Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Windows Server 8 - Active Directory DCPROMO error

UPDATE:  THIS HAS BEEN FIXED WITH THE RELEASE OF WINDOWS SERVER 8 BETA

In my previous post I went over installing my first Windows Server 8 box.

Since one of my skill sets is Active Directory my next step was to promote this box to become a domain controller.

As noted in the previous post this is an early pre-Beta release so there are going to be features that are not fully developed.

During dcpromo you can select your domain and forest functional levels.



Initially I was ready to go straight to Windows Server 8 levels and why not, it is a lab and we are all learning at this point.


Windows Server 8 Functional Levels selected

Before dcpromo completes a prerequisite check is conducted. As you can see I receive an error



The error is

The specified value '5' is not valid for the argument 'Domain level'

I then went back and changed the functional levels to 2008 R2

Once that is done the promotion did complete and I now have my first Windows Server 8 Domain Controller.



This is a known bug so no reason to report it up the Microsoft chain. Again...this is an early pre-Beta release.

Enjoy and have fun with your new Windows Server 8 Domain Controller :)
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8 comments:

  1. AnonymousSeptember 15, 2011 at 11:52 AM

    That's really cool improvement in Server 8!
    Now, restoring deleted objects would be easier and much faster than before.

    Very good article about AD Recycle Bin in the new server edition and valuable links for previous edition, Mike.

    ReplyDelete
  2. mklineSeptember 15, 2011 at 12:03 PM

    Thanks a lot Krzysztof, I think people are going to be pleased with Windows Server 8 for sure.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Pradeep RawatSeptember 16, 2011 at 4:37 AM

    Nice article Mike....AD Recycle Bin in Win 8 Server is really amazing & top of that the commands that ADAC runs under the hood in 2008R2 are now exposed in ADAC as "Windows PowerShell History"....but the one thing that annoyed me was the DNS MMC Snap-in, I banged my head for 1 hr. to know why its not visible after dcpromo, later I noticed that we need to install "IP Address Management (IPAM) Server" feature to get the DNS MMC Snap-in....

    ReplyDelete
  4. Rafael BernardesSeptember 16, 2011 at 6:15 AM

    When i type "dcpromo" i get the message: "The Active Directory Domain Services Installation Wizard is relocated to Server Manager..."

    How did you completed the dc promotion?

    ReplyDelete
  5. mklineSeptember 16, 2011 at 7:58 AM

    @Rafael, yes I received that too when I first tried. I was going to add that here in the blog but didn't since it is a pre-beta release.

    In server manager go and add the Active Directory Domain Services role. You will be prompted to also install .NET at that point. Let me know if you run into any issues.

    Thanks

    Mike

    ReplyDelete
  6. Rafael BernardesSeptember 16, 2011 at 8:45 AM

    Yes,

    I did it. But now my DC is "Not activated". I didnt found where is to ACTIVE this.

    ReplyDelete
  7. mklineSeptember 16, 2011 at 8:50 AM

    You should not need to activate it, there is no license needed either. This is just the pre-beta release. Rick has some good screenshots fro the dcpromo process here:


    http://www.shariqsheikh.com/blog/index.php/201109/my-first-look-at-windows-server-8-developer-preview-version-and-promoting-a-dc-therein/

    ReplyDelete
  8. Rafael BernardesSeptember 16, 2011 at 9:11 AM

    And I found the problem.

    If you do not follow the installation and promote AD soon after. The screen does not appear any more and AD appears as: "Not Enabled"

    ReplyDelete