AD FS 2.0: How to Manually Run the AD FS 2.0 Initial Configuration

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  • There may come a time when you need to run the Active Directory Federation Services (AD FS) 2.0 Initial Configuration again and you might not want to have to reinstall AD FS 2.0 to get there.
  • The AD FS 2.0 MMC prompts you to run the Initial Configuration one time after installation. Once this is done, there is no way to run the Initial Configuration again from the AD FS 2.0 MMC.
  • AD FS 2.0 includes two executables in the installation directory to allow multiple executions:
    • Default installation directory: %programfiles%\Active Directory Federation Services 2.0"\
    • FsConfigWizard.exe - GUI version. This is the same wizard the MMC has you run after installation.
    • FsConfig.exe - Command line version. Not widely used, but needed when you want to configure a SQL database instead of the Windows Internal Database Service
  • If you have already configured a database during a previous Initial Configuration execution, you are required to delete the existing database and create new.
    • The GUI version will prompt you with a "Delete Database" checkbox.
    • The command line version requires that you specify the /ForceDeleteDB parameter