Windows Server® 2008 Administrator's Pocket Consultant

Managing Domain Controllers, Roles, and Catalogs

Domain controllers perform many important tasks in Active Directory domains. Many of these tasks were discussed in Chapter 7.

Installing and Demoting Domain Controllers

You install a domain controller by configuring Active Directory Domain Services on a member server. Later, if you don’t want the server to handle controller tasks, you can demote the server. It will then act as a member server again. You follow a similar procedure to install or demote servers, but before you do you should consider the impact on the network and read Understanding the Directory Structure.

As that section explains, when you install a domain controller you might need to transfer operations master roles and reconfigure the ...