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adinstall

Active Directory Basic Installation

This is an installation report of a basic installation of Microsoft's Active Directory through the tool dcpromo. The settings are based on a small AD domain design and should be set to your own settings when installing in a production environment.

This page is created for a 2003 AD, if you need an explanation for 2008, look here.

Installation

To start the installation go to start → run and type dcpromo. After pressing <enter> you'll get the installation wizard:

adinstalldcpromo01.jpg

Click Next.

adinstalldcpromo02.jpg

Click Next.

adinstalldcpromo03.jpg

We're creating a new Active Directory domain, so keep the default and click Next.

adinstalldcpromo04.jpg

The new domain is also created in a new tree, so keep the default and click Next.

adinstalldcpromo05.jpg

Enter the full DNS name for your domain. I've found it a good practice to set this the same as your internal DNS domain suffix. Click Next when you're done.

adinstalldcpromo06.jpg

Keep the suggested NetBIOS name and click Next.

adinstalldcpromo07.jpg

Keep the defaults, both the database and the log folder won't grow out of proportion, so just click Next.

adinstalldcpromo08.jpg

For our environment the SYSVOL folder can be kept to the default so click Next.

adinstalldcpromo09.jpg

Select to have the wizard install and configure DNS for you. This will create all the needed SRV records for AD, which is something you really don't want to do manually. Click Next.

adinstalldcpromo10.jpg

We don't have any pre-Windows 2000 servers lying around, so keep the default and click Next.

adinstalldcpromo11.jpg

I use my default password 'beheer', but please document the password you use. Without this password it's not possible to start Active Directory in restore mode. Click Next.

adinstalldcpromo12.jpg

Check your settings and click Next.

adinstalldcpromo13.jpg

The installation and configuration starts. Please wait…

adinstalldcpromo14.jpg

Click Finish to close the wizard and REBOOT THE MACHINE. No seriously, please do.

Check the AD installation

After the installation and after the reboot of the server it's not so wise to rush into any other installation (like Exchange). Unfortunately, Microsoft does not have the best reputation on software installations and that's not without a reason. We're going to verify if our installation went well.

Check the DC

Start → Run → dsa.msc (starts AD Users and Computers)

Check to see if the DC is listed under the 'Domain Controllers' OU.

Check the site

Start → Run → dssite.msc (starts AD Sites and Services)

Check to see if you have a 'NTDS Settings' under your DC.

Check DNS

Start → Run → dnsmgmt.msc (starts the DNS Management MMC snapin)

Check the DNS configuration and zones.

Create Reverse Lookup Zone

By default, dcpromo creates a forward lookup zone, but no reverse lookup zone. I recommend to create one right away, this will make some tools behave nice, and prevents you from creating all kind of records manually when you have to add one later on. Right click the reverse lookup zones and select 'Add new zone'. This will give you this wizard so you can select your options:

adinstalldnsreversezone01.jpg

Select primary zone and click Next.

adinstalldnsreversezone02.jpg

Keep the default and click Next.

adinstalldnsreversezone03.jpg

Enter the network id, and click Next.

adinstalldnsreversezone04.jpg

Keep the default and click Next.

adinstalldnsreversezone05.jpg

So, now you have a reverse lookup zone as well.

Check folders

Check these folders to see if the content is correct:

  • C:\WINDOWS\NTDS

The AD database should be created (NTDS.DIT, keeps information stored about user accounts, groups, etc.)

The edb.chk file is a checkpoint file that points to the last committed checkpoint in the log file. The edb.log file is the name of the current log file and is for the ntds.dit transactions.

res1.log and res2.log are reserve log files in case the drive runs out of disk space. These files are always 10 MB in size. (In AD 2008 these files are now named edbres00001.jrs and edbres00002.jrs).

  • C:\WINDOWS\SYSVOL

In the SYSVOL\domain\Policies should be two directories containing the 'Default Domain Policy' and the 'Default Domain Controllers Policy'. You won't recognize them as such since they have unique names, for example '6AC1786C-016F-11D2-945F-00C04fB984F9'.

Resources

For more information about dcpromo and AD please check Microsoft's website and this is a nice starting place.

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adinstall.txt · Last modified: 2021/09/24 00:24 (external edit)