Unattended Installation of Active Directory

Friday, February 27, 2009

Unattended Installation of Active Directory
 

You can automatically run DCPROMO during an unattended installation. Enter the command

dcpromo /answer:%path_to_answer_file% 

You'll see a dialog box that says DCPROMO is running in unattended mode. Then, the machine will reboot.

You can also add DCPROMO to the unattended file that's used to install your server.

The Microsoft Windows 2000 Resource Kit details the DCInstall section's parameters in the file Unattend.doc:

Value Explanation

AdministratorPassword

The new password for the domain Administrator account

AutoConfigDNS

Specifies whether the wizard should configure DNS

ChildName

Name of the child part of the domain

CreateOrJoin

Specifies whether the domain will join an existing forest or create a new one

DatabasePath

Location for the Active Directory database

DNSOnNetwork

Used when a new forest of domains is installed and no DNS client is configured on the computer

DomainNetBiosName

NetBIOS name for the domain

IsLastDCInDomain

Only valid when demoting an existing domain controller to a member server

LogPath

Path for the Directory Service (DS) logs

NewDomainDNSName

Name of the new tree or when a new forest is created

ParentDomainDNSName

Specifies the name of the parent domain

Password

Password for the username used to promote the server

RebootOnSuccess

Specifies whether an automatic reboot should be performed

ReplicaDomainDNSName

Name of the domain to be replicated from

ReplicaOrMember

Specifies whether a Windows NT 4.0 or 3.51 BDC being upgraded should become a replica domain controller or be demoted to a regular member server

ReplicaOrNewDomain

Specifies whether the machine is a new domain controller in a new domain or a replica of an existing domain

SiteName

Name of the site (Default-First-Site by default)

SysVolPath

Path of SYSVOL

TreeOrChild

Specifies whether entry is a new tree or child of existing domain

UserDomain

Domain for the user being used in promotion

UserName

Name of the user performing the upgrade

Because the DCPROMO process occurs after setup, the created answer file must be called $winnt$.inf and copied to the \system32 folder. You need to add the following text to the GUIRunOnce section of the unattended Setup answer file:

[GUIRunOnce] "DCpromo /answer:%systemroot%\system32\$winnt$.inf" 

After the DCPROMO process completes, DCPROMO removes password information from the $winnt$.inf file. To make this process easier because the RunOnce command doesn't execute until someone logs on to the computer, you can add the following text to the unattended answer file.

[GUIUnattended] Autologon = yes ; automatically logs on the administrator account AutoLogoncount = n ; number of times to perform auto-admin logon

Don't use items such as %systemroot% or %windir%, because the unattended installation process doesn't understand them.

You can just create a DCInstall section directly in your unattend.txt file to avoid having multiple unattended setup files. Enter text such as the following:

[DCInstall] AdministratorPassword = password CreateOrJoin = Create DomainNetBiosName = dpetri NewDomainDNSName = dpetri.net RebootOnSuccess = Yes ReplicaOrNewDomain = Domain SiteName = "Lab" TreeOrChild = Tree

My example script would create a new forest with the domain dpetri.net at the top and the new domain controller in the site Lab. The SYSVOL, logs, and Active Directory (AD) files would be in the default locations. The new domain Administrator account password would be password.

0 comments:

Post a Comment

 
 
 

Popular Posts