Important documentation:

Unattended mode to install and remove Active Directory Domain Services
Active Directory Technet Links

Our tasks include:

– install Server 2008 R2 SP1 Core (i hope, you have already done it)
– change server name
– set NIC settings
– activate server
– turn on Windows Update Services and download/install the latest applicable updates
– turn on Remote Desktop connection to our server
– promote server to additional DC in existing domain
– check result

Installation steps

1. After successful installation Server 2008 R2 change your administrator password, log on to server and change server name using sconfig.cmd. Then restart your server.

Sconfig.cmd renamepc

2. Set static IP (recommended) or enable DHCP (don’t forget to reserve your ip on DHCP server) on your NIC using option 8 of sconfig.cmd

nic_settings_1 — Select option 8 and your NIC index

Type D or S to use DHCP or Static IP Address

3. Use cscript c:\windows\system32\slmgr.vbs to your server activation

Server 2008 R2 Core Activation — Use -ipk parameter to change your product key and -ato for activation with one

4. Turn on Windows Update Services and download/install latest updates using sconfig.cmd again

Select option 5 to set WSU for automatic searching updates

Select option 6 to download and install updates

Select A to download and install ALL applicable updates

Wait while WSU downloads and installs ALL applicable update, then restart your server to apply ones

5. Enable RDP for remote management using sconfig.cmd option 7

Select option 7 > e to enable rdp and choose option 2 to allow any RDP versions

6. I hope, you read about unattanded installation domain controller (Unattended mode to install and remove Active Directory Domain Services) . So, we have to create additional file with configuration of promotion (dcpromo). Type notepad yourfilename.txt. By default, your file saves in %USERPROFILE%. Creating_file_for_dcpromo

Paste to this file following strings (don’t forget to edit them 🙂 ) and save txt:

[DCINSTALL]
UserName=rlevchenko
UserDomain=test.com
Password=Pass123
InstallDNS=Yes
ConfirmGC=Yes
ReplicaOrNewDomain=replica
ReplicaDomainDNSName=test.com
SafeModeAdminPassword=Pass123
RebootOnCompletion=Yes

Then execute dcpromo /unattend:<path of the answer file>. Notice, after dcpromo implementation server will automatically reboot because of RebootOnCompletion=Yes.

7. Check dcpromo log for any warnings or error