Lab: Creating a Windows Server 2008 R2 Core Domain Controller in a new Forest

After slaving for a few days at creating a lab environment, a power outage has taken our vSphere lab server offline, halting my progress.  While there's some other pressing client issues to take care of, I expect it to be offline until I go an fix it.

In the mean time, I thought it prudent to write down my unattended install script for a Windows Server 2008 R2 Core primary domain controller promotion for a new forest and domain.  Picky, those switches, they are!

[DCInstall]
InstallDNS=Yes
ConfirmGC=Yes
NewDomain=forest
NewDomainDNSName=seattle.lab
DomainNetBiosName=SEATTLE
ReplicaOrNewDomain=domain
ForestLevel=4
DOmainLevel=4
DatabasePath="%systemroot%\\ntds"
LogPath="%systemroot%\\ntds"
SYSVOLPath="%systemroot%\\SYSVOL"
SafeModeAdminPassword=C0mpl3xP@ssw0rd!
RebootOnCompletion=Yes

Best of luck in creating your own Core PDC install!  (These notes carry no fitness, and by your use of them, you hold the author harmless for any and all results.) A very handy trick for resource constrained lab environments.

References:

Create an Answer File for Unattended Domain Controller Installation

Installing a New Forest by Using an Answer File

Installing a New Windows Server 2008 Domain Tree by Using an Answer File

dcpromo (Command-Line Syntax)