Installing and Configuring Active Directory Domain Services: Window Server 2012

Scenario: UPIIT is a finance company in the US. Salman is the server administrator of the organization. Recently, the organization experienced a massive growth. As a result, the number of users and network increased in the organization. It was becoming very difficult for Salman to manage all the users and network resources efficiently. For this, he decided to use a toll to administer all the network resources from a centralize location.

What should he do to accomplish the same?

Installing Active Directory Domain Services

First of all he will open the Server Manager to install the AD DS Roleby clicking on the Server Manager in the left bottom of the screen as shown in the following 

Figure 1.

Click on the Add roles and features hyper link to add Role of Active Directory Domain Services or Install Active Directory Domain Services as shown in the following Figure 2.

Figure 2

OR

To perform the above task you can click on the Manage button on the right top corner of your screen. A menu will be openas shown in the following Figure 3. Now click on the Add Rolesand Features.

Figure 3

As you will click on the Add Roles and Featuresoption from the menu you will see theBefore You Begin page of theAdd Roles and Feature Wizard dialog box as shown in the following Figure 4.

Figure 4

Click the Next button.TheSelect Installation Type page is displayed as shown in the following Figure 5.

Figure 5

Click on the Next button.The Select Destination Server page is displayed as shown in the following Figure 6.If you have a group of servers in your network, you can select the particular server where you want to install Active Directory Domain Services means you can install this services on the remote server. This is a unique feature of windows server 2012 because it is specially designed cloud computing or you can say virtualization.

Figure 6

Click on the Next button. The Select server roles page is displayed as shown in the following Figure 7.

Now we need to select the role(s) we want to install.

For this tutorial, we are only concerned with Active Directory Domain Services. Click on the check box of the Active Directory Domain Services role.

Figure 7

As you will click on the check box. TheAdd features that are required for Active Directory Domain Services?dialog box will appear as shown in the following 

Figure 8

Click on the Add Features button.The Select server roles page will displayed as shown in the following Figure 9.

Figure 9

Click on the Next button.The Select features page will displayed as shown in the following Figure 10.Here you can select one or more features you want to install. In this tutorial we will leave the default selection of features.

Figure 10

Click on the Next button. The Active Directory Domain Services page will displayed as shown in the following Figure 11.Here you can read about the Active Directory Domain Services.

Figure 11

Click on the Next button. TheConfirm installation selection page will displayed as shown in the following Figure 12. And click on the check box Restart the destination server automatically if required.

Figure 12

As you click on the check box an information sign will displayed as shown in the following Figure 13.

Figure 13

Click on the Yes button.You will then be back at the Confirm installation selections page as shown in the following Figure 14.

Figure 14

Click on the Install button. The Installation progress page will displayed as shown in the following Figure 15.

Figure 15

Wait for the few minutes or few movements depending upon your system. When the installation progress will complete it will be shown as the following Figure 16.

Figure 16

Close the installation progress page by clicking on the Close button. The Server Manager Window will display as shown in the following Figure 17.

Figure 17

At the top of the Server Managerwindow you see a notification that prompts you to promote this server as a Domain Controller. Now click on the notification area as you will click you will see the following Figure 18.

Figure 18

Now click on the Promote this server to a domain controller. As you will click on this you will see the Deployment Configuration page of the Active Directory Domain Services Configuration Wizard dialog box as shown in the following Figure 19.

Select the Add a new forest radio button as shown in the following Figure 20.

Figure 20

Type the Root domain name in the text box area and the click on the Next button as shown in the following Figure 21.

Figure 21

As you click on the Next button you will see the Domain Controller Options as shown in the following Figure 22.

Figure 22

Ensure that the Forest functional level is selected Windows Server 2012. If you want to move previous functional level you can click on the drop down arrow and select any one you want as shown in the following Figure 23.

Figure 23

Ensure that Domain functional level is selected on Windows Server 2012. I f you want to change this you can click on the drop down arrow and select your choice as shown in the following Figure 24.

Figure 24

Note: To chance the Domain functional level first you have to chance forest functional level otherwise you cannot change the Domain functional level.

Always remember that if you have selected this as Windows Server 2012 you cannot move to previous functional level.

Ensure that Domain Name System (DNS) server check box is selected. It is integrated with AD DS. It is very secure. Alternatively you can uncheck this and install it on another system. But in this tutorial keep this check on as shown in the following Figure 25.

Figure 25

Ensure that the Global Catalog (GC) check box is selected and unhighlighted means you cannot uncheck this because this is the first DC of the forest and it is compulsory. So you cannot change this as shown in the following Figure 26.

Figure 26

Ensure that there is one more option Read only domain controller (RODC) check box is unchecked and you cannot check this because this option is only for Read only domain controller and you cannot use first DC as a RODC server as shown in the following Figure 27.

Figure 27

Now type the password admin@123 and confirm the Directory Service Restore Mode (DSRM) password as shown in the following Figure 28.

Figure 28

Click on the Next button. The DNS Option page will display as shown in the following Figure 29.

Figure 29

Click on the Next button. After few movements the Additional Options page will display as shown in the following Figure 30.

Figure 30

Click on the Next button. After few movements the Paths page will display as shown in the following Figure 31.

Figure 31

Review the paths of the AD DS database, log files, and SYSVOL folders and keep these as default and click on Next button. The Review Options page will display as shown in the following Figure 32.

Figure 32

Here you can see the summery of all over your configuration and click on the Next button. The Prerequisite Check page will display as shown in the following Figure 33.

Figure 33

Click on the Install button and wait for the few minutes. It will take approximately 5 minutes and system will restart.

After system restart Desktop screen will appear and server manager window will be automatically open as shown in the following Figure 34.

Figure 34

Now Active Directory Domain Service is Almost Ready to use. In the comming Post We will describe Configuration of DNS integrated with Active Directory Domain Service (AD DS)

Thank You and Enjoy the learning new things.