::Does anyone have any suggestions on the 'best' approach to setting up a .NET ::development environment on a departmental-scale? Define "development environment", please. We work with local regular workstations and a number if VMWAre simulated central servers for the developers, separate testbed (real hardware). Assuming ASP.NET: ::1- Should both the 'test' and 'live' servers be on one server? No. Never. If your program malfunctions and sucks up all CPU, you have efficiently killed hte test server. What about "trying patches" in the test environment - hard to do if it IS the live environment. We normally have separate testbeds (on Vmware, normally), plus a staging system for the sites which is a "last test on live data". ::2- Can this one server handle both? depends. Yes for your homepage, not for amazon. ::3- Is it 'recommended' to have the ASP.NET application and the SQLServer on the same ::Server? Depends. If you use the SQL Server very seldom nothing stops you from doing so. Normally security demands a separation - so that if your front end is abused, the database is still safe. ::4- Is there a recommended way to configure all components (ie: IIS, Framework, SQL, ::SourceSafe, etc ...) Yes, do it right. The right wasy is documented in the documentation :-) ::I feel like I'm forgetting things ... but any extra comments would be greatly appreciated ... ::thanks all. Separate things out. Why do you want VS.NET installed on a development SERVER? Makes no sense to me. As does, btw. ,raid sotrage on a pure development system.