Unattended Installation of Active Directory http://www.petri.co.il/unattended_installation_of_active_directory.

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Unattended Installation of Active Directory

by Daniel Petri - January 8, 2009
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How do I automatically upgrade a server to a domain controller during installation?

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

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

DatabasePath Location for the Active Directory database

Used when a new forest of domains is installed and no DNS client is

DNSOnNetwork
configured on the computer

DomainNetBiosName NetBIOS name for the domain

Only valid when demoting an existing domain controller to a member

IsLastDCInDomain
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

Specifies whether a Windows NT 4.0 or 3.51 BDC being upgraded should

ReplicaOrMember become a replica domain controller or be demoted to a regular member

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server

Specifies whether the machine is a new domain controller in a new domain

ReplicaOrNewDomain
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.

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[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

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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.

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