Altering Microsoft VM domains

[Fandango]

I'm planning on building a dev/test/lab server using a Dell PowerEdge 2950 server I've picked up cheap on ebay.

Rather than installing MS server and running VMs i thought I'd just write the VM images I have downloaded from Microsoft of their lab environments direct to disk an run as a standalone server. However I want to be able to connect to the servers databses/services from my main development machine/laptop which aren't currently on a domain (just common workgroup), and so far I have been unable to do just running them as VMs.

So my question to the Infrastructure/domain bods is whether it would be possible to set the server up as a domain controller (changing it from contoso or what ever it is) to a domainname of my choice and then add my other machines to this domain so I can interact with the SQL databases/services within it?

TIA

[stek]

Domain should matter, just connectivity, you probably just need to set up the IP/netmask and gateway of the Dell to something in your local subnet.

[garethevans1986]

You should be able to without needing to adding your machines to any domain.

Disable all firewalls and try by IP Address. It will prompt you for credentials which you'll need to enter a domain user account.

GE