Server Core 2008 – Domain Controller
Something as trivial as setting up a domain controller has become slightly tricky with the lack of a GUI. Normally I wouldn’t bother with deploying server core but i’m keen to keep overheads low on the VMware servers.
Set server name
In a command prompt type:
netdom renamecomputer %computername% /NewName:dc-dev-2
Set IP
Determine the name of the interface to change, more often than not it will be Local Area Connection
netsh interface ipv4 show interfaces
Idx Met MTU State Name
— — —– ———– ——————-
2 10 1500 connected Local Area Connection
1 50 4294967295 connected Loopback Pseudo-Interface 1
Time to change the IP
netsh interface ipv4 set address name=”Local Area Connection” source=static address=192.168.10.11 mask=255.255.255.0 gateway=192.168.10.254
And set the DNS
netsh interface ipv4 add dnsserver name=”Local Area Connection” address=192.168.10.18 index=1
Repeat as needed for secondary, tertiary etc, just be sure to increase the index value
Join domain
We return to the netdom command, the trailing asterix will prompt you to type in the password (safer) but you can just hard code it in
netdom join %computername% /domain:blerg.local /userd:Administrator /passwordd:*
Install DHCP and DNS services (optional)
the following lines install DNS and DHCP, handy to have but not essential, really depends on your existing network topology
start /w ocsetup dns-server-core-role
start /w ocsetup dhcpservercore
DCPROMO
To run dcpromo in a GUIless environment you need to create an unattend file
edit unattend.txt
paste in the following
[DCInstall]
UserName=blerg\administrator
Password=*
UserDomain=blerg.local
AutoConfigDNS=Yes
ConfirmGc=Yes
RebootOnSuccess=Yes
ReplicaDomainDNSName=blerg.local
ReplicaOrNewDomain=Replica
ReplicationSourceDC=dc.blerg.local
SafeModeAdminPassword=YourPassword!
Run DCPromo
dcpromo /unattend:unattend.txt
you will be prompted to enter the administrator password, upon completion the server will reboot and clear passwords from the unattend.txt file.