This article describes the installation and configuration of Active Directory which is not necessarily required for deploying SharePoint Server 2010 and is a part of a series describing the complete installation of SharePoint Server 2010 on Windows Server 2008 R2 and SQL Server 2008 R2. Please have a look at

• Installing SharePoint Server 2010 on Windows Server 2008 R2 and SQL Server 2008 R2 - Part 1: Overview

There you can find an overview of the complete series and of course the farm topology and the deployment scenario.

Active Directory installation

You only need to read this article if you are going to deploy SharePoint 2010 in an isolated Hyper-V environment. Otherwise your organization should have an existing Active Directory.

• Don’t use the server manager to install the Active Directory role because you are prompted to use dcpromo.exe and you are left with an uncompleted installation.

• Open the ”Run” dialog box and type dcpromo.

• Click next checking ”Use advanced mode installation”.
• Click next and after that check ”Create a new domain in a new forest”.

• Type a new full qualified domain name like “aglaser.net”.
• Type a NetBIOS name like “AGLASER”

• Select a forest functional level.
• Select a domain functional level.
  
  Note: Please be aware that your choice affects other things. Here is a comment from Wes Preston which you should consider if you are installing a all-in-one demo machine:
  
  - If selecting AD-2003 mode, the SPAdmin account needs to be added to the Domain Admins group in AD
  - If selecting AD-2008 R2 mode, the SPAdmin account can be added to the Local Admins group
  
  Please test it by yourself.

• Make sure “DNS server” is checked.
• After clicking next you may get a warning that one of your network adapters has a dynamically assigned IP address. Click “Yes” if you are sure you have one network adapter with a static IP address.

• Click “Yes” because you don't have to care about a DNS server in a parent zone since this is a testing environment.
• Click next again.

• Type in a “Directory Services Restore Mode Administrator Password”.
• Click next to start the installation wizard.

• After installing the AD and the DNS server you have to restart your computer.

Active Directory configuration

So far I didn’t need to do any configuration since the out-of-the-box installation was enough. If you see the following screens you are fine.

Next steps

Please take a look at Part 5: Administrative and service accounts.