How to: Deploy Active Directory Domain Services on Windows Server 2008

TheContempt — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 18:35:00 GMT

This is the first piece in a Series that's designed to educate the Community about some of the more critical Server Roles found in Windows Server 2008. This week, we'll begin with Active Directory Domain Services and continue with other Roles on a Bi-Weekly basis over the coming months. Please don't hesitate to provide feedback in the comments! Enjoy!

WS03 Introduction Part 1: ADDS

gogole — Thu, 15 May 2008 21:50:00 GMT

Introduction

Hi all,

I’m Josh Bolling (TheContempt on the forums) and I hope to be your “WS03 Tour Guide” of sorts and guide you in some of the more basic practices and features included with the product in the beginning and move into more advanced concepts as time wears on. Today, we’ll begin with a quick tutorial on installing and configuring Active Directory in WS03 as it’s a major foundational building block of most any production network or test lab. Plus, many other products from Microsoft, like Exchange, Forefront and System Center, need to leverage Active Directory to function properly.

A brief history of Active Directory

Active Directory, or AD as it is more commonly known, was introduced with Windows 2000 Server and is, at its’ most basic level, a database similar to the Registry in Windows Client operating systems. However, it stores Objects instead of application settings. Some of these objects include Users, Computers, Organizational Units (OU) and Groups. Active directory provides many benefits over a traditional Workgroup style environment, like:

· Extensibility

· Centralized Authentication

· Centralized Administration

Installation overview

To deploy Active Directory, please follow the steps below:

Step 1-Point to Start > Run and enter dcpromo in the dialog. Please see Figure 1.1

Figure 1.1-Run dialog

Step 2-Review the Welcome screen and click next to continue with the installation process. Please see Figure 1.2

Figure 1.2-Welcome screen

Step 3- Carefully review the OS Compatibility screen as it contains important information about legacy compatibility concerns when deploying Active Directory. Specifically, older versions of Windows client operating systems, like Windows 95 and NT 4.0, won’t function correctly within an Active Directory based environment. Click next to proceed to the next step of the installation. Please see Figure 1.3 for a more detailed explanation.

Figure 1.3-OS compatibility warning

Now begin the truly important steps

Step 4-Now you’ll be presented with a couple choices. Each of which is equally important, but for the purposes of this guide, we’ll continue by choosing Domain controller for a new domain and then choosing next to proceed.

Figure 1.4-DC type selection

Step 5-Choose Domain in a new forest and click next to continue.

Figure 1.5-Domain type selection

Step 6-Enter the desired name for the Doman (while making sure it’s unique) and click next to proceed.

Figure 1.6-Domain name entry

(Special note: Once you click next, the Wizard may appear to have frozen, it hasn’t. It’s merely checking to make sure the Domain name is globally unique-or doesn’t exist on the LAN.)

Step 7-Leave the Domain NetBIOS name set to the default value and click next to continue.

Figure 1.7-NetBIOS name entry

Step 8-Choose the location where the AD database itself as well as associated log files.

Figure 1.8-Databsae and log tile location

(Special note-These entries default to C:\WINDOWS\NTDS,
but it is accepted practice to place the AD database on a separate physical hard disk if available. This will help with both performance and disaster recovery.)

Step 9-Select the location for the SYSVOL folder and click next to continue.

(Special note-Again, storing this directory on a separate hard disk drive would be best in a production environment.)

Step 10-Here, you’ll point to the option labeled Install and configure the DNS service on this computer, and set this computer to use this DNS server as its preferred DNS server and click next to continue.

Figure 1.9-DNS installation prompt

Step 10a-To provision a DNS server on the local machine, you must set a static IP address on at least one network interface. To do so please point to Start > Control Panel > Network Connections > Right-click Local Area Connection > choose Properties > Choose Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) and choose Properties.

Figure 2.1-Network connection properties

Step 10b-Now you’ll want to set the IP address of the Local Areas connection. To do this, please reference the Figure below, Altering settings where appropriate for your particular network environment. To apply these settings point to OK and Close on the subsequent dialog.

Figure 2.2-Network settings

Step 11-Here’ll you’ll want to choose Permissions compatible with Windows 2000 or Windows Server 2003 operating systems and point to next to continue.

Figure 2.3-Permissions

Step 12-Enter the desired value for the Restore Mode Password. The password will prove invaluable if you ever need to demote the DC back to a member server or restore the Schema for any reason.

Figure 2.4-Recovery Mode Password entry

Step 13 –Carefully review the installation summary and click next to begin the Active Directory installation. During the installation, you will see screens like those below:

Figure2.5-Installation summary

Figure 2.6-AD install dialog (1)

Figure 2.7-AD install screen (2) (DNS)

(Special note: Make sure you have the WS03 installation CD handy or have access to a network share where the contents of the i386 directory are stored as some of those files will be needed by the installation process.)

Figure 2.8-File copy prompt

Step 14-That’s it! Once the machine has prompted you to reboot and has booted back into Windows you have a fully functioning Domain Controller ready to be filled with all sorts of fun objects! Congratulations!

Figure 2.9-Confirmation dialog

Conclusion

As you can see, the installation process for Active Directory is quite straightforward! However, it is VERY important to master the installation process as Active directory is the largest building block in relation to production networks that leverage Windows Server. Look forward to the conclusion of this series of articles in which we’ll wrap up AD with an explanation of adding Users and Groups to Active Directory and step through getting a client machine connected to the domain. Thanks for reading!