Core Configurator 2.0 for Windows 2008 R2 Core Server

You can manage the Windows core server more easily by installing the Core Configurator.

You can download it from here to the server. Extract it to the server drive. To open it; use the command prompt power shell and enter the following
PS C:\Users\Administrator\CoreConfig> .\CoreConfig.ps1
Where the CoreConfig is the location of the extrated file downloaded from CoreConfigurator.

Installing Active Directory Domain Controller service on Windows Server Core 2008 R2

If you need to install AD DC on the core server where there is no GUI, you will have to create a unattend file and run the dcpromo.exe /unattend:unattend.txt

Create an unattend.txt file with the following 

[DCInstall]
ReplicaOrNewDomain = Domain
NewDomain=Forest
NewDomainDNSName = dctest.local
AutoConfigDNS=Yes
RebootOnSuccess = NoAndNoPromptEither

SafeModeAdminPassword = PasswordComplex

Note: please install a static ip address on the server before proceeding to the AD DC.

Installing Powershell on Windows Server 2008 core R2

To enable the powershell on Windows Server 2008 R2 core:

Setting up a static IP address on your Windows 2008 R2 core server

1. Open the command prompt, type netsh interface ipv4 show interfaces to get the Idx value
2. Then at the command prompt, type:
   netsh interface ipv4 set address name="<ID>" source=static address=<StaticIP> mask=<SubnetMask> gateway=<DefaultGateway>
3. To setup DNS use the command: netsh interface ipv4 add dnsserver name="<ID>" address=<DNSIP>index=1

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee441257(v=ws.10).aspx