Windows 7 domain setup

[Ramsay]

I'm currently upgrading all my workstations, slaves and file server to windows 7 64bit. I currently have all these machines set up on a workgroup with XP but would like to set the new network up as a domain. I'll be the first to admit my knowledge of networking is very limited so I'm looking for some advice on how I would go about setting up a domain. I've had a bit of a Google search but I'm struggling to find anything useful... does anyone know of any online guides or books that would help me?

Craig

[instinct]

I am pretty sure that a standard windows 7 cannot be a domain controller. So i'd say the fileserver/domaincontroller must be Windows Server 2k8. Might be wrong tho.

Regards,
Thorsten

[Ramsay]

Forgot to say they are all Windows 7 Pro. You're right though, it still might not be able to be run as a domain controller... does anyone know this for sure? I do have the option of using Server 2008 but as I'm not really any good with networking I was trying to keep things as simple as possible using Win 7 on all the machines.

[stellwagenc]

You can't create a domain without a domain-controller. To create a domain you can use windows server 2003 oder 2008 - both of this works fine withs windows 7 pro. and you need for the server client-licenses for the access on the domain.

sorry for my bad english - i hope you understand what i mean

[Ramsay]

Thanks for the confirmation... Server 2008 it is then