How to add a freshly installed Windows Server 2016 Core to a domain and promote it as Domain Controller in a few easy steps.
In this scenario we assume that there already is an existing domain in an existing forest and the new Domain Controller should just be added to the existing domain.
Rename the Computer properly
1 | Rename-Computer -NewName dc-w2016 |
Restart the computer to make the renaming effective
1 | Restart-Computer |
Configure an IP Adresse
Therefore you need to know the name of the network interface you want to use. Get a list of all network interfaces using:
1 | Get-NetAdapter |
Configure the IP Address
1 | New-NetIPAddress -InterfaceAlias MyInterface -IPAddress 192.168.1.20 -PrefixLength 24 -AddressFamily IPv4 -DefaultGateway 192.168.1.1 |
Configure the DNS Server
To successfully join the new computer to the domain and promote it to a Domain Controller, the DNS Server entries should point to already existing Domain Controllers
1 | Set-DnsClientServerAddress -InterfaceAlias MyInterface -ServerAddresses [IP_of_existing_DC] |
Add the computer as a member to the specific domain
1 | Add-Computer -DomainName lab.mydaomain.com |
Insert the credentials of a Domain administrator account when prompted.
Restart the computer to make the domain join effective
1 | Restart-Computer |
Note: from this point on you can easily remote administer your computer using the Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT) from any computer in your network
Now install the Active Directory Domain Services (ADDS) Features
Using the switch -IncludeManagementTools installs the management tools.
1 | Install-WindowsFeature AD-Domain-Services -IncludeManagementTools |
Finally promote the computer as a Domain Controller
The switch -InstallDns installs the DNS Server Role on the computer and integrates it with Active Directory
1 | Install-ADDSDomainController -DomaiName lab.mydaomain.com -InstallDns |
After restarting the computer (there will be a prompt), the computer has successfully been joined to the domain and promoted as a Domain Controller.