How to Configure Active Directory Domain Services on Windows Server 2012

Sathish Nadarajan
 
Solution Architect
April 11, 2014
 
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In this article, let us see, how to convert our Windows Server 2012 WorkGroup machine to a Domain Controller. That is, we need to configure ADDS on our System and install the DNS. Installing DNS Can be covered on a separate article. Now, let us focus only on ADDS.

Let us see the step by step procedure.

1. Login to the Windows Server 2012 with Administrator Privilege.

2. Go to Server Manager.

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3. Select the Add roles and features.

4. On the Feature, select the Active Directory Domain Services.

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5. And Click Next and Install. This doesn’t require much assistance.

6. Now, after installing, the ADDS, we need to configure that.

7. For that, go to the Server Manager again after a restart.

8. On the Left Pane, you can find a new entry for ADDS.

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9. On the Top, select More hyperlink.

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10. Select the “Promote this Server to a domain controller option”.

11. Select the third option. i.e., “Add a new Forest”

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12. Specify a name for your Root Domain.

13. Click Next.

14. Specify a password

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15. On the next screen, the NetBIOS Domain will appear automatically.

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16. Select Next.

17. Keep the default values on this.

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18. Once the pre-requisite check runs and succeeds, Select Install. Do a restart.

 

19. We can see the ADDS configured. To verify that, you can login to the Active Directory and verify the Name.

20. After completing this, you can add your machines to this Domain.

Note:

I would recommend that, before installing SharePoint and SQL Server, configuring the ADDS will be very much helpful. This would be very useful, when we are planning to have more than one machine on VMs on our Dev Environment.

Hope this helps.

Happy Coding.

Sathish Nadarajan.

Author Info

Sathish Nadarajan
 
Solution Architect
 
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Sathish is a Microsoft MVP for SharePoint (Office Servers and Services) having 15+ years of experience in Microsoft Technologies. He holds a Masters Degree in Computer Aided Design and Business ...read more
 

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