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Adding a Windows 2008 Server Core box as a Domain Controller into an SBS2003 domain

We've installed a Server Core box into our network here so we can run Hyper-V as well as VMware ESX. We have also set it up as a DC and DNS server so that of our SBS box is offline things might continue to work a bit better than they have up until now :-)

Instructions on how to do this are a bit sparse and my Technician got this information from the SBSC Newsgroups:

From your description, I know that you want to add Windows Server 2008 Server Core to SBS domain. If that's not correct, please don't hesitate to let me know.

 

Unfortunately there is no article talking about how to add Windows 2008 Core to SBS domain. You can add Windows 2008 Server Core to SBS domain with the steps below on the SBS server:

 

1. Open a Command Prompt window. To do this, Click Start, click Run, type cmd, and then click OK.

2. Perform the following commands in the sequence noted:

 

Note 

In these instructions, "drive" represents the letter of your DVD drive on SBS server with Windows 2008 DVD inserted.

 

2. At the command prompt, type drive:\sources\adprep\adprep.exe /forestprep

3. At the ADPREP warning, type c and then press ENTER.

4. At the command prompt, type drive:\sources\adprep\adprep.exe /domainprep

 

If you are installing the additional server as a read-only domain controller, at the command prompt, type drive:\sources\adprep\adprep.exe /rodcprep (on the SBS server)

 

5. On how to join the Windows Server Core to SBS 2003, please refer to "To join a domain" of the article below:

 

Server Core Installation Option of Windows Server 2008 Step-By-Step Guide

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc753802.aspx

 

Related info:

 

Adding a Server Running Windows Server 2008 to a Windows Small Business

Server 2003 Network

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc708131.aspx

I hope that helps someone else doing this.

As an aside if you are an SBSC and are not using the SBSC Newsgroups for support you are doing yourself and your clients a great disservice.

Posted Wed, Nov 5 2008 3:19 PM by Ian Watkins
Filed under:

Comments

Tim Long wrote re: Adding a Windows 2008 Server Core box as a Domain Controller into an SBS2003 domain
on Mon, Jan 5 2009 12:05 PM

I have been advised by Microsoft not to join the Hyper-V host to the domain when it is running SBS in a guest partition. The reason is that it creates circular dependencies at boot-up time. However, they didn;t tell me what the dependencies were and I'm not sure whether making the Hyper-V host a DC would work around that. Come to think of it, I think running Hyper-V on a DC is probably not recommended either. Your scenario is a compelling one though, I would like to understand the best practices better.

Michael Knowles wrote re: Adding a Windows 2008 Server Core box as a Domain Controller into an SBS2003 domain
on Fri, Mar 13 2009 4:51 PM

That's an easy one to answer (@Tim Long).

Basically, if you have a virtualisation host that's a member of a domain that's virtualised on that host, you're going to find it pretty difficult to log into the host if the virtual machine fails to start or has networking issues of any kind.

Hope that helps.

Mike.

Jonn wrote re: Adding a Windows 2008 Server Core box as a Domain Controller into an SBS2003 domain
on Sat, Mar 14 2009 5:13 PM

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Lexus wrote re: Adding a Windows 2008 Server Core box as a Domain Controller into an SBS2003 domain
on Mon, Apr 13 2009 5:13 PM

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Alexis wrote re: Adding a Windows 2008 Server Core box as a Domain Controller into an SBS2003 domain
on Tue, Apr 14 2009 4:03 PM

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Sancho wrote re: Adding a Windows 2008 Server Core box as a Domain Controller into an SBS2003 domain
on Tue, Apr 14 2009 6:49 PM

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Locker wrote re: Adding a Windows 2008 Server Core box as a Domain Controller into an SBS2003 domain
on Tue, Apr 14 2009 9:42 PM

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Alex wrote re: Adding a Windows 2008 Server Core box as a Domain Controller into an SBS2003 domain
on Fri, May 15 2009 7:48 PM

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Alexis wrote re: Adding a Windows 2008 Server Core box as a Domain Controller into an SBS2003 domain
on Sun, May 17 2009 7:24 PM

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Hot wrote re: Adding a Windows 2008 Server Core box as a Domain Controller into an SBS2003 domain
on Mon, May 18 2009 12:08 AM

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Alexis wrote re: Adding a Windows 2008 Server Core box as a Domain Controller into an SBS2003 domain
on Mon, May 18 2009 2:39 PM

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Panzer wrote re: Adding a Windows 2008 Server Core box as a Domain Controller into an SBS2003 domain
on Mon, May 18 2009 9:28 PM

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Locker wrote re: Adding a Windows 2008 Server Core box as a Domain Controller into an SBS2003 domain
on Tue, May 19 2009 6:58 AM

Good site, admin.

Flash wrote re: Adding a Windows 2008 Server Core box as a Domain Controller into an SBS2003 domain
on Tue, May 19 2009 11:50 AM

Good site, admin.

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