When installing MS SQL Server 2008, one needs to associate a service account with the installation (possibly even several accounts, one for the SQL Server Agent, one for Analysis Services, ..., but let's leave that for the case of simplicity). The service account may be local account, or a Windows domain account.
If a domain account is used: Can MSSQL start, if connectivity to the domain controllers is temporarily down? If the answer is yes:
Should each DBMS instance on each server have a separate account, or does it make sense to use a particular "MSSQL" domain account on all MSSQL-installations in the organization?
If separate accounts are used for each instance on each server: Does it make sense to create a special MSSQL security group in the domain and place all the MSSQL service accounts in that group, perhaps to ease replication, etc?
Is there a common, generally accepted naming convention for MSSQL service account(s)?