Step by Step Domain

Controller-Windows

Server 2016

Hussain Shakir LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mrhussain

Twitter: https://twitter.com/hshakir_ms

Blog: http://mstechguru.blogspot.com/

Table of Contents About Author ........................................................................................................................................ 3

Product Overview .................................................................................................................................. 4

VM Properties for DC ............................................................................................................................ 4

TCP/IP Configurations on VM.............................................................................................................. 5

Add Role for AD DS .............................................................................................................................. 5

Setup Domain Controller ..................................................................................................................... 14

About Author

Shakir is IT Consultant with over 13 years of extensive experience working with Microsoft

Technologies AD, Exchange, O365, Windows Azure, PowerShell, Skype for Business, SQL,

SharePoint and Microsoft public clouds, and providing solutions to different local &

international Enterprise customers.

Shakir has been involved in Infrastructure Designing and Implementation, Virtualization, and

Disaster Recovery. Extensive hands-on experience in Core Server Infrastructure, Cloud

Computing, Virtualization/ Management and Information Protection. Analysis and Support of

Microsoft Windows Server based Client / Server network, AD, Messaging, Skype for Business,

SQL Always ON, Virtualization and System Center Infrastructure Products. Shakir has various

industry certifications: MCT, MCTS, MCITP, MCSA, MCSE: Messaging, MCPS, MCSE:

Cloud Platform and Infrastructure and also providing trainings on Microsoft Based

Technologies.

Product Overview

Active Directory is one of the most widely used services on enterprise networks. In addition to

providing basic authentication and authorization services, Active Directory enables so many

other capabilities that its popularity is no surprise.

Windows Server 2016 adds some significant new features to both Active Directory Domain

Services (AD DS) and Active Directory Federation Services (AD FS). Many of the features

added in Windows Server 2016 are geared toward the increased focus on cloud applications,

whether they're public, private, or hybrid.

In this step by step guide we will walk through the simple procedure to configure Active

Directory domain controller in a lab network.

VM Properties for DC

TCP/IP Configurations on VM

Static IP will be used for TCP/IP configuration, your IP will be used as preferred DNS server.

Add Role for AD DS

Login to the server, and click on the Start button, and then click on Server Manager Click on

Add roles and features

The Add role and features wizard will come up:

Click on Next. On the following Installation type screen, choose the first option “Role-based or

feature-based installation

Click on Next. On the following screen select a server from the server pool. your local server

should be listed

Select Active Directory Domain Services

On the following screen click on Active Directory Domain Services and the Add features

window will pop-up

Click on Add Features and then click on Next. Make sure .NET 4.6 Features are checked on

the following screen

Then click on Next. On the following screen, you will get a short overview of what a domain

controller does, and the services that get installed. if this is your first domain controller you will

be prompted to install the DNS service which is required on a domain controller:

Click on Next. click on Install on the confirmation window:

Setup Domain Controller

Once the AD role has been installed. click on Promote this server to a domain controller

After adding AD DS roles into your server, you will see a yellow notification on Server Manager

to promote this server as domain controller.

And the deployment configuration wizard will come up. Select Add new forest and choose your

Root domain name

click on Next. on the next screen choose your Forest functional level and enter the Directory

Service Restore Mode password: If this is your first domain controller choose “Windows

Server 2016” as the Forest and Domain functional level. make sure the DNS option is checked,

and because this is my first server, the Global Catalog (GC) is already checked. click on Next:

Because we are installing a forest root domain controller that is using Active Directory-

integrated DNS, we are not going to worry about this warning message, click on Next:

Choose the NetBIOS domain name (already selected) and click Next choose the paths for the

AD database, normally the defaults are OK

Review Options:

Do the Prerequisites check. if all the prerequisites check successfully. click on Install

This message will pop-up on your screen when Windows Server 2016 is about reboot

After your server reboots, you will have the option to login to your newly created network:

Review DNS Configurations

After you’re logged using your domain credentials, go to Administrative tools and open Active

Directory Users and Computers to make sure your AD is working:

As you can see, installing Active Directory (AD) in Windows server 2016 is not much different

than Installing AD in previous Windows server releases.