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How Can I Promote Windows Server 2012 to Domain Controller? Part 02 – AD DS Installation

This Tutorial addresses:
  • Windows Server
  • Active Directory
  • Servers
After you have prepared your copy of Windows Server 2012 as instructed in the first part of this tutorial, it is now time to go ahead and start installing the Active Directory Domain Services on the network operating system.

Here is how the things are to be done:

  1. Log on to the Windows Server 2012 network operating system with the default Administrator account.

  2. 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.

  3. On the opened Server Manager window, from the left pane, click to select the Local Server category.

  4. From the right pane, under the Properties section, verify that all the basic configurations are in place.

  5. Once done, click the Manage menu from the menu bar at the top left corner of the Server Manager window.

  6. From the displayed list, click the Add Roles and Features option.



  7. From the Add Roles and Features Wizard box, in the Before you begin window, click Next to continue.



  8. On the Select installation type window, make sure that the Role-based or feature-based installation radio button is selected.



  9. Click Next to proceed.

  10. On the Select destination server window, make sure that the Select a server from the server pool radio button is selected.

  11. From the displayed list under the Server Pool section, make sure that the current server is selected.



  12. Click Next to continue.

  13. On the Select server roles window, check the Active Directory Domain Services checkbox.

  14. 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.



  15. 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.



  16. Once done, click Next to continue.

  17. On the Select features window, leave everything as default for now and click Next to proceed.

  18. On the Active Directory Domain Services window, read the information carefully and click Next to proceed.

  19. On the DNS Server window, read the information carefully and click Next to continue.



  20. On the Confirm installation selections window, click Install to start the Active Directory
    Domain Services installation process.



  21. 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.
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