Deploy vSphere Infrastructure [02]: Promo a Win 2k3 server to DC

Author: Matt Song

Date: 11/21/2010

This article just show you how to promo a win 2k3 server to a domain controller. To be honest, this operation is pretty easy and you can find those kinds of documents almost everywhere, so let's just make it simple.

(You can also refer to http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc759011(WS.10).aspx)

Run 'dcpromo' to lunch AD install wizard.





Choose 'Domain controller for a new domain' since we have no DC exist.





Choose 'Domain in a new forest' since we have no domain exist.





Give a Domain name for your domain, in my case I named it as 'Contoso.com'





If you have not installed DNS service on your sever previously, and there is no DNS server this machine could find, you will hit by this window. choose the second one to install DNS service.





This is option is not so important since all the windows platform machine is running win 2k3 std. Just choose the second one.





Input a password for Restore mode.





Confirm all the setting, and click Next





Wait for a moment....





BTW: If you meet this windows, it means you have a dynamic IP address configured, change it to static one, in my case, as the topology shows (refer to http://mattsong.blog.51cto.com/2355482/428547), I set it to 192.168.1.190.





Now the installation has finished, click restart now to restart the machine.





After promotion, we have to create a account for vCenter.

Open Active Directory Users and Computers (Control Panel -> Administrative Tools), Right click 'Users' folder, choose New -> user. Input a name like 'VCAdmin' for it.





Set a Password for VCAdmin.





Add VCAdmin to Administrators Group





All Done : )