Is AD required?

[bigcrit]

Is Active Directory required on a network with 2000. We are having a debate on whether or not active directory is required.

Here's the situation. We have a machine runnind Advanced server and another that will be the BDC. Is active directory required for replication or to make user accounts?

[storm]

no unless you want to run exchange 2000, you can run in a mixed mode environment. if you want to run a PDC/bdc model the they would be nt servers as this model doesn't exists with 2000 and your 2000 machines would be treated like any other server. if you want to use the 2000 machine as a "pdc" which is not the correct term but i use it as a metaphore, it really would be the DC in which case you would have to have loaded the AD to configure it as such.