WD Lesson - 4

Preparing for Active Directory Installation

Active Directory Installation Prerequisites

We must determine all of the following installation prerequisites because they are required to complete the Active Directory Installation process.

■ The domain structure

■ The domain name

■ The storage location of the database and log files

■ The location of the shared system volume folder

■ The DNS configuration method

■ The DNS configuration

The Domain Structure

To determine the domain structure, we must find out the following aspects of our company thoroughly.

1. The Physical Environment
2. The Forest Root Domain
3. The Number of Domains
4. The hierarchy of domains

 The Domain Name

The following are guidelines for naming domains:

1. Use only the Internet standard characters(A–Z, a–z, 0–9, and the hyphen (-))
2. Differentiate between internal and external namespaces. Base the internal
3. DNS name on the Internet DNS name.
4. Never use the same domain name twice.
5. Use only registered domain names.
6. Use short, distinct, meaningful names.
7. Use names that have been reviewed internationally.
8. Use names that will remain static.

Storage Location of the Database and Log Files

The default location for the database and database log files is %Systemroot%\Ntds, where %Systemroot% is the path and folder name where the Microsoft Windows Server 2003 system files are located, typically, C:\Windows.

            For best performance and fault tolerance, it’s recommended that you place the database and the log file on separate hard disks that are NT file system (NTFS)drives, although NTFS is not required.

Location of the Shared System Volume Folder

• Installing Active Directory creates the shared system volume, a folder structure that exists on all Windows Server 2003 domain controllers.
• The default location for the shared system volume is %Systemroot%\Sysvol. However, you can specify a different location during Active Directory installation. The shared system volume must be located on a partition or volume formatted with NTFS.

Determining the DNS Configuration Method

• We can configure the DNS server manually or we can allow it to be configured automatically during Active Directory installation.
• Manual configuration of DNS to support Active Directory is required if we are using a non–Windows Server 2003 DNS server or if we want to set up a configuration other than the default configuration

Q.There are a number of prerequisites you must consider before you begin installing Active Directory. Describe all these prerequisites.