I have a machine that is a domain controller on Active Directory. I have been advised that, in order to install a specific program, I need to log on as a local administrator, but can find no documentation on how to create a local administrator on a DC under AD. Can someone help this newbie? Lisa ----- Lisa Lyons, CCNA Network Engineer

You should already have an administrator account. Try logging in as Administrator with either a blank password or a password that was entered when you installed the server. Open the server management window and look in "users" you should see the administrator account in there. "i woke up this morning and all of my stuff was stolen and replaced with exact duplicates."

If your server is a domain controller there will be no local administrator. The domain admin account is what you need.

Apparently it won't work with just Domain Admin privelleges, but I never set up a local admin account when the server was first set up. ----- Lisa Lyons, CCNA Network Engineer

Try this: 1.) Open Server Mgt. 2.) Go to Users. 3.) Right Click on Administrator- choose properties. 4.) Under the "Member Of" tab, make sure all of the proper items are listed such as "Administrators, Domain Admins, Domain Users, etc" I have about 7 items/groups listed and it can install fine. also, when you logon to the server, you should be logging on as Administrator, and have your domain selected. You should have no problems. "i woke up this morning and all of my stuff was stolen and replaced with exact duplicates."

? How could it not have setup an Administrator account?

Curt tried to explain this to you and he was correct. If this machine is a domain controller there are no local accounts. Period. It is impossible to log into a domain controller with a local account. That is why you will see the Local Users and Groups folder in Management has a big red X through it. When the server was set up, it was set up with a local admin account. When the server was promoted to a DC, those accounts are all disabled. (There are exceptions for Directory Services Restore Mode etc, but that is beyond the scope of this discussion.) A domain admin is an administrator of that machine. Whoever told you to log onto a domain controller with a local account obviously did not know what they were talking about. Good luck. Glen