I am planning to buy a few Intel mini PCs in order to setup a Windows Server 2016 environment. I am doing this for fun and learning purposes - server administration and technical support interest me, even though I no longer work in that field. It is my goal to simulate faults and etc. in order to learn more about server administration and technical support - I know it would probably be better to get a good PC and setup a few VMs on it but I don't like the feel of VMs that much and would prefer to have physical cores. I am looking for advice on how exactly to setup my environment. The roles I wish to install are: Active Directory Certificate Services Active Directory Domain Services Active Directory Federation Services Application Server Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol Server DNS Server File Services Network Policy and Access Services (I plan to have 1 core/PC function as a router and the rest be behind it on a separate network) Remote Desktop Services Web Server (IIS) Windows Server Update Services maybe Windows Deployment Services - depending on whether the PCs have Pre-boot Execution Environment (PXE) boot ROMs I know it's a best practice to have each core/domain controller with only one role, but I think I can allow the DNS and DHCP to function together, for example, I believe they wouldn't bother each-other right? What would you say?