SharePoint 2013 Installation part 3

Part 3 : Adding Active Directory Domain Services 

Part 1: Preparing the environment
Part 2: Installing Windows Server 2012
Part 3: Adding Active Directory Domain Services
Part 4: Promoting to Domain Name Server

In the Part 1 of this series we saw how to create a VM with Windows Server 2012. In part 2 we continued with server 2012 install and renaming the our VM. So far we have a good smooth sailing.I also mentioned about Sysprep the VM so we can easily create multiple copies quickly. I am still working on this and have no update on this as this is totally new to me too.Let’s get into the topic for today.

In this part we are going to see how we can enable Active Directory Domain Services (ADDS) and DNS services in Windows Server 2012. ADDS is necessary for installing SharePoint.

In Server 2012 DC promo is deprecated and we can now enable ADDS from the roles similar to IIS or other services that we enable in earlier versions of windows. We will use server manager to install ADDS. Click on Add new Roles and Features in server Manager

You will now see a basic introduction  wizard screen. Click Next on this screen

Next step in the wizard will ask you about installation type.Choose Role based ot feature based installation radio button and click next

This step will ask you to select a server where you want to enable role or feature. Since in our case we only have one server select “Server from server pool” radio button and our server and click next

Now we are in a spot to choose which roles that we need ot install. There will be a list of all available roles with the checkbox next to it. Select Active Directory Domain Services roles. A pop up window will appear as shown with other dependent and related services that needs to be activated for ADDS.  

Check the checkbox to include management  tools and click add features in the pop up window.You will see the ADDS role is checked.

Scroll down to see Group Policy Management is checked automatically which is what we selected in the pop up windows. Click next 

This step gives us an overview of Active Directory Domain Services and what it does. It also talks about best practice and other information. You can read this information and click next

This the final step in the process of enabling Domain Services in our VM. The wizard will ask to confirm all the features before installing. You can enable “Restart Destination Server Automatically” checkbox so that as soon as ADDS is installed the server will be automatically restarted. You can see 2 links at the bottom, one of that allows you to export configuration settings. Click Install and wait for the process to be completed. 

You can even close the wizard at this point and installation will continue. 

Once the Role is installed the server will be automatically restarted. This completes the steps needed for adding ADDS role in Server 2012. Once the system comes back after restart we can see the steps needed to promote our server to Domain Controller.