Managing Server 2012 : Deploying Active Directory Domain Services - Installing Active Directory

To deploy Active Directory Domain Services on a local Server 2012 machine, launch Server Manager and select “Add roles and features” in the “Configure this local server” area of the dashboard.

Select “Role-based or feature-based installation,” and click Next. Then select the local server (or the server to which you want to deploy AD DS) as the destination server. Choose Active Directory Domain Services. (See Figure 1.)

There are several features and tools that you are required to install along with AD DS. These features are listed, and you are given the option to install them as well. To do so, click “Add features,” then click Next.

You can opt to install additional features, or just click Next once again to begin the installation process (Figure 2).

Figure 1. Selecting Active Directory Domain Services

Figure 2. Start of the AD DS install

After a successful install, Server Manager’s notification prompts you to “Promote this server to a domain controller,” as shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3. Notification to promote to domain controller

You have several options to promote to a DC. You can use the GUI or PowerShell. There’s some confusion about whether or not Microsoft has eliminated the Dcpromo command system that administrators have long used to promote servers to DCs.

Dcpromo can still be executed in Server 2012. You run the command by pointing to an answer file, using the dcpromo.exe command in the command prompt. The answer file is a text file you create with specific fields that will customize an unattended DC promotion based on the configuration needed for your particular organization.

Promoting DCs using Dcpromo and an answer file is necessary only if an organization already has in-place automation for creating DCs or for infrastructures that need to deploy large numbers of DCs. For smaller organizations, using the DC install and promotion capabilities within Server Manager is easier and more efficient because you have less chance of syntax errors than with creating answer files. For those comfortable with scripting, PowerShell also provides a good alternative for creating and promoting servers as DCs.

The Active Directory Administrative Center allows you to add a DC to an existing domain, add a new domain to an existing forest, or add a new forest. To set up an entirely new domain without an existing forest, select “Add a new forest,” as shown in Figure 4. You must specify a root domain name, in the form of <domainname>.com or <domainname>.net, for example, or whatever top-level domain (TLD) ending is designated for your organization.

Figure 4. Adding a new forest

Next, you have to select the forest and domain’s functional level. The functional level you select depends on whether you have an existing AD domain or forest and which servers you are running. For instance, if your infrastructure has Server 2003 servers, you may keep the forest or domain level set at Windows 2003 until all DCs are upgraded to Server 2008 or 2008 R2.

Server 2012 can be set to Server 2012 AD, Server 2008 R2, Server 2008, or Server 2003 functional levels. If the DC is going to also function as a global catalog server, or as a read-only DC, you can select those capabilities in this step as well. It is important to ensure that adding a new DC does not execute an unplanned upgrade of the functional level of the domain, so read all of the wizard text closely when joining an existing domain.

Finally, in the next screen (Figure 5), you can also set the Directory Services Restore Mode (DSRM) password.

Figure 5. Setting the functional level of the domain

Before final installation, a prerequisites check is automatically run to ensure that there are no issues with the AD install (Figure 6).

After a successful install, AD DS is listed in the dashboard, as shown in Figure 7.

Figure 6. Prerequisites check

Figure 7. Successful install of AD DS