Create a Domain Controller in Azure

In this blog post, I will show you how can you create a Domain Controller in Azure on Windows VM running Windows Server 2016 Datacenter.

Assuming you have already created a Windows VM in Azure running on Windows Server 2016. (You can use the same steps for 2012, 2012 R2 and 2019)

Now follow the steps to create a Domain Controller:

• Login into the Azure VM via RDP
• Go to the Server Manager and from the Dashboard, click on Add roles and features

• Add Roles and Features Wizard window will appear
• Click on Next three times

• Select Active Directory Domain Services and click on Add Features

• Click on Next

• Click on Install and then click on Close

• Once the Active Directory Domain Services are installed we need to perform Post-deployment configuration
• Click on the Flag icon (Right side upper corner of the Server Manager window) and click on Promote this server to a domain controller

• The deployment configuration will appear. Select Add a new forest and give a domain name you want (In my case it’s contoso.local )

• Now click on Next
• Type the Password for DSRM and click on Next

• Click on Next three times

• Review the configuration. After reviewing click on Next and then Install

• Once the Installation is done VM will reboot.

• After the Installation, you need to update Virtual Network’s DNS Server so the other Servers in the same VNET can recognize the Domain and also can join to the domain.
• Copy the Private IP address of your Azure VM and go to Virtual Network and click DNS Servers from the blade

• After adding the DNS Server you need to reboot all the VMs to utilize updated DNS server
• Lets login to the DC using Domain Account. On the Dashboard, we can see our Domain

I hope this post will help you to set up DC in Azure. Please leave a comment if I missed something or you want to add something.