Configuring your Windows Server 2003 as a DHCP server and a Domain Controller (DC)

If you have a clean Windows 2003 Server or have followed the installation guides Installing Windows Server 2003 (Part 1 – booting from CD) and Installing Windows Server 2003 (Part 2 – GUI install and initial settings) you are now at a point where you would like to add a role to your server.

This post will cover the configuration of your Windows 2003 Server as a DHCP server and Domain Controller with DNS and Active Directory.

Before even beginning to configure your server remember that the DHCP server role will distribute IP addresses on your network so make sure that your network is ready for this role and correct the IP information below according to your own settings.

What I have done is to set up a router on my network with the following settings:

• IP address: 10.0.0.1
• Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0
• DHCP disabled (obviously)

DHCP Server configuration

Now I can set up my server as a DHCP server to distribute IP information on the created subnet. The IPs given below will match this setup. Change your own IPs to match yours.

1. In the Manage Your Server page, click Add or remove role (if the Manage Your Server page is not already open go to Start and Manage Your Server, or even Start, Administrative Tools and Manage Your Server)
2. When the Configure Your Server wizard appears, click Next
3. Choose Custom configuration and Next
4. Under Server Role, click DHCP server and Next
5. Click Next at Summary of Selections
6. Click Next at the New Scope Wizard
7. Type a Name and if you wish a Description and click Next
8. Enter a Start IP address (here I enter 10.0.0.10) and an End IP address (here I enter 10.0.0.254). Then click Next
9. Do not define any Exclusions for now. Just click Next
10. Accept or change the defauls Lease Duration and click Next
11. Click Next to set the DHCP Options
12. Add an IP address for your Router (Default Gateway) and click Next (here I add 10.0.0.1)
13. On the Domain Name and DNS Server screen type a Parent Domain (the name of the domain you wish to create) and an IP address (the IP address you wish to use for your server. In my case 10.0.0.2). Now click Add and Next
14. Click Next  at WINS Servers
15. Click Next to Activate Scope
16. Click Finish
17. Click Finish again
18. Now go to the following section to set up your server as a Domain Controller

Domain Controller (DC) configuration

1. Going directly from configuring your server as a DHCP server you should still be in the Manage Your Server page. Click Add or remove role here (if the Manage Your Server page is not already open go to Start and Manage Your Server, or even Start, Administrative Tools and Manage Your Server)
2. When the Configure Your Server wizard appears, click Next
3. Choose Domain Controller (Active Directory)
4. Click Next at Summary of Selections
5. Click Next at the Active Directory Installation Wizard
6. Click Next at the Operating System Compatibility
7. Select Domain Controller for a new domain (default) and click Next
8. Choose No, install new DNS and click Next
9. Type a Full DNS name (equal to the one your entered for Parent Domain in item 13 when setting up your server as a DHCP server)
10. Click Next to accept the default Domain NetBIOS name
11. On the Database and Log Folders screen, if you followed the post Installing Windows Server 2003 (Part 2 – GUI install and initial settings) you will have set up an extra partition or disk on your server. Point the Active Directory Log Folder to the partition/disk you created then, and use the following path. L:\Windows\NTDS. If you did not follow the post or did not set up an extra partition or disk just accept the default settings. Click Next
12. Accept the default setting for the Shared System Volume and click Next
13. Click Install and configure the DNS server on this computer on the DNS Registration Diagnostics screen. Then click Next
14. Select Permissions compatible only with Windows 2000 or Windows 2003 (default). Then click Next
15. Type a Restore Mode Password and confirm it. Then click Next
16. Click Next at the Summary of the installation options
17. Click OK when you are warned of having a dynamically assigned IP address for a DNS server (we will change that now)
18. In Local Area Connection Properties under the This connection uses the following items section click Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) and then click Properties
19. Select Use the following IP address and type the IP address you chose for your server (see item 13 from setting up your server as a DHCP server. In my case 10.0.0.2). Now set the Default gateway to the IP address of your router (in my case 10.0.0.1) and the Preferred DNS server to 127.0.0.1. Then click OK and Close
20. Click Finish
21. Click Restart Now
22. When your server has rebooted. Log in to the server by pressing Ctrl+Alt+Del and use the administrator account that you created when installing the server in the first place
23. When logged in, click Start
24. Select Administrative Tools
25. Click DHCP
26. Your servername.domain_name.[IP_address] is shown with a small server-icon with a red arrow next to it. Click your servername.domain_name.[IP_address]
27. Right-click your [servername].[domain_name]
28. Click Authorize
29. Refresh by clicking F5 or by using the menu Action and Refresh. The small server icon will now be shown with a small green arrow and the DHCP server has now been authorized
30. Close the DHCP management console

Your Windows 2003 server is now configured as a DHCP server and a DC with DNS and Active Directory. A necessary prerequisite server role before setting up an OCS environment.

*After the above configuration your server should now be online and you could access it remotely from now on, if that is more convenient for you, by enabling remote desktop on the server. Furthermore this might also be the time to Activate Windows and turn on Automatic Updates.

Installing Windows Server 2003 (Part 2 – GUI install and initial settings)

At this point you might be installing the operating system to later configure the server as a domain controller or you might be installing it to be used for your first OCS 2007 Server. It does not matter at this point, as this part still only covers the basic Windows Server 2003 installation. Later posts will cover the configuration of Windows Server 2003 as a DHCP server, as a domain controller and the installation of OCS 2007. This is the second post covering one of the prerequisites of an OCS 2007 deployment. The second/GUI-part of the installation of a Windows Server 2003.

The computer on which you planned to install Windows Server 2003 has now been booted from a Windows Server 2003 CD and you have gone through the steps descriped in Installing Windows Server 2003 (Part 1 – booting from CD). After rebooting automatically, the computer has continued installing and the first dialog box has now appeared:

GUI install:

1. The first box to appear is the Regional and Language Options dialog box. As I would like to change the default from English (United States) I make a few changes here. Obviously if you are happy with the default settings just click Next here.
   • Changing the default setting I first click the Standards and formats ”Customize…”-button, which opens a new box
   • I start at the tab Regional Options. Here I change the Standards and formats
   • I then change the Location below and click Apply
   • Moving on to the Languages tab, click Details… under Text services and input languages. In the new box that pops up change the Default input language, make sure that it is then marked under Installed services and click Apply and OK.
   • Next I click the Advanced tab, change the Language for non-Unicode programs and check Apply all settings to the currect user account and to the default user profile.
   • I then click Apply and OK, which gets me back to the Regional and Language options dialog box with the “Customize…”-, and the “details…”-buttons.
   • Because we alreade changed the details… in a previous step the language setting shown next to the “Details…”-button should already be OK (if not, make the necessary changes) and we can therefore just move on now by clicking Next.
2. In the Personalize your Software dialog box type a name and an organization relevant for this installation. Then click Next.
3. You will then be asked for the Product Key. (It can be found on the back of your Windows Server 2003 CD case, online, or somewhere else, depending on where and how you bought your software).  Type the Product Key and click Next.
4. In the Licensing Modes dialog box, select the appropriate licensing mode for your organization, and then click Next.
5. In the Computer Name and Administrator Password dialog box, type the 
   • Computer name (MS recommends a server naming convention such as Location-Organization-Role-Number e.g. HQ-CON-DC-01 or HQ-CON-OCS-01. It is a good idea, but of course you can choose whatever convention you want. For my small test setup the most important thing is the Role, to be aware of it when different roles are added and the number, if I want to add more servers of the same role)
   • and an administrator password (can be left blank for testing, but should of course be complex for production)
   • Confirm the administrative password and click Next.
6. In the Date and Time Settings dialog box I would like to change the default, so I correct it and click Next. Obviously if you are happy with the default settings just click Next here.
7. In the Networking Settings dialog box, choose Typical Settings and click Next. (Do not worry, this will be changed in later configuration)
8. In the Workgroups or Computer Domain dialog box choose the default No, this computer is not on a network and leave the default workgroup. Click Next. (As before: Do not worry, this will be changed in later configuration)
9. You should not have to do anything else for the rest of the installation. When the install is complete the computer will restart and load the server to the login box.

