Microsoft has done away with dcpromo when it comes to Windows Server 2012.

We’ve been so accustomed to using dcpromo that I actually struggled a bit to promote a 2012 server to a DC in one of my labs. This short video shows how to install the Active Directory Directory Services role on the server and that there is a small step you need to complete after the installation as just installing the role does not promote your server to DC status.

This small step cost me 5 minute of head scratching and going back to my training manual. Easy to forget and find but here’s a quick how to.

I’m not an AD expert but it’s good to practice this once in a while as you might get tasked to “quickly” set-up an environment for a client and practice makes perfect 🙂