Understanding Additional
domain controller (ADC)
Active directory domain controller is the directory
structure which will help you to store information’s in a hierarchical manner.
You will have your data saved in an order that can be retrieved easily and
conveniently (In an AD structure the data are usually related to users,
computers and printers). Let us consider a situation like you need redundancy
in managing your information so that you will always have higher productivity
without interruption,
Here comes the applicability of Additional domain controller (ADC). Easily we
can say it is as a backup copy of your primary domain controller which will be
active unless the communication between DC and ADDC fails.
The
ADDC is useful especially in a condition that when your primary domain
controller is down or it is corrupted, in remote access areas where the domain
controller is away and you need to access data in an effective manner and so
on.
Prerequisites
When
you set up ADDC you must meet this prerequisites else there are chances of
facing issues or delay in configuration while progressing.
1.You
must specify the IP address of DNS server (Normally your primary domain
controller) in NIC card.
2.
Join the server to Active directory (It will help you to make sure that there
are no objects with the same name in your network).
3.
An user account which is having domain
administrator privilage.
4.
You must install active directory services from server Roles (Can be done
during initial stage of ADC installation)
Configuring active
additional domain controller
1. In this scenario I have not installed Active direcory domain services
(ADDS) from server roles, hence it will install automatically while the
configuration starts,
Open ‘Run’-> type ‘dcpromo’->OK.
2. As per my previous update it will install AD roles, it will
start installation automatically. The screen shots are available below.
3. You may need to wait for some time unless the
installation completes and once it is completed you will be directed to AD
configuration wizard. Here I am prefer to have advanced mode installation and
the difference between advanced mode installation and normal installation is
listed below.
Deployment configuration
|
Advanced mode installation wizard pages
|
New forest
|
Domain NetBIOS name
|
New domain in an existing forest
|
On the Choose a Deployment Configuration page, the option to create a new domain tree appears only in advanced mode installation.
Domain NetBIOS name
Source Domain Controller
|
Additional domain controller in an existing domain
|
Install from Media
Source Domain Controller
Specify Password Replication Policy (for RODC installation only)
|
Create an account for a read-only domain controller (RODC) installation
|
Specify Password Replication Policy
|
Attach a server to an account for an RODC installation
|
Install from Media
Source Domain Controller
|
4. Now you can have the ‘Welcome window’ and ‘Operating
system compatibility’ press ‘Next’ on both windows to continue.
5. As we already know that this server is going to
be the backup domain controller in deployment configuration we must specify as
‘Existing forest’ and ‘Add a domain controller to an existing domain’ so that
it can act as backup DC of our primary DC.
6. As next you must specify the domain name and a
user which is having administrative privilege to share and connect with primary
domain controller. I have not joined the server to domain so far, hence I must
specify a domain user and it can be done by selecting ‘Set’ button. Here my
primary domain is ‘serverlabs.com’, connecting with the user ‘Administrator’.
Now click on ‘Next’ to continue.
7. In the next step you will have a list of domain
controllers which is available in your network, select the appropriate domain
that you want to replicate to backup DC. (I am having only one domain in my
network hence it will list only 1 over here).
8. On the 'Select a Site' page, either enable the checkbox beside 'Use the site that corresponds to the IP address
of this computer', this will install the domain controller in the site that
corresponds to its IP address, or select a site from the list and then click Next. If you only have one domain controller and one
site, then you will have the first option grayed and the site will be selected
by default as shown in the image.
9. Now you can decide the additional features of
your ADC like DNS, Global catalog and RODC. You can select it as you required.
10. By clicking on ‘Next’ it will examine the
configuration change with the DNS installation. Now you can have a dialogue box,
click ‘Yes’ to continue. This is because there is no DNS service installed in
server.
11. Here you can specify the settings that will
define whether the source of your domain controller data. It can be directly
from the DC or from a backup location (It is useful a remote site). I would
like to collect the data directly from the DC and have gone for the first
option as ‘replicate data over the network from an existing domain controller’
click on ‘Next’.
12. Since I have specified to collect data from DC
within my network as next it will list out all the domain controller and
additional domain controllers to choose the source. Here you can leave the
option as ‘Let the wizard choose and appropriate domain controller’ (Which the
source for data replication will be automatically selected as any of your DC),
or ‘Use the specific domain controller’ (You can particularly select the source
DC for replication). Select as you required (In my scenario I have only 1
domain controller in my network, hence it will list out only the primary DC).
13. Now you have completed the steps of defining the
source as next part you need to specify destination where all these settings to
be saved locally, which may include the database, log file and SYSVOL folder
location. We recommend you to save it in default location, which may be helpful
in future troubleshooting.
14. Let us consider a situations that, your ADDC
data has corrupted on a day and you want to restore the correct data from your
backup, you may need to boot your server in ‘directory service restore mode’.
In order to complete this backup operation you must specify the password which
can be specified in this installation. Please specify and make a note of this
as you will require in feature restore mode.
15.Now
you can have the summary of all the configurations that you have specified so
far. Have a look at this and you can save this if you require by pressing
‘Export settings’ button. Click on ‘Next’ to start configuration.
16. Now the settings which will lead you through
different levels as showing below, wait until it completes.
17. Once it is completed you will have installation
summary windows, which will indicate the installation status. Hope everyone
have the success message.
Are you facing any issues while installation.
Feel free to post your comments, we will post you back.
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