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In this lecture, we’ll be promoting our second domain controller to our domain.
Now, a second domain controller is built for redundancy purposes and for larger networks that you would like to do some type of load balancing or you want to have multiple domain controllers that your users and clients can use.
It can also be useful if you have two different sites, so if you configure Active Directory Sites and Services and you have a location in New York and another in Chicago you may want to promote a Domain Controller in Chicago and have all your users use the closest Domain Controller to their location.
At this point, you should have created your second VM with the Windows Server operating system and you should have configured the computer name and IP address.
Let’s dig into the IP configuration since this is very important.
Open your Ethernet Adapter properties.
NOTE: For the lab use the following network settings for your second domain controller if you are using our IT labs:

We are using an IP address ending in .11 since our primary Domain Controller has an IP ending in .10.
The preferred DNS server is the Primary Domain Controller’s IP Address and that is because it has the DNS Server role installed. That means that when we try to resolve serveracademy.com or ad.serveracademy.com it will resolve to the IP Address of the Primary Domain Controller.
If we do not do this we will not be able to resolve the domain name we are trying to join this server to.
To test we can open a Command Prompt and type nslookup ad.serveracademy.com. What this does is return the IP Address of my primary Domain Controller.

This is possible because we have configured the IP Address of the Primary Domain Controller as the preferred DNS server.
If you have issues joining the secondary server to the domain, check the DNS IP Address of the local server.
Now, let’s promote the server as a Domain Controller. In Server Manager click Manage and select Add Roles and Features.

Click Next on the Before you begin Window.

In the Select installation type window select the radio button Role-based or feature-based installation and click Next.

Select the radio button Select a server from the server pool and click on the server SADC02 and click Next.

Now, for the Server Role select Active Directory Domain Services. This is similar as when we installed our primary Domain Controller. The difference will be when we promote the Domain Controller.

Click on the Add Features button to add all the features for our AD DS server role.
Click Next to continue the wizard.

Click Next a couple of times to get to the Install button on the Confirm installation selection window.

Now we just need the installation to complete to promote this server as a Secondary Domain Controller to our existing domain.

Now that the installation is complete we can click on the hyperlink Promote this server to a domain controller.

Optionally, if you close the window you can click the flag at the upper right and click the same link there.

Now we are presented with three options. We can add this Domain Controller to an existing domain, add the domain to an existing forest, and add a new forest.
When we first created the first domain we chose to add a new forest. Since we already have an existing domain we are going to choose the first option to Add a domain controller to an existing domain.
Then we type the domain we are adding the server to ad.serveracademy.com.
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CURRICULUM
Course Introduction • 1min
0 / 1 lessons complete
Getting Started with Active Directory Domain Services • 52min
0 / 6 lessons complete
Section Overview
Free lesson
Text | 1 min
Installing the ADDS (Active Directory Domain Services) Server Role
Video | 7 min
Promote the Server to a Domain Controller
Video | 7 min
Forests, Trees and Domains
Video | 2 min
Windows Domain Quiz
Quiz | 5 Questions
Lab: Installing the Active Directory Domain Services
Lab | 30 min
Introduction to Active Directory Users & Computers • 1hr 23min
0 / 10 lessons complete
Section Overview
Free lesson
Text | 2 min
Organizational Units (OUs) and Containers
Video | 5 min
Creating, managing and deleting OUs
Video | 5 min
Creating User Accounts with Active Directory
Video | 8 min
Searching for Objects in Active Directory
Video | 6 min
Resetting User Passwords and Unclocking Accounts in Active Directory
Video | 6 min
Understanding Groups and Memberships
Video | 11 min
Disabling and Deleting User Accounts
Video | 6 min
Active Directory Quiz
Quiz | 5 Questions
Lab: Active Directory Users and Computers
Lab | 30 min
Adding a Second Domain Controller • 1hr 30min
0 / 7 lessons complete
Notice of change in Lab Names
Text | 2 min
Section Overview
Free lesson
Video | 2 min
Promoting Our Second Domain Controller
Video | 13 min
Flexible Single Master Operation (FSMO) Roles Overview
Free lesson
Video | 4 min
Transferring FSMO (Flexible Single Master Operations) Roles
Video | 5 min
Adding a Second Domain Controller Quiz
Quiz | 5 Questions
Lab: Adding a Second Domain Controller
Lab | 60 min
Active Directory Backups • 1hr 24min
0 / 5 lessons complete
Creating an Active Directory / System State Backup
Video | 4 min
Restoring an Active Directory Backup
Video | 7 min
Creating and Restoring Active Directory Snapshots
Video | 8 min
Active Directory Backups Quiz
Quiz | 5 Questions
Lab: Active Directory Backups
Lab | 60 min
How to Administrate Active Directory with Windows PowerShell • 1hr 58min
0 / 7 lessons complete
Enabling Script Execution for PowerShell
Video | 6 min
Listing AD Users with PowerShell
Video | 14 min
Creating AD Users with PowerShell
Free lesson
Video | 10 min
Creating User Accounts from a CSV (Comma Separated Value) File
Video | 15 min
Move All Disable Users to Disabled Users OU with PowerShell
Video | 8 min
AD PowerShell Quiz
Quiz | 5 Questions
Lab: ADUC PowerShell Automation
Lab | 60 min
Administrating AD SS (Active Directory Sites and Services) • 1hr 3min
0 / 5 lessons complete
Active Directory Sites and Services - Section Overview
Free lesson
Video | 8 min
Configuring Our ITFROUTE01 Server to act as a Router
Video | 11 min
Configuring Active Directory Sites and Services
Video | 9 min
Administrating AD SS Quiz
Quiz | 5 Questions
Lab: Configure ADDS Between Two Subnets
Lab | 30 min
Active Directory Trusts • 54min
0 / 5 lessons complete
Window Trusts Explained
Free lesson
Video | 6 min
Configuring DNS Settings for Active Directory Trusts
Video | 6 min
Establish a Two-way Active Directory Trust
Video | 7 min
Active Directory Trusts Quiz
Quiz | 5 Questions
Lab: Establish a two-way AD Trust
Lab | 30 min
Modifying the Active Directory Schema • 43min
0 / 3 lessons complete
Add Custom Attributes to Active Directory Users
Video | 8 min
Active Directory Schema Quiz
Quiz | 5 Questions
Lab: Extending the Active Directory Schema
Lab | 30 min
Course Conclusion • 1min
0 / 1 lessons complete