Ilija Lazarov: Thrill 2 Xplore

Server Core installation Option of Windows Server 2008 and AD DS role enablement

ilija — Sun, 25 May 2008 23:04:00 GMT

I started to install a new environment for customer demonstrations today and decided also to upgrade existing one to Windows Server 2008. My environment has always included multiple virtual machines (dc