Forest preparation is the second step in preparing Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) for Office Communications Server.

The forest preparation step creates the following for use by Office Communications Server:

This step creates objects that contain global settings and information about your Office Communications Server deployment. Global settings are stored either in the Configuration container or in the System container of the forest root domain. This step also creates objects that contain property sets and display specifiers used by Office Communications Server, and stores them in the Configuration container.

Forest preparation must be performed once for each Active Directory forest where you plan to deploy Office Communications Server.

Note:
In a resource forest topology, run this step only in the resource forest, not in any user forests. In a central forest topology, run this step only in the central forest, not in any user forests.

Before you perform the forest preparation step, you must decide where to store global settings — in the root domain System container or in the Configuration container. For details about how to make this decision, see Deciding Where to Store Global Settings.

For the detailed steps and user rights required for this procedure, see Preparing Active Directory Domain Services.

For a description of the global settings and objects and the universal groups created by forest preparation, see Changes Made by Forest Preparation.