There are interesting new features now made available in Windows Server 2016 such as time based group membership, privileged access management, and others. Most will be covered in future posts. This post will detail how to install active directory on Windows Server 2016.
Before the AD install however it is important to understand what is the minimum requirement to install windows server 2016. Details are as follows:
Processor
• 1.4 GHz 64-bit processor
• Compatible with x64 instruction set
• Supports NX and DEP
• Supports CMPXCHG16b, LAHF/SAHF, and PrefetchW
• Supports Second Level Address Translation (EPT or NPT)
Coreinfo is a tool you can use to confirm which of these capabilities you CPU has.
RAM
• 512 MB (2 GB for Server with Desktop Experience installation option)
• ECC (Error Correcting Code) type or similar technology
Storage controller and disk space requirements
Computers that run Windows Server 2016 must include a storage adapter that is compliant with the PCI Express architecture specification. Persistent storage devices on servers classified as hard disk drives must not be PATA. Windows Server 2016 does not allow ATA/PATA/IDE/EIDE for boot, page, or data drives.
The following are the estimated minimum disk space requirements for the system partition.
Minimum: 32 GB
Network adapter requirements
Minimum:
• An Ethernet adapter capable of at least gigabit throughput
• Compliant with the PCI Express architecture specification.
• Supports Pre-boot Execution Environment (PXE).
A network adapter that supports network debugging (KDNet) is useful, but not a requirement.
So in my demo I am using a virtual server with windows server 2016 datacenter. In order to setup active directory we need to log in as local administrator. First thing to check is IP address configuration.
1) Once Active directory setup on the server, it also going to act as DNS server. There for change the DNS settings in network interface and set the server IP address (or local host IP 127.0.0.1) as the primary DNS server.