Windows Server 2008 R2 Core | Thomas Maurer (tm)

This are some commands to add roles and features to a Windows Server 2008 R2 Core installation.

You also can enable Remote MMC and Remote Server Manager to simply connect from a management server to the core server and add roles with GUI. This may only work within a domain environment. You can enable remote management pretty easy with the sconfig.cmd. Find out more about configuring Windows Server 2008 R2 Core installations here.

List available server roles and features:

oclist

Install, uninstall and configure Active Directory Domain Service role:

dcpromo

Help for dcpromo:

PS C:\> dcpromo /?

Command line parameters include:

/unattend[:filename] Used to specify the unattend operation mode or supply an unattended install script file.

/adv Enables advanced user options.

/uninstallBinaries Used to uninstall Active Directory Domain Services binaries.

/?[:{Promotion | CreateDcAccount | UseExistingAccount | Demotion}]

/?:Promotion, /?:CreateDCAccount, /?:UseExistingAccount, and /?:Demotion will display unattend parameters applicable to the specified task. /CreateDCAccount and /UseExistingAccount:Attach are mutually exclusive.

/CreateDCAccount Creates an RODC account.
/UseExistingAccount:Attach Attaches the server to an RODC account. /forceRemoval Forcefully uninstalls Active Directory Domain Services on this domain controller. The account for the domain controller will not be deleted in the directory, and changes that have occurred on this domain controller since it last replicated with a partner will be lost. /? Will display this help. Unattend parameters can also be specified on the command-line. For example: dcpromo.exe /ReplicaOrNewDomain:Replica
Press any key to quit ...

Install a role or feature its basically always the same:

start /w ocsetup <roleorfeature>

start /w ocsetup DNS-Server-Core-Role

Uninstall a role or feature:

start /w ocsetup <roleorfeature> /uninstall

start /w ocsetup DNS-Server-Core-Role /uninstall

Install SNMP feature:

start /w ocsetup SNMP-SC

Install Microsoft Hyper-v role:

start /w ocsetup Microsoft-Hyper-V

After setting up my new hardware for my LAB, I thought about installing my Hyper-V Servers as Server Core installations. After reading two minutes in some blogs and the Microsoft TechNet I decided to use the Core Editions.

Basically the setup is the same as the none Core Edition or GUI Edition. But after the installation you have to configure the server without a GUI, your only way to do the basic configuration is the command promt. Btw if you close the command prompt, you can easily recover the prompt by pressing CTRL-ALT-DELETE, click Start Task Manager, click New Task and type cmd.exe.

To do the basic configuration of your Windows Server 2008 (R2) Core, you need the following commands:

Checkout the existing Hostname / Computername:

hostame or ipconfig

Change the Computername / Hostname:

netdom renamecomputer <ComputerName> /NewName:<NewComputerName>

Change the Computername / Hostname without writing the old name:

netdom renamecomputer %computername% /NewName:<NewComputerName>

Show network interfaces:

netsh interface ipv4 show interfaces

Set Static IP Address, Subnet Mask, and Default Gateway (ID is the shown number in the Idx column when you show your network interfaces):

netsh interface ipv4 set address name="<ID>" source=static address=<StaticIP> mask=<SubnetMask> gateway=<DefaultGateway>

Set DNS Server (index= is the priority of the DNS Server):

netsh interface ipv4 add dnsserver name="<ID>" address=<DNSIP>index=1

Join a Domain:

netdom join <ComputerName> /domain:<DomainName> /userd:<UserName> /passwordd:*

Add a Domain User to the local administrator group:

net localgroup administrators /add <DomainName>\<UserName>

Change or set the product key of your server:

slmgr.vbs –ipk<productkey>

Active the server licence:

slmgr.vbs -ato

If activation is successful, no message will return in the command prompt

Configure the firewall:

netsh advfirewall

netsh advfirewall firewall set rule group="Remote Administration" new enable=yes

Enable Remote Desktop:

cscript c:\windows\system32\scregedit.wsf /ar 0

Restart the Computer:

shutdown /r /t 0

Open Task Manager with the command prompt:

taskmgr

List event logs:

wevtutil el

Find something in the event log:

wevtutil qe /f:<text>

List running services:

sc query

or

net start

List running tasks:

tasklist

to active Powershell type:

powershell

For the most of this simple tasks there is also a configuration tool, which makes it very easy to do your first configuration with Windows Server 2008 Core Edition. The Tool is called sconfig, and its very simple, just start the program with the following command: