Installing Active Directory and Renaming Server 2016

 Back from where we left off, we are about to install Active Directory on our virtual machine and rename the 2016 server. If you haven't set up VirtualBox and the Windows server yet, I advise you to go look up the previous blog post on how to do them which I will link here.

Now we open VirtualBox and run the Windows server 2016 then log in your password. First thing that we have to do is go to our PC's properties and check our computer name and change it to something more readable. 

If you check our computer name, it's sort of gibberish and we can't remember that and that's something that we have to think about for now because we have to map things out.

Next thing you'll do is change the name for your PC. First, click the Change Settings link, then click on the Change button once the window pops out, and then change the name at the Computer Name textbar.

Personally I like to keep the names simple and concise so that we're able to easily remember them. I would just personally name it Server2016 as it's easy and specific to read but it's up to you to name it whatever that suits you. It will ask you to restart your computer after the name change so just restart your computer after that.

Once that's done, log in again and then go to your PC's properties in Windows Explorer to see the changes you've made. Now that's all setup, next thing you wanna do is create Active Directory Domain Services and I'm going to go over that real quick.

Go to the Start menu and click on Server Manager. Next thing you'll do is click on the Manage bar and select Add Roles and Features.

Once that's done, it'll show you the Add Roles and Features Wizard tool. Click Next on the first one, click on Role-based or feature-based for the Installation Type section, just press Next on the Server Selection section, and in the Server Role section, click on the Active Directory Domain Services box as we're creating an Active Directory Domain Service for this project.

It's going to open a new window showing you features that are needed to install so I would just click on Add Features and move on as I wouldn't really worry too much about it. After all that, you just keep hitting Next until you get to the Confirmation section and hit Install. Installing will take a while,

Once that's done, now what you'll do is click on the 'Promote this server to a domain' link.

After that,  it will send you to the Deployment Configuration setup. It'll ask you to select which deployment operation we want and since we're starting from scratch, We would pick the Add A New Forest one. Then you would need to input your own Root Domain Name for your Domain Controller. You can pick whatever name you want but it has to be .com, .local, or .org and so on.

HINT: If it's Static IP, you can name it whatever you want but if it's Dynamic, you have to have a name that isn't already taken.

 I will be naming it stealytek.com for this project.

After that, it will prompt you for a Directory Services Restore Mode(DSRM) password and one thing to note is that you leave the other options outside the password prompt alone as it doesn't really matter for now. You can choose what type of password you want to use.

Once that's done, all you have to do is just keep clicking on Next since most of it isn't something that you'll have to worry about for now especially if you're new. Click Next until you hit the Prerequisites Check section and hit Install.

HINT: Don't worry about the error or warning messages for now.

The installation takes a long while so it's best to do something else while you wait. It'll restart your machine after the installation and it will have to go through extra processes on the side like applying the computer settings etc...

Once you're back, login once again and go to Server Manager and you want to go to the Tools tab and select Active Directory Users and Computers and click on it.

Once it opens, you then would want to pin it on the taskbar as a shortcut so you don't have to open it from the Server Manager.

Now you'll have your Domain Controller, your users, and your computers and all sorts of things if you click on the left arrow of your domain name(mine is stealytek.com). You'll see branches of other specific folders that you'll have. You can play with it if you want to but I will have to call it a day for now then we'll have to get more advanced with how we use Active Directory.