Powershell: Domain Controller Automation

I’ve recently completed the following Microsoft Test Lab Guides:

• Base Configuration
• Demonstrate DirectAccess

The DirectAccess lab required that the Base Configuration be setup first and considering that both labs were time consuming and, at times remedial, I decided to make the process more streamlined and automated by using Powershell to create a script ( for complete automation ) which I could  then convert into a module ( for a more step by step approach ).  I’m still in the begining phase of automating the Base Configuration but I’ve already created a few functions, one of which will turn a standalone server into the first Domain Controller for the Corp.Contoso.Com domain. 

Function Configure-DomainController {            

   #Importing the ServerManager module to make use of Add-WindowsFeature cmdlet
    import-module servermanager
    add-windowsfeature adds-domain-controller            

    #Create an unattend.txt file to automate the DCPROMO process
    $unattend = "c:\unattend.txt"
    if(!(test-path $unattend)) { new-item $unattend -type file }
    $content = @(
    "[DCInstall]"
    "ReplicaOrNewDomain=Domain"
    "NewDomain=Forest"
    "NewDomainDNSName=corp.contoso.com"
    "ForestLevel=4"
    "DomainNetbiosName=CORP"
    "DomainLevel=4"
    "InstallDNS=Yes"
    "ConfirmGc=Yes"
    "CreateDNSDelegation=No"
    'DatabasePath="C:\Windows\NTDS"'
    'LogPath="C:\Windows\NTDS"'
    'SYSVOLPath="C:\Windows\SYSVOL"'
    'SafeModeAdminPassword="P@ssw0rd"'
    "RebootOnCompletion=Yes"
    )
    $content | out-file $unattend
    $dcpromo = "dcpromo /unattend:$unattend"
    invoke-expression -command $dcpromo
  }#end Function 

I’ve tested it out serveral times using Hyerp-V and snapshots (another time saver) and it works perfectly.   I was going to include the unattend.txt file separately along with script but decided to have the function create it so that the function could be used independently and would be less prone to error.