Install Active Directory (AD) In Windows Server 2016

Windows Server 2016 is a server operating system developed by Microsoft as part of the Windows NT family of operating systems, developed concurrently with Windows 10.

The first early preview version (Technical Preview) became available on October 1, 2014 together with the first technical preview of System Center.

Unlike previous Windows Server versions, which were released simultaneously with the client operating system, Windows Server 2016 was released on September 26, 2016 at Microsoft’s Ignite conference and became generally available on October 12, 2016.

On this tutorial we are going to learn how to install “Active Directory” of Win2k16 by following the below steps

Step 1: Login to your Server and open Server Manager from Start Menu:

Step 2: once you open the server manager you will click on “Add Roles & Features” like below

once you click on “Add Roles and features” it will come with a wizard like the picture below

just click next and you can simply check “Skip this page by default” for now showing it again when you install any roles

Step 3: Select “Role Based or feature-based installation” (ALREADY SELECTED BY DEFAULT)

hit next and one the next screen of the wizard it will shows you the server on the server pool, just select your local server like the below picture

Step 4: After you click “Next” the whole roles of windows server will be listed just check “Active Directory Domain Services”, once you check it, the wizard will pop up like below

Hit “Add Features” and then click Next

Step 5: you have to make sure once you finished “Step 4”, that .NET 4.6 Features is checked like the following screen

 Step 6: The next screen will show you a quick brief about “Active Directory Domain Services” and the service is about to install

**IF THIS YOUR FIRST DOMAIN CONTROLLER THE WIZARD WILL PROMPTED YOU TO INSTALL THE DNS SERVICE WHICH IS MANDATORY ON YOUR DOMAIN CONTROLLER**

Step 7: Click on Next and then Click “INSTALL”, and it will start the installation like below

**SETTING UP THE DOMAIN CONTROLLER**

we are now on the second phase of our tutorial and it’s about how to set up the “Domain Controller”, and sure our important role “Active Directory”.

Step 8: once the installation process is complete, you need to click on “Promote this serve to a domain controller”

When the deployment configuration wizard comes, Select “Add New Forest”, and write your Domain name and click Next

Step 9: click on Next, on the next screen choose your Forest functional level and enter the Directory Service Restore Mode password: If this is your first domain controller choose “Windows Server 2016” as the Forest and Domain functional level. make sure that DNS option is checked, and because this is our first server, the Global Catalog is already checked. click on Next

because it’s a new forest domain that is using “Active Directory Integrated DNS”, there is no worries of the warning message just be brave and click Next

Step 10: it will display the paths for the the AD database, normally the defaults are OK, and click Next

display the review options like below

Step 11: once you click on Next, the wizard will do prerequisites check, if the check is successfully click “INSTALL

once you click “Install” and the installation begin, the server will reboot automatically when the installation done

Step 12: after your server restart, you will be able to login to your new created domain

Step 13: after you’re logged using your domain credentials, go to Administrative tools and open Active Directory Users and Computers to make sure your AD is working:

DNS

Conclusion

As we had seen, installing Active Directory in Windows server 2016 isn’t much different than Installing AD in previous Windows server releases, I hope you found this guide useful, If you have any question please use the comments section below.

Miguel

I started this tech blog back in 2011 as a place to write down processes I took to fix my client systems and network. Now I write some tips and tricks to help others with the tech issues that one might encounter.

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