Do I need a domain controller for multiple PCs accessing the same SQL server db? How do I configure it? (more details/replicate from: https://superuser.com/questions/1612260)
Dear all,
I'm a total newbie in connecting 2 PCs and making them use the same SQL server DB from one computer ... so please support me.
At home, I have 2 PCs from my company (working from home due to Covid19; I don't have better windows images and I would prefer not changing them, or at least as possible):




PC
Windows
SQL server
SSMS
IP




1
7, version 6.1, build 7601 sp1
2014 (installation in progress)
not yet
192.168.0.10


2
10, version1803, build17134.345
2017
18.1
192.168.0.105




The final goal: to have PC1 act as a db server and PC2 as a client (that can access the server's dbs). On both PCs I will install the same application which should be able (from any PC) to update the data from PC1/the db server.
I'd been told I would need a domain controller (DC) for this scenario, but I really don't have any clue what this means or how I should configure it:

do I need a DC?
is this DC something that comes with the windows images?
is this DC something that comes with SQL Server?
is this an application which I'll need to install separately? (I initially thought that if I'm installing sql server on PC1, I will have to insert the windows credentials from the PC2 and this will suffice)
could you please give me step-by-step on how to make this work?

Thank you!
R
do I need a DC?

No you can use SQL Authentication, or Windows Auth (NTLM) with &quot;workgroup auth&quot;.  And to use a DC you would have to join both of your boxes to the domain, so I wouldn't bother.

is this DC something that comes with the windows images?
is this DC something that comes with SQL Server?
is this an application which I'll need to install separately?

Domain Controller is a feature of Windows Server, and is not available on the client editions of Windows, like Windows 7 or Windows 10.

(I initially thought that if I'm installing sql server on PC1, I will have to insert the windows credentials from the PC2 and this will suffice)
could you please give me step-by-step on how to make this work?

If you create a local user on both boxes that has the same password, you can use Windows Integrated Auth for SQL Server.  This is the &quot;workgroup auth&quot;, and it would enable accessing File Shares and other services between the computers.