Prerequisites for Installing AD DS

Any server running Windows Server 2008 that meets the prerequisites described in the following section can host AD DS and become a domain controller. In fact, every new domain controller begins as a stand-alone server until the AD DS installation process is complete. This process will accomplish two important goals. The first is to create or populate the directory database, and the second is to start AD DS so that the server is responding to domain logon attempts and to Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) requests.

After AD DS is installed, the directory database is stored on the hard disk of the domain controller as the Ntds.dit file. During the installation of Windows Server 2008, the necessary packages are copied to the computer to install AD DS. Then, during installation of AD DS, the Ntds.dit database is created and copied to a location identified during the installation process, or to the default folder %systemroot%\NTDS if no other location is specified. The installation process will also install all of the necessary tools and DLLs required to operate the directory service.