Installing ADDS Role

Windows Server Core: Installing ADDS Role

Windows Server Core is a great option for your domain controllers.  Generally speaking domain controllers should not be doing anything else and are rarely logged into interactively anyways.  However promoting a machine to a domain controller from the command line is not as intuitive as it could should be.

This article is also very helpful if you want to script the promotion of your domain controllers.

DCPROMO.exe

Just like on a full server install dcpromo.exe is still used to promote a machine to a domain controller.  One of the nice features of dcpromo.exe is that if the Active Directory Domain Services (ADDS) role is not installed dcpromo.exe will add that role to your server for you.

However if you would like to install the ADDS and DNS roles before you begin the promotion process the command lines would be:

dism /online /enable-feature /featurename:NetFx2-ServerCore

dism /online /enable-feature /featurename:NetFx3-ServerCore

dism /online /enable-feature /featurename:DirectoryServices-DomainController-ServerFoundation

dism /online /enable-feature /featurename:DNS-Server-Core-Role

The full command argument options of dcpromo.exe can be found at the Microsoft TechNet documentation site.

The common arguments used in either a new domain or existing domain scenario are:

Creating a new Forest

The bare minimum command to create a new forest is:

dcpromo.exe /unattend /replicaOrNewDomain:domain /newDomain:forest

/newDomainDnsName:serk.local /domainNetbiosName:SERK

/safeModeAdminPassword:

Remember that when you create a new Forest you are really creating a new Root level Domain so a lot of the commands will be referencing domain creation.

The common parameters used when creating a new forest are:

Creating a new Domain in an existing Forest

The bare minimum command to create a new domain in an existing forest is:

dcpromo.exe /unattend /replicaOrNewDomain:domain /newDomain:child

/newDomainDnsName:child.serk.local /parentDomainDNSName:serk.local

/domainNetbiosName:CHILD-SERK /childName:child

/userDomain:serk.local /username:administrator /password:*

/safeModeAdminPassword:

The bare minimum command to create a new tree in an existing forest is:

dcpromo.exe /unattend /replicaOrNewDomain:domain /newDomain:tree

/newDomainDnsName:tree.local /parentDomainDNSName:serk.local

/domainNetbiosName:TREE

/userDomain:serk.local /username:administrator /password:*

/safeModeAdminPassword:

The common parameters used when creating a new domain in an existing forest are:

Adding a Domain Controller to an Existing Domain

The bare minimum command to add a domain controller to an existing domain is:

dcpromo.exe /unattend /replicaOrNewDomain:replica /replicaDomainDNSName:serk.local

/userDomain=serk.local /username=administrator /password:*

/safeModeAdminPassword:

The common parameters used adding a domain controller to a domain are: