To make Active Directory a reliable service in any networking environment, the domain controllers need to be available with high integrity. Any changes an administrator needs to make to a deployed domain controller might diminish the availability. Any component or configuration that is misbehaving might diminish the integrity. Therefore, let's look at how to properly prepare a Windows Server installation to become a domain controller, before we actually promote it to becoming a domain controller.
The following steps are my time-tested recommended practices for production domain controllers within enterprises. I highly recommend these steps to create highly reliable domain controllers.
