Build light weight Active Directory 2008 server core in easy way

Build your Active directory  server just with 512Mb ~ below 1GB RAM.
Before knowing this please let me give you some details & benefits of using 2008 server core configurations.

There are many benefits of running Server Core instead of a Full installation. Below are the benefits which can be claimed by implementing the server core technology.

• Greater stability. Because a Server Core installation has fewer running processes and services than a Full installation, the overall stability of Server Core is greater. Fewer things can go wrong, and fewer settings can be configured incorrectly.
• Simplified management. Because there are fewer things to manage on a Server Core installation, it's easier to configure and support a Server Core installation than a Full one—once you get the hang of it.
• Reduced maintenance. Because Server Core has fewer binaries than a Full installation, there's less to maintain. For example, fewer hot fixes and security updates need to be applied to a Server Core installation. Microsoft analyzed the binaries included in Server Core and the patches released for Windows Server 2000 and Windows Server 2003 and found that if a Server Core installation option had been available for Windows Server 2000, approximately 60 percent of the patches required would have been eliminated, while for Windows Server 2003, about 40 percent of them would have.
• Reduced memory and disk requirements. A Server Core installation on x86 architecture, with no roles or optional components installed and running at idle, has a memory footprint of about 180 megabytes (MB), compared to about 310 MB for a similarly equipped Full installation of the same edition. Disk space needs differ even more—a base Server Core installation needs only about 1.6 gigabytes (GB) of disk space compared to 7.6 GB for an equivalent Full installation. Of course, that doesn't account for the paging files and disk space needed to archive old versions of binaries when software updates are applied. See Chapter 2 for more information concerning the hardware requirements for installing Server Core.
• Reduced attack surface. Because Server Core has fewer system services running on it than a Full installation does, there's less attack surface (that is, fewer possible vectors for malicious attacks on the server). This means that a Server Core installation is more secure than a similarly configured Full installation.

Possible Usage Scenarios

Consider again the nine server roles you can install on Server Core:

• AD DS
• AD LDS
• DNS
• DHCP
• File Services
• Print Services
• Streaming Media Services
• Web Server (IIS)
• Hyper-V

This list of roles should immediately suggest some possible usage scenarios for Server Core within your organization. Here are some ways that you could use Server Core to make your network more secure, more reliable, easier to manage, and easier to maintain:

• Infrastructure servers. Domain controllers, DHCP servers, and DNS servers are the backbone of your network. Running these roles on Server Core can strengthen this backbone in every way.
• Branch office servers. Because Server Core installations are more secure and require fewer software updates than Full installations, they are ideal for use in remote locations, such as branch offices where you have few (or no) information technology (IT) staff and less physical security than at your head office location. For example, you might deploy a Server Core installation as a read-only domain controller with BitLocker for added security at a branch office.
• Server consolidation and testing. Because Hyper-V is a supported role on Server Core, you can use Server Core to consolidate multiple servers onto a single system while still keeping them isolated. This can help lower your TCO by reducing your hardware requirements and your power, cooling, and management costs. Server Core running Hyper-V also provides a convenient environment for deployment testing.
• Extending hardware life. Because Server Core has lower disk and memory requirements than Full installations, you may be able to get more life out of old systems. For example, when you need to upgrade your e-mail or database servers, those boxes could be moved down the line to become network infrastructure servers running Server Core.

Now our AD installation starts
how to setup domain control using Command prompt.Before planning to implement a domian controller there are some prerequisites which are mandatory.

1)IP address
2)


At command prompt type
netsh interface ipv4 show interfaces

This will show all the network interfaces that available in the server. Please keep note on idx number of the interface that you need to assign the ip in our case its 10
netsh interface ipv4 set address name="10" source=static address=10.0.0.15 mask=255.255.255.0 gateway=10.0.0.1
in here I wanted to apply ip address 10.0.0.15 to the interface. Here you can see after the command the server got the new ip address

Next step was to assign DNS server ip 10.0.0.15
netsh interface ipv4 add dnsserver name="10" address=10.0.0.15 index=1

• Now its ready for the DC install. Now we need to create unattend answer file for the domain install

notepad unattend.txt
then you need to type the file with the requirement
[DCINSTALL]
UserName=administrator
NewDomain=forest
NewDomainDNSName=Testlab.edu
Password=Pa$$w0rd
SiteName=Default-First-Site-Name
ReplicaOrNewDomain=domain
DatabasePath="%systemroot%'NTDS"
LogPath="%systemroot%'NTDS"
SYSVOLPath="%systemroot%'SYSVOL"
InstallDNS=yes
ConfirmGC=yes
SafeModeAdminPassword=Pa$$w0rd
RebootOnCompletion=yes
Below is the unattend note snap, this will install domain testlab.edu with DNS

You can execute it from command line
dcpromo /answer:c:\unattend.txt

it will take some time to install and after install it will automatically restart. After restart its done. Now you have DC with Server 2008 core.
If you have nay question feel free to ask me on jakkireddy8@gmail.com