ADDS and DNS Setup

Setting Up ADDS:

To install Active Directory Domain Services on a windows server you need to open server manager. Then go to manage, add roles and features, then select role-based installation. On the next screen select Active Directory Domain Services and click continue through the wizard. Once the role is installed you will get a post-deployment configuration notification in the server manager. Click the notification and promote the server to a domain controller. A wizard will come up and you will provide the appropriate forest/domain information. Be sure to note down your DSRM password as it will be used to recover the directory in case of an error. You may see an error about DNS if you don't have existing DNS servers or are using a .local or some other non-TLD. Continue and restart the server to finish the configuration.

*Look into DSRM

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Setting Up DNS:

Once the server restarts you can begin configuring DNS. Once a device gets added to the domain it should automatically create an A record for the system. You should at least see the domain controller as an A record in the DNS server. It would be found under the Forward lookup zone of your domain name. You will also want to configure a reverse lookup zone. To do this go to reverse lookup zones and right-click select new zone. From there you can use the defaults and then specify the network ID. The network for this lab is 10.0.5.0/24 so you would just put “10.0.5” as the network ID. To quickly create pointer records (PTR) you can find the A record and un-click the update pointer record then hit apply. Then recheck the box and hit apply. That will create a pointer simply and effectively.

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Connecting to the Domain:

To connect a windows computer to an active directory domain you must first ensure that the computer's DNS servers point to the domain. You can do ipconfig /all to check the DNS servers or use nslookup DOMAINNAME to check. If you need to change the DNS servers you can go to the control panel, network and sharing adapter options, select the adapter, ipv4, and select manual DNS servers and specify your DNS server. Next, navigate to the system part of the control panel. Control panel, system and security, system or windows pause break. Then select change settings next to the computer name and domain. From there you select domain and put the domain name in. If you did everything right it should prompt for credentials. You will need domain credentials to connect to the domain. Once you authenticate restart the system and it will be on the domain.