en-US/about_PSCreateADForest.help.txt
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about_pscreateadforest SHORT DESCRIPTION Rapidly create new Active Directory Forests and Domain Controllers. LONG DESCRIPTION PSCreateADForest is a PowerShell module designed to quickly create new Active Directory forests and domain controllers. It's ideal for disaster recovery, setting up AD from scratch, or creating test and development environments efficiently, allowing for rapid deployment and teardown without starting from scratch. EXAMPLES EXAMPLE 1 This example shows how to set up a NEW Active Directory Forest and a new Domain Controller. Before starting this process, the new Domain Controller must not be actively joined to an existing Active Directory domain. Invoke-DomainControllerNetworkSettings -Hostname "DC1" -IPv4Address "192.168.1.10" -IPv4Prefix 24 -IPv4Gateway "192.168.1.1" -IPv4DNS "8.8.8.8" Restart-Computer -Force In the first step, we are setting the new hostname of this server instance. However, if the server is already set to the desired hostname, supply the current hostname of the device. The IPv4Address MUST be an IP address that is currently NOT in use. This will be the NEW IP address of the server going forward. After the first reboot, creating the new Domain Controller and setting up the forest is now possible. Install-NewAdForestAndPromote -DomainName "example.com" -NetBiosName "EXAMPLE" -Mode "Win2012" Restart-Computer -Force Reboot after this action has completed and the Domain Controller will now be configured and ready to use. EXAMPLE 2 This example demonstrates how to add additional domain controllers to the newly created Active Directory forest that was created in Example 1. Before starting, the new server must be added to the domain. Firstly, we will apply network settings for the domain controller. This time we will set the DNS Server to IP of the first domain controller we created. Invoke-DomainControllerNetworkSettings -Hostname "DC2" -IPv4Address "192.168.1.11" -IPv4Prefix 24 -IPv4Gateway "192.168.1.1" -IPv4DNS "192.168.1.10" Restart-Computer -Force Now that the network settings have been set on this machine, the machine can now be added to the domain. Unfortunately, this is Windows and a reboot is required after this action. Add-Computer -DomainName example.com -Credential example.com\Administrator Restart-Computer -Force Once this reboot is complete, add the new domain controller and reboot. Add-NewDomainController Restart-Computer -Force NOTE - Author: Michael Free (c) 2024 - Website: https://github.com/Michael-Free - Social: https://mastodon.social/@MichaelFree TROUBLESHOOTING NOTE {{ Troubleshooting Placeholder - Warns users of bugs}} {{ Explains behavior that is likely to change with fixes }} SEE ALSO Active Directory Related: - https://rdr-it.com/en/create-an-active-directory-environment-in-powershell/ - https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/industry/blog/technetuk/2016/06/08/setting-up-active-directory-via-powershell/ - https://www.reddit.com/r/activedirectory/comments/oz8wy7/powershell_script_for_setting_up_a_domain/ - https://itpro.outsidesys.com/2015/12/13/lab-build-a-domain-controller-with-powershell/ - https://www.readandexecute.com/how-to/server-2016/active-directory/installing-active-directory-with-powershell-windows-server-2016/ - https://medium.com/@serkanturan_79203/installing-active-directory-with-powershell-ea48de56088c - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/identity/ad-ds/deploy/creating-a-new-active-directory-forest Networking Related: - https://www.techtarget.com/searchnetworking/tip/IP-addressing-and-subnetting-Calculate-a-subnet-mask-using-the-hosts-formula - https://stackoverflow.com/questions/38060921/getting-specific-network-information-in-powershell - https://gist.github.com/purplemonkeymad/ea2d9fa5832797fa5dc2159db5016822 - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.net.ipaddress?view=net-9.0 - https://4sysops.com/archives/get-and-set-ip-address-with-powershell/ - https://docs.netgate.com/pfsense/en/latest/network/cidr.html - https://stackoverflow.com/questions/60578612/powershell-calculating-network-id-using-ip-address-and-subnet-mask - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/nettcpip/set-netipv6protocol?view=windowsserver2025-ps - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/networktransition/set-net6to4configuration?view=windowsserver2025-ps - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/networktransition/set-netisatapconfiguration?view=windowsserver2025-ps - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.net.ipaddress.parse?view=net-9.0#system-net-ipaddress-parse(system-string) - https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/coreinfrastructureandsecurityblog/ipv6-for-the-windows-administrator-why-you-need-to-care-about-ipv6/256251 KEYWORDS - PSCreateADForest - Install-NewAdForestAndPromote - Invoke-DomainControllerNetworkSettings - Add-NewDomainController - Domain - Controller - Active - Directory - DNS - Forest - Promote - IP - Address - IPv4 - Network - Settings |