCs then you should have no problem with DNS resolution.

However, if you are assigning them static IPs, then you will need to assign the correct DNS servers as well as DNS suffix search lists in order to resolve by the short netbios name, or you'll simply need to resolve by the FQDN if you don't include DNS suffix search lists in their TCP/IP properties.