Deploying Domain Controllers

You used the Add Roles Wizard in Server Manager to install Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS). Then you used the Active Directory Domain Services Installation Wizard to create the first DC in the google.com forest. Because DCs are critical to authentication, it is highly recommended that you maintain at least two domain controllers in each domain in your forest to provide a level of fault tolerance in the event that one DC fails. You might also need to add domain controllers to remote sites or create new domains or trees in your Active Directory forest. In this tutorial, you learn user-interface, command-line, and unattended methods for installing domain controllers in a variety of scenarios.

Installing a Domain Controller with the Windows Interface

Using the Windows interface to install a domain controller requires two major steps. First, you must install the AD DS role can be accomplished by using the Add Roles Wizard in Server Manager. After the AD DS role installation has copied the binaries required for the role to the server, you must install and configure AD DS by launching the Active Directory Domain Services Installation Wizard, using one of these methods:

• Click Start and, in the Start Search box, type dcpromo and click OK.
• When you complete the Add Roles Wizard, click the link to launch the Active Directory Domain Services Installation Wizard.
• After adding the AD DS role, links appear in Server Manager that remind you to run the Active Directory Domain Services Installation Wizard. Click any of those links.

The Active Directory Domain Services Installation Wizard is shown.

NOTE:
Microsoft documentation for Windows Server 2008 R2 emphasizes the role-based model, so it recommends that you add the AD DS role and then run Dcpromo.exe (the Active Directory Domain Services Installation Wizard). However, you can simply run Dcpromo.exe and, as a first step, the wizard detects that the AD DS binaries are not installed and adds the AD DS role automatically.