Can I reuse AD accounts set as SharePoint service accounts in other instances of SharePoint?

Question

I'm currently installing a SharePoint 2013 Farm using an AD domain that currently already has a totally separate SharePoint installation. I was just curious if i could reuse the service accounts already created?

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Yes you can use same set of services accounts. But there is some risk involved in this approach. We used the same concept but after couple of months we have to separate it(one unique set for each farm).

Let's say, you have to change the password of the accounts once per year or less( as per the security policy or group policy).In this case you have to change the password for the Farm admin account, If you change in the one farm other farm will goes down or lock the account after bad password. one locked account bring both farms down.

So i recommend, you should use separate Farm Admin account(which runs the Central admin app & timer service) and app Pool account.

account like Object cache, or other services configuration(UPA Sync, MMS) can be shared.