Adding the first Windows 2008 DC running Server Core to a Windows 2003 Domain

In preparation for an environment where we will be running a mixed Windows 2003/2008 domain I was running through some tests to see how to get the first 2008 domain controller installed (always better to find out this way versus having it happen first in production eh?). Just to make things more interesting and because I’m considering using it in production when the time comes I went ahead and added the first domain controller as Windows 2008 Server core. So, how did it go and what were the steps?

Step 1: Server core Configuration

Installing Server Core – installation went smoothly. Installed into a far smaller footprint than I had expected but no other big surprises (see http://cameronfuller.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!A231E4EB0417CB76!1234.entry for details on the drive space requirements in server core).

Controlling Server Core – I needed to choose a static address before doing a DCPromo on it. After struggling for a while, I realized that there really wasn’t what I would constitute as a simple way to do this. My uneducated first thought on how to hard-code an IP address on a server core system was to open the Server Manager, right-click and choose my server core system. That worked in the last version of the operating system when we worked from Computer Management. Nope… Ouch. Hmmm… Ok, that would be a really cool feature for the next version, Server Manager being able to connect to a remote server core system. But I digress, moving on.

Hard-code the IP address – So I logged into the Server Core system, sat back and tried to remember how in the heck to hard-code an IP address from a command-line. Big-bag-o-nothing there also. Ok, search to the rescue. Check out: http://www.petri.co.il/configuring-windows-server-2008-networking-settings.htm for how to do many cool things like configuring an IP address, joining a domain, etc.

Join the server core machine to the domain – see the previous blog entry listed in the Hard-code the IP address section. Added it to the domain and rebooted it.

Step 2: Preparing the Domain

Adprep /forestprep on an existing domain controller – Logged into the existing Windows 2003 domain controller and did the “adprep /forestprep”. The successful forestprep is shown below.

Native Mode 2003 – The domain needs to be in 2003 native mode before it can do the domainprep. This has to be changed from Windows 2000 native mode as shown in the next two graphics:

Adprep /domainprep on an existing domain controller – The first time I tried this it failed because domain was not in Native mode as shown here:

Logged into the existing Windows 2003 domain controller and did the “adprep /domainprep”. The successful domainprep is shown below.

Step 3: DCPromo

Install DNS on the server core system – addition of the DNS server role. http://www.petri.co.il/managing-windows-2008-server-core-server-roles.htm provided the steps required on server core.

Creating the unattend installation file - since this is a server core installation there needs to be an unattend file for the installation. The folks at www.petri.co.il came to the rescue here again. Information on how to generate the unattended installation file was available at http://www.petri.co.il/creating-unattend-installation-file-dcpromo-windows-server-2008.htm.  

DCPromo the server core system – using the unattend file created earlier.

After a reboot the domain controller was working like a champ and showed up as expected within Active Directory in the Domain Controllers container.  (Need: Screenshot of the ServerCore as a domain controller.)

Lessons Learned:

·         It’s time to brush up on what’s required to do things from a command-line for server core installations.

·         Great reference URL’s for doing things in server core: http://www.petri.co.il/configuring-windows-server-2008-networking-settings.htm, http://www.petri.co.il/creating-unattend-installation-file-dcpromo-windows-server-2008.htm, and http://www.petri.co.il/managing-windows-2008-server-core-server-roles.htm.

·         My wish-list for Server Manager… Connect to another computer… It would look a little bit like this