Active Directory
SETTING UP ACTIVE DIRECTORY
WHAT IS ACTIVE DIRECTORY?
Active Directory Domain Service (AD DS) is a directory service developed by Microsoft for Windows domain network. It is included in most Microsoft Windows Server operating systems as a set of processes and services. Initially, Active Directory was only in charge of centralized domain management.
Starting with Windows Server 2008, however, Active Directory became an umbrella title for a broad range of directory-based identity-related services.
Read more about Active Directory Domain Services here
Log into the DC server, and we will start setting up the Active Directory server role for my LAB environment.
Installing Active Directory
Step 1. Click "Add roles and features" in the Server Manager.
Step 2. Click "Next"
Step 3. Leave everything default and click "Next"
Step 4. Leave everything default and click "Next"
Step 5. Select "Active Directory Domain Services"
Step 6. Leave everything default and click "Add Features"
Step 7. Leave everything default and click "Next"
Step 8. Click "Next"
Step 9. Check the "Restart the destination server automatically if required" box and click "Install"
Step 10. This might take a while, so click "Close" and go grab a cup of coffee😎
Configuring Active Directory
Step 1. When the server role installation is done, we should now see a yellow triangle with an exclamation mark in the Server Manager, click on it and then click "Promote this server to a domain controller"
Step 2. Check "Add a new forest", enter a "Root Domain Name" and click "Next"
Step 3. Enter a password for DSRM, leave the rest as default and click "Next"
Step 4. Leave everything default and click "Next"
Step 5. The NetBIOS domain name is populated automatically after a few second, it is possible to change the NetBIOS domain name, but I choose to leave it as default for my LAB environment.
Step 6. Leave everything default and click "Next"
Step 7. Click "Next"
BONUS INFO
If you click "View script" you can actually save it as a PowerShell script and re-use it the next time you have to create a new Active Directory Forest.
Step 8. The system will now verify all the prerequisites, this might take a few seconds to validate. You will see the message "All prerequisite checks passed successfully." if everything went as it should.
The yellow triangle with an exclamation mark is okay since this is a new LAB environment. For example, I do not have any existing Windows DNS server in my environment, so I can just ignore that "warning".
Click "Install" (The system should reboot automatically during this process...)
Step 9. After a reboot the Active Directory installation is done and you should be able to log on to the domain for the first time.
Now that we have successfully installed and configured the Active Directory server role on my DC server, let's move on to the DHCP server role installation. Click "Next" below or click "DHCP" in the menu to the left.
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