Hostname and domain membership

Now that our network traffic is flowing, we need to finalize a couple of other regular items on the DirectAccess server. First is setting the hostname. While this seems like a menial, regular task, don't take it lightly. It is recommended that once your hostname is set, it should not be changed in the future. So choose the name carefully, and choose a name that meets your naming standards. It is not recommended to change the hostname of a DirectAccess server, because there are items external to the server itself which are bound to that particular name, such as Group membership, Group Policy Objects (GPOs) filtering, and certificates. A change in the hostname of a DirectAccess server will result in a number of external factors needing to be changed, adjusted, or reissued, and there is a huge potential for problems. So all that to say—choose your name wisely and don't think you can name it DA-Test for now, and simply rename it later.

Once your name is set, it is time to join it to the domain. This is required for DirectAccess to work, as the solution is tightly integrated with Active Directory. You do not have to join it to the same domain as the rest of your internal network or the same domain as the DirectAccess client machines, but whatever domain you join it to must have a two-way trust to those domains, so that traffic can flow successfully between the DirectAccess server and the resources with which it is going to interact.