OK, so it sounds like (with the exception of Grant the Azure Dude :w00t:) everyone seems to stand up VMs and a domain just for the VMs.

A quick run-down of the hardware I've currently got, and how it's configured:

Server1 -> MS HyperV Server 2012R2, ~8GB RAM, Core2 quad, ~1TB HD

Server2 -> MS HyperV Server 2012R2, ~16GB RAM, Xeon quad core, ~1TB HD

Server3 -> FreeNAS stable, ~8GB RAM, Core i5, ~2TB HD (2x 2TB in RAID-1)

Laptop -> Win8.1 Pro, Core i5, 8GB RAM, 128GB SSD + 500GB HD

Desktop -> Win8.1 Pro, Core i7, 16GB RAM, 256GB M.2 + 4TB HD

My current setup is a pair of Domain Controller VMs, one on each HyperV box, then I spin up VMs as needed. BUT to manage the Hyper-Vs easily (because they're domain joined so features like Live migration and replication of VMs work) I need to either domain join one of my other PCs or add a VM to RDP into.

The desktop is used mostly for surfing and gaming, the laptop is kind of a "catch-all" and is currently domain-joined.

Was mostly wondering how others would go about setting things up...