Here is how the things are to be done:
- Log on to the Windows Server 2012 network operating system with the default Administrator account.
- If not automatically initialized, open the Server Manager window by clicking its icon present at the bottom left corner of the screen in the taskbar.
- On the opened Server Manager window, from the left pane, click to select the Local Server category.
- From the right pane, under the Properties section, verify that all the basic configurations are in place.
- Once done, click the Manage menu from the menu bar at the top left corner of the Server Manager window.
- From the displayed list, click the Add Roles and Features option.
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- From the Add Roles and Features Wizard box, in the Before you begin window, click Next to continue.
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- On the Select installation type window, make sure that the Role-based or feature-based installation radio button is selected.
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- Click Next to proceed.
- On the Select destination server window, make sure that the Select a server from the server pool radio button is selected.
- From the displayed list under the Server Pool section, make sure that the current server is selected.
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- Click Next to continue.
- On the Select server roles window, check the Active Directory Domain Services checkbox.
- On the displayed box, click Add Features to add the additional features that are required to be installed before the Windows Server 2012 is promoted to an Active Directory domain controller.
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- Once done, back on the previous window, check the DNS Server checkbox and again click the Add Features button on the displayed box to install additional DNS server features.
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- Once done, click Next to continue.
- On the Select features window, leave everything as default for now and click Next to proceed.
- On the Active Directory Domain Services window, read the information carefully and click Next to proceed.
- On the DNS Server window, read the information carefully and click Next to continue.
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- On the Confirm installation selections window, click Install to start the Active Directory
Domain Services installation process.
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- Once the installation is complete, click the Close button to close the opened wizard.
After successfully following the above instructions, finally promote the Windows Server 2012 to a domain controller. The step-by-step instructions to do so are given in the third part ‘The Configuration’ of this tutorial series.






