I recently ran DCPromo on a Windows Server 2008 Core.

Even though I had the line in my unattended text file “InstallDNS=Yes” DNS Failed to install. I ran the following command

start /w ocsetup DNS-Server-Core-Role

The install took less that a minute, once completed I connected to the machine from a management server and opened DNS. DNS was installed and because my configuration for DNS was Active Directory Integrated all the Zones, Records etc were available.

Using /w prevents the command prompt from returning until the installation completes. Without /w, there is no indication that the installation completed.

Update

I have found a very good post here that may help people wanting more information about <a title=”Active Directory” href=”http://iponsel.com/ebook/a-guide-to-microsoft-active-directory-ad-design/2008/09/18/” target=”_blank”>Active Directory</a>