- Introduction
- Windows Clustering 101
- Forest Creation Process
- Installation
- Installation of Root Domain
- Quality Assurance
- Forest Preparation, DNS, and Exchange
- Installation of Bridgehead Servers and the Child Domain
- Installing DHCP and WINS Services
- Patching and Updating Domain Controllers
- Exchange Domain Preparation
- Creation of Initial Service and Administration Resources
- Clustering
- Time-Out
Quality Assurance
QA and validation must be performed before continuing further. QA can be achieved by following these steps:
Join a clean Windows XP SP1, SP2, or higher workstation to the root domain. Remember to follow the naming convention for the workstation according to Active Directory Architecture.
Install the WSO3 support tools on the workstation. The tools can be accessed from the ADSTUFF\SHQPORT\TOOLS share on the installation server. Install the tools to the default path on the C: drive.
Install the ADMINPAK on the workstation. This installs management tools, such as DSA.MSC, to the workstation. The tools can be accessed from the ADSTUFF\ADMINPAK share on the installation server. Install the tools to the default path on the C: drive.
Install the Resource Kit tools to the workstation. This installs tools, such as DNSDIAG, DCDIAG, and DSQUERY to the workstation. The tools can be accessed from the ADSTUFF\RESKIT share on the installation server. Install the tools to the default path on the C: drive.
Open a command console and run DCDIAG /s:<domain controller name> /a /f<logfile> /ferr<errlogfile>. Perform the DCDIAG against both HQRDC01 and HQRDC02. The data generated by DCDIAG is piped to the default log file location on the workstation.
Perform DCDIAG several times a day during the installation.
Open the replication monitor and check that replication is occurring without errors between the domain controllers.
Finally, you can run DSQUERY against the domain controllers to see that all FSMO roles are intact (the roles are moved later on in the implementation). Much of this manual diagnostics and QA can be left to Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) to handle. Without MOM, QA can become something of an endurance during the life of a long project to stand-up a high availability infrastructure.