Performing an Unattended Installation of Active Directory
Automating Domain Controller Deployment (read Active Directory Services and DNS) couldn’t be simlper; allowing you to install and configure AD remotely with virtually no interaction with the server at all.
First, you will need an unattend file that provides Windows Setup with the desired settings for NTDS installation. The Contents of this file should look similar to this:
[DCINSTALL]
CreateOrJoin=Create
ReplicaOrNewDomain=NewDomain
NewDomainDNSName=newdomain.com
DomainNetBiosName=newdomain
SetForestVersion=Yes
AutoConfigDNS=Yes
DatabasePath=%systemroot%\ntds
LogPath=%systemroot%\ntds
SYSVOLPath=%systemroot%\ntds
SafeModeAdminPassword=Password
SiteName=UK
Save the above into a new file named ad-auto.txt.
Use the above file to create a new forest – set using the CreateOrJoin and ReplicaOrNewDomain options.
The DC will be placed into a new AD site named UK – set using the SiteName option.
The forest root domain will be ‘newdomain.com’ with a NETBios name of newdomain – set using the NewDomainDNSName and DomainNetBiosName options.
SYSVOL and NTDS directories will be installed to their default paths (%systemroot%\) – set using the SYSVOLPath, DatabasePath and LogPath options.
The DSRM password will be set to ‘password’ – using the SafeModeAdminPassword option.
DNS will be automatically installed and configured appropriately – set using the AutoConfigDNS option.
Finally, the forest functionality level will set as Windows Server 2003 native rather than mixed mode – set using the SetForestVersion option.
To install Active Directory services using this unattended file simply run this command: dcpromo /answer:ad-auto.txt