Initial settings:

The computer on which you have installed Windows Server 2003 has now been restarted and is ready for you to log in. No changes have been made to the server yet.

1. Log in to the server by pressing Ctrl+Alt+Del and use the administrator account that you created during the set up process.
2. If this is the first time you ever log into the server the first thing you will see is the Windows Server Post-setup Security updates and the Activate windows popup in the lower right corner of the screen. For now close the Windows Server Post-setup Security updates by clicking Finish and Yes to close the page. Ignore or close the Activate Windows popup by clicking the X.
3. We will now prepare the secondary partition or secondary disk drive you created in Part 1 of this series of posts. First click the Start button
4. Point to Administrative Tools
5. Click Computer Management
6. Click Disk Management
7. Right-click Unallocated
8. Click New Partition and click Next
9. Select Primary Partition (default) and click Next
10. Leave Partition size in MB set to default and click Next
11. Select a drive letter that you can remember for Assign the following drive letter and click Next
12. Click Perform a quick format under Format this partition with the following settings and click Next
13. Click Finish and wait for the format to finish
14. Close the Computer Management console

You now have a fresh installation of a Windows Server 2003 ready for further configuration into different roles in your network. At this point, to ease additional Windows Server 2003 installations, I would create an image of the server if installed on an actual computer or make a copy of the files if installed as a Virtual PC. A new Windows Server 2003 installation could then be ready within a very short time when adding more roles to the network. I expect future posts to cover this.

This finishes the series of posts about installing Windows Server 2003. The next post will cover the configuration of the first Windows Server 2003 server role in the network as a DHCP server and a domain controller.

Installing Windows Server 2003 (Part 1 – booting from CD)

Before deploying OCS 2007 you need a basic network infrastructure. This series of posts will take you through the installation and initial configuration of Windows Server 2003, which is the operating system used both for the Domain Controller (DC) role and the OCS servers needed.

Later posts will cover the configuration of Windows Server 2003 as a DHCP server, as a domain controller and the installation of OCS 2007. This is the first post covering one of the prerequisites of an OCS 2007 deployment. The installation of a Windows Server 2003.

For this installation I use an old computer, but the installation (and the OCS deployment) could easily be performed using Microsoft Virtual PC for both servers and workstations.

1. I start out by inserting a Windows Server 2003 CD in the CD-ROM drive and restarting the computer. At this point I expected the computer to prompt me for booting from the CD, but nothing happened, despite the boot sequence being correctly set up with CD-ROM before harddisk. It turns out that my legal, home-burned image of Windows Server 2003 had not been finalized on the CD and therefore could not be recognized by the CD-ROM drive. After burning a new CD, this time with NERO instead of Windows default burning, the CD is recognized perfectly by the computer when booting.
2. When prompted, I press any key to boot from the CD. The Windows Server 2003 installation begins.
3. On the Welcome to Setup screen I press Enter
4. On the license agreement screen I press F8. As I did have a previous version of Windows Server 2003 installed I was asked if I wanted to repair this installation. I wanted a new installation to overwrite the previous one, so I pressed Esc to continue and not repair the drive.
5. I delete all disk partitions created for earlier installations by selecting each partition and pressing D.
6. I now only have a disk space labeled as Unpartitioned space (I only have one physical disk installed). I then press C to create a partition in the unpartitioned space.
7. Following the recommendations from Microsoft I delete the total space default value and type the value of half my total disk space at the Create partition of size (in MB) prompt. I then press Enter.
8. I see that my New (Raw) partition has been created and I press Enter.
9. I select Format the partition using the NTFS file system (Quick), and press Enter.
10. I leave the computer to format, copy relevant files and restart before the installation continues (now with the nicer graphics and marketing slogans about Windows Server 2003 )

In the next post I will describe the install as it should be continued in GUI-mode after the reboot.