How to Install and Configure Zentyal 3.5 - A Backup Domain Controller

To Configure and Install Zentyal Linux 3.5 as A Backup Domain Controller

Installation and Configuration process is described in this article.

To download Zentyal 3.5 Community Edition ISO image use the following link,
http://www.zentyal.org/server/

To Install Required Modules for Zentyal BDC

Open the web browser and navigate to https://< IP_ address> and login with the user credentials.

Select the Zentyal packages to be installed, so that you can configure your server to act as a Backup Domain Controller and then click on OK.

The packages are listed as follows,

• DNS Service
• Network Configuration
• Users and Computers
• File Sharing and Domain services
• Firewall
• NTP Service
• Zentyal 3.5

Click Ok to confirm the modules to be installed.

Select your Network Interface as Internal and Click on Next to proceed further.

Select Static as IP configuration Method, provide your static IP Address, Netmask, Gateway and choose your Primary Domain Controller IP or the servers responsible for DNS PDC resolutions to be used on Domain Name Server field. Then hit on Next to continue.

Click Skip to continue with the modules installation.

Installation process starts.

After the modules is installed re-login with the same credentials. Go to Module Status, make sure that all the modules are selected. Click on Save Changes button.

To setup Zentyal 3.5 as a Backup Domain Controller

After all required modules installed, its time to configure Zentyal 3.5 to act as a Additional Domain Controller or Backup Domain Controller by synchronising User Accounts Database.

Go to System -> General -> Hostname and Domain. Here, we are setting the hostname as bdc and domain as linuxhelp.com

Open the terminal, login as root and edit resolv.conf file to point the Primary Domain Controller IP or DNS Server Address which is responsible for PDC name resolutions.

root@linuxhelp~ # nano /etc/resolv.conf

Replace nameserver statement line with your Primary Domain Controller IP Address.

If you need to conduct DNS test, go to Network module &rarr tools. Use Ping and Lookup with your specific PDC FQDN domain name.

DNS test revealed that everything is correctly configured. To configure BDC, go to Domain -> Set up in the left Menu and use the following Settings.

Server Role is a Additional Domain Controller.
DNS Server IP is your Primary Domain Controller IP Address or DNS responsible with PDC resolutions.
Domain Controller FQDN is the Primary Domain Controller FQDN.
Administrator Password is your Primary Domain Controller Administrator User password.
Administrator Account is your Primary Domain Controller Administrator User.
Server Description is to choose a descriptive name that defines your BDC server.
NetBIOS Domain Name is to choose a domain name for NetBIOS and it will be your main domain name.

After you complete, Click on Change. Then select Save Changes to apply configurations to start importing User Accounts Database from your PDC Server.

Depends on your database size the replication process can take a while, and after it finishes you can go to Users and Computers then Manage and you can see the entire Users and Computers database from PDC which is completely synchronized with your Zentyal 3.5 BDC Server.

To check Zentyal 3.5 BDC from a Windows based system, open the Active Directory Users and Computers, if you have installed RSAT and go to Domain Controllers to view the contents.