W2008 DCPROMO and Auto-Created Answer Files
The last of the nifty things I discovered when building my W2008 DC today was a nice checkbox at the very end of the wizard, just before the process takes over to upgrade the member server to a Domain Controller.
The message asked if I would like an automatically-generated answer file created with the settings I used in the Wizard. What an excellent idea!
As you probably know...
...if you plan to create DC's on Server Core, you must use an answer file. Getting the correct text and syntax for that answer file could have been much more difficult if we didn't have this checkbox. So, if you're considering creating Server Core DC's, just run the dcpromo process on an existing W2008 member server but don't let it complete!
As an example, here's the answer file I created for my dcpromo:
; DCPROMO unattend file (automatically generated by dcpromo)
; Usage:
; dcpromo.exe /unattend:C:\Users\administrator.TECHMENTOR\Desktop\answerfile.txt
;
; You may need to fill in password fields prior to using the unattend file.
; If you leave the values for "Password" and/or "DNSDelegationPassword"
; as "*", then you will be asked for credentials at runtime.
;
[DCInstall]
; Replica DC promotion
ReplicaOrNewDomain=Replica
ReplicaDomainDNSName=techmentor.com
SiteName=Default-First-Site-Name
InstallDNS=No
ConfirmGc=Yes
DNSDelegation=No
UserDomain=techmentor.com
UserName=*
Password=*
DatabasePath=C:\Windows\NTDS
LogPath=C:\Windows\NTDS
SYSVOLPath=C:\Windows\SYSVOL
; Set SafeModeAdminPassword to the correct value prior to using the unattend file
SafeModeAdminPassword=
; Run-time flags (optional)
; CriticalReplicationOnly=Yes
; RebootOnCompletion=Yes
TransferIMRoleIfNecessary=No
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