Defining needed server roles

Creating hosts should be the first step in starting the process to build our VMs for the platform. This means we have already completed our assessment and have met with all teams working on our new architecture as well as finalized that architecture so that we can implement it at this point. Making sure you have your architecture is one thing, but we also need to look at environments.

Did we build environments to support DEV, QA, TEST, and production? If not, we need to do so now and we need to make sure we have addressed our support farms. These environments can weigh heavily on how our development and test process is defined for our environment. These other farms can also change the way our environments are secured and managed. These should all be separate environments with their own hardware, admin accounts, service accounts, and in some cases, AD, depending on your defined requirements.

Separation in these areas should be consistent...