2. Running the AD DS Configuration Wizard
When you complete the installation of the role, the final page
of the Configuration Wizard prompts you to promote the server to a
domain controller. If you close the wizard at this point, you can
still access the link to promote the server from the Notifications
menu of Server Manager as shown in Figure 2.
Clicking the link to promote the server to a domain controller
launches the AD DS Configuration Wizard. The steps of this wizard
depend on which type of domain-controller deployment scenario you are
performing. The upcoming sections cover the following scenario
types:
-
First domain controller in new forest
-
Additional domain controller in new domain
-
First Windows Server 2012 domain controller in an existing
forest
2.1 First domain controller in new forest
After the AD DS role has been added to the server, using the
AD DS Configuration Wizard to promote the server to the first domain
controller for a new forest involves the following steps:
-
On the Deployment Configuration page of the wizard, shown
in Figure 3,
select the Add A New Forest option and specify the root domain
for your new forest. Then proceed through the wizard and perform
the steps that follow.
-
On the Domain Controller Options page, specify a
functional level for your new forest and root domain. The
default forest and functional levels are Windows Server 2012. If
you have no domain controllers running earlier versions of
Windows Server in your environment, you should leave the
defaults unchanged.
-
On the same page, specify whether your domain controller
should also be a DNS server. Microsoft recommends that all
domain controllers also be DNS servers to ensure AD DS
availability.
-
On the same page, note that the first domain controller
must be a global catalog server and that it cannot be an
RODC.
-
On the same page, enter a password for the Directory
Services Restore Mode (DSRM) administrator account.
-
On the DNS Options page, specify DNS delegation options if
you are integrating AD DS with an existing DNS infrastructure.
To do this, you can manually create a delegation for your new
DNS server in its authoritative parent zone to ensure reliable
name resolution from outside your AD DS environment. For
example, if the root domain name of your new forest is
corp.contoso.com as shown in Figure 3, you
create a delegation for your DNS server in the authoritative
parent zone on the DNS server that manages the public
contoso.com domain for your organization.
-
On the Additional Options page, the wizard suggests a
NetBIOS name for your forest root domain. You can either accept
what the wizard suggests or specify a different name of up to 15
Internet-standard characters (A–Z, a–z, 0–9, and “-” but not
entirely numeric).
-
On the Paths page, specify the location of the AD DS
database, log files, and SYSVOL or accept the defaults.
-
The Review Options page displays the results of your
selections.
-
The Prerequisites Check page verifies that all
prerequisites have been met for successfully deploying the
domain controller.
-
Clicking Install promotes the server to a domain
controller and automatically reboots the server at the end of
the promotion operation.
Note
Windows PowerShell
behind the wizard
The AD DS Configuration Wizard is built entirely on Windows
PowerShell. In other words, you can think of the wizard as a UI
that simply runs a Windows PowerShell command whose parameters are
determined by the selections you made on the different wizard
pages. On the Review Options page of the wizard, you can click
View Script to display the Windows PowerShell script in Notepad.
For example, if you are deploying the first domain controller for
a new forest whose forest root domain is corp.contoso.com, the
script that performs this action looks like this:
#
# Windows PowerShell script for AD DS Deployment
#
Import-Module ADDSDeployment
Install-ADDSForest `
-CreateDnsDelegation:$false `
-DatabasePath "C:\Windows\NTDS" `
-DomainMode "Win2012" `
-DomainName "corp.contoso.com" `
-DomainNetbiosName "CORP" `
-ForestMode "Win2012" `
-InstallDns:$true `
-LogPath "C:\Windows\NTDS" `
-NoRebootOnCompletion:$false `
-SysvolPath "C:\Windows\SYSVOL" `
-Force:$true
Being able to view the script behind the wizard provides
several benefits. First, it enables you to quickly learn the
syntax of Windows PowerShell cmdlets for AD DS deployment. And
second, you can copy these scripts, customize them, and use them
to automate the deployment of other domain controllers in your
environment.
