Swiss Technet Event

Posted on October 6, 2010 by Thomas Maurer

Today I had the chance to visit Microsoft Switzerland. I visited one of the presentations called “Windows 7 SP1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 – What’s new?”. Speaker of the session was Markus Erlacher (Microsoft IT Consultant). As always Microsoft does a great job by host events like this.

I really recommend you to visit one of the next events (you can find them on the swiss TechNet Homepage). The will host this session “Windows 7 SP1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 – What’s new?” again in november.

So what is new in Windows 7 SP1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1? Basically there are alot of hotfixes and two main things in Windows Server 2008 R2.

HowTo: Install Roles and Features Windows Server 2008 R2 Core (Shell)

Posted on July 20, 2010 by Thomas Maurer

This Guide should help you to install Roles and Features on Windows Server 2008 R2 per shell or on a Windows Server 2008 R2 Core Server.

Under Windows Server 2008 you could install Roles and Features with the command OCSETUP. Since we use Windows Server 2008 R2 Microsoft used the tool called DISM (Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool).

For checking availible Server roles type:

Dism /online /get-features /format:table

To enable a Feature or a Role, in this case the DNS Server Role, you just type:

Dism /online /enable-feature /featurename:DNS-Server-Core-Role

Active Directory Schema Versions

Posted on March 3, 2010 by Thomas Maurer

The list of Active Directory Schema versions:

Windows 2000 RTM with all Service packs = Schema version 13
Windows Server 2003 RTM with all Service packs = Schema version 30
Windows Server 2003 R2 RTM with all Service packs = Schema version 31
Windows Server 2008 RTM with all Service packs = Schema version 44
Windows Server 2008 R2 RTM with all Service packs = Schema version 47

Check the schema version in the Registry:

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\NTDS\Parameters\<Schema Version>

Check the schema version with dsquery:

dsquery * CN=Schema,CN=Configuration,DC=Root-Domäne -Scope Base -attr objectVersion

Cheatsheet: How to install HP Support Pack on a Server Core installation #3

Posted on February 17, 2010 by Thomas Maurer

This is a HowTo step-by-step guide to install the HP Support Pack on a Windows Server 2008 R2 Core installation or Hyper-v Core installation.

Download the latest HP ProLiant Support Pack for Windows Server 2008 R2

Eable SNMP on Windows Server 2008 R2 Core by typing start /w ocsetup SNMP-SC

Extract the HP ProLiant Support Pack on a Management Machine to C:\Supportpack

Connect to the Remote Windows Server Core for example \\hyperv01\c$

Create the folder C:\hp on the Remote Core Server

Copy the files from C:\supportpack to \\hyperv01\c$\hp

On the Core Server execute C:\hp\hpsum.exe

Install the HP Supportpack as usual

Reboot the Server

Cheatsheet: Add roles and features to a Server Core installation #2

Posted on February 17, 2010 by Thomas Maurer

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

Cheatsheet: Configuring a Server Core installation #1

Posted on February 17, 2010 by Thomas Maurer

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:

sconfig.cmd

Now this will open the following configuration utility: