Setup Domain Controller With Server 2012

We will go through the process of setup a domain controller using server2012.

AD Prerequisites

1.   Windows server 2012

2.   NTFS Partition

3.   DNS: The DNS should be ready with forward and reverse lookup zone and should allow dynamic updates. Although you can install DNS during the process of AD setup, Microsoft recommended best practice is to setup DNS prior to AD setup. If you prefer to choose during AD setup, it will create the AD integrated DNS for you.

4.   Static IP: The server should be configured with static IP and with the DNS server address.

5.   DNS Suffix representing the namespace added to computer properties.

As shown in the figure my NIC is configured with static IP 192.168.117.100 and we setup DNS in the same server and configured that too.

Also we changed the DNS suffix to xyz.com to represent the namespace that we are going to use.

We setup the DNS server with forward and reverse lookup zone for xyz.com and also allowed dynamic updates.

                                So all the prerequisites are completed and let us go through the Active Directory Installation.By default no roles or features installed on server 2012. Open up the server manager and click on manage to add roles and features.

 Click Next
 Choose role based or feature based installation.

Click Next and choose select a server from the server pool

Click Next and choose Active Directory Domain Services. It will popup to choose the remote administration features and click on add features

Click Next and for Add features window, it will automatically select the group policy feature and no additional feature required now.

Click Next

This screen gives a brief about AD DS and the requirements. Click Next

 Click on install and the process of making the server ready for to be a domain controller will be started.Click on the close button.

After that you can see a notification in server manager, to promote the server to a domain controller. Click on that. This will start the AD DS configuration wizard.
Click on add a new forest and xyz.com as the domain name.

The first radio button is to add additional domain controller to the existing domain and the second one  is to add additional domain either as a child domain or as an additional tree. Since this is our first DC, it will be the forest root. The next screen will prompt you to choose the forest and domain functional level. As per your current requirements, means later if you want to add 2008 server as an additional DC or you have an application that requires the lower forest or domain functional level you can opt for lower forest functional level. 

    After that you can see to select the DC capabilities. Since we installed DNS in the same machine, can't deselect that. Also as it is the first DC, it should be a global catalog server and it can't be RODC which we will discuss later, as RODC requires DC to get the directory replica.

    The directory service restore mode is used to restore the AD database or doing the maintenance on AD or to move AD. In that situations, we have to use the restore mode password.

 Click Next and it will ask you to specify DNS delegation options. In our case DNS delegation is not required as it is in the same server and If you have a separate DNS server that hosts your forward and reverse lookup zones, you have to provide the delegate credentials for that server. So uncheck the box and click Next.

The additional options screen will ask you to verify the NETBIOS name. Leave it as it is.

Click Next and it will ask you for the database, log files and sysvol path.By default it will be in the windows directory. If you have any performance concerns, you can change the path.

 Click Next

 You can review your options here and go back if you want to make any changes. Most importantly you can view the actual powershell script based on our choice. We can make use of these file for a replica DC.

 Click Next and it will check for all the prerequisites.

After the prerequisites are done you can click on install to start the actual install. Once it finish the install the server will restart automatically. After reboot you can see the option to login to the domain.

Just open the DNS console to see all the service records related with the AD is created.

So our active directory setup completed successfully.

Installing AD DS from Install from Media (IFM)

                                              Now we are going to setup an additional Domain Controller. From server 2000 onwards AD uses multi master replication. I.e. Every Domain Controller has a writable copy of the database they maintains. The additional DC will replicate from the first DC during initial setup. If we are adding the DC in the same site, the replication will be very fast. Usually IFM is used in situations like you want to setup additional DC in a remote location and it will take time to replicate the database and policies from the first DC to the second location. So we can copy the database and sysvol folders from first DC and use it in the second one. We can take the backup of AD to the local server and then copy it to the removable media and we can use it in the remote server. We are using IFM option to setup the additional DC.

         So first let us take the backup of AD from our DC1. Run the command prompt as the administrator and type ntdsutil.

Type activate instance ntds

Type IFM

If you type help you can see all the parameters used with ifm. We are going to take the backup of AD and sysvol and hence type create sysvol full c:\ad_bkp. Ad_bkp is the folder I created to take the backup.

You can see the defragmentation and copying process

We will get the message that the IFM media created successfully in c:\ad_bkp.

Type quit to exit ifm and quit again to exit ntdsutil. Now I have the backup of AD database, registry, policies and scripts.

  Now copy the ad_bkp to removable media. We will setup the second server and will use this removable media in that.

 Join the second server to xyz.com and add active directory domain services in to that. As it is the same procedures we discussed earlier I am not putting thr screen shots. Start promote server to domain controller. Choose additional DC to existing domain and xyz.com  as the domain. During the additional options, choose install from media and show the path to removable media ad_bkp.

 The remaining steps are same as of the first DC.