Homelab Two domain controllers

In a previous blog post, I deployed a DC but now we’re looking at Homelab Two domain controllers.

The problem with only one is that you’ll always see replication errors in the event log. Of course, there’s no partner to replicate.

So I’m going to set up a second DC. Both are physical machines, MiniPCs with a Celeron J4125 and four gigs of memory.
But previously, I used two VMs and a mix between bare metal and virtual, so feel free to use any setup that works for you as long as it gets you two domain controllers.

The first steps are identical to the first DC, but now we’re adding a controller to an existing domain.
Just tag along the screenshots:

After the reboot, I quickly add the DHCP role, too, but instead of there I first jump into DNS Manager.
I right-click each zone and allow zone transfers with servers on the name tab. 

DHCP Failover

Now we move to the first DC and open DHCP Manager.
A right-click at the scope allows to “Configure Failover.”

There are two different methods.

Here, you can choose between Load Balance and HotStandby. Find more info here, but in short: Load Balance is what you would want.

And that’s it!
I’m sure we all can sleep better now since DHCP is highly available. 🙂

More homelab posts:

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