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This OVA appliance allows deploying an Active Directory Domain Controller fully automated:

The included .ovf file has the following XML contents (simplified for clarity) to facilitate the different DeploymentOptions:

<Envelope [...]>
  [...]
  <DeploymentOptionSection>
    <Info>Deployment Type</Info>
    <Configuration ovf:id="primary">
      <Label>Primary (redundant deployment)</Label>
      <Description>Initial Domain Controller with 'PDC Emulator'-role</Description>
    </Configuration>
    <Configuration ovf:id="secondary">
      <Label>Secondary (redundant deployment)</Label>
      <Description>Additional Domain Controller</Description>
    </Configuration>
    <Configuration ovf:id="standalone">
      <Label>Stand-alone (non-redundant deployment)</Label>
      <Description>Single Domain Controller</Description>
    </Configuration>
  </DeploymentOptionSection>
  <VirtualSystem ovf:id="[...]">
    [...]
    <ProductSection>
      [...]
      <Category>1) Operating System</Category>
      <Property ovf:configuration="primary secondary standalone" ovf:key="guestinfo.hostname" [...]>
        <Label>Hostname*</Label>
      </Property>
      [...]
      <Category>2) Networking</Category>
      <Property ovf:configuration="secondary" ovf:key="guestinfo.dnsserver" [...]>
        <Label>DNS server*</Label>
      </Property>
      [...]
      <Category>3) Active Directory Domain Services</Category>
      <Property ovf:configuration="primary standalone" ovf:key="addsconfig.ntpserver" [...]>
        <Label>NTP Server*</Label>
      [...]
      </Property>
    </ProductSection>
  </VirtualSystem>
</Envelope>

When provisioning the appliance through the vCenter 'Deploy OVF template...' wizard, or through vApp-compatible Infrastructure as code tooling (e.g. HashiCorp Terraform), it is possible to provide all relevant configuration through vApp properties.

vSphere 'Deploy OVF template...' wizard HashiCorp Terraform vSphere provider

  vapp {
    properties = {
      # "deployment.typ"             = "primary"
      
      "guestinfo.hostname"         = "DC01"
      "guestinfo.ipaddress"        = "10.0.0.21"
      "guestinfo.prefixlength"     = "24"
      # "guestinfo.dnsserver"        = "0.0.0.0"
      "guestinfo.gateway"          = "10.0.0.1"

      "addsconfig.domainname"      = "contoso.com"
      "addsconfig.netbiosname"     = "CONTOSO"
      "addsconfig.administratorpw" = var.adds_adminpassword
      "addsconfig.safemodepw"      = var.adds_safemodepassword
      # "addsconfig.ntpserver"       = "0.pool.ntp.org,1.pool.ntp.org,2.pool.ntp.org"

      "vault.api"                   = "https://vault.example.org/v1"
      "vault.token"                 = "s.R2E1anlOcTZrTmZSTVZRazJM"
      "vault.pwpolicy"              = "complex"
      "vault.secret"                = "contoso-project42"

      # "dhcpconfig.startip"         = "10.0.0.50"
      # "dhcpconfig.endip"           = "10.0.0.250"
      # "dhcpconfig.subnetmask"      = "255.255.255.0"
      # "dhcpconfig.gateway"         = "10.0.0.1"
      # "dhcpconfig.leaseduration"   = "01:00:00.00"
    }
  }

On first boot, the appliance will start configuring itself without any further user-input, by performing the following steps:

Change hostname
Configure network
Set password for local administrator
Promote to Domain Controller
Iterate through all payload scripts:
- Create Active Directory Organizational Units
- Create Active Directory security groups
- Create Active Directory user accounts
- Set up Delegation of Control
- Configure Active Directory Group Policy Objects with Windows Firewall settings
- Configure DHCP (scopes, options and Failover relationship)
- Create DNS records
- Define Active Directory Group Policy WMI Filters
- Define and link Active Directory Group Policy Objects and Preferences
- Set Active Directory Default domain Password policy

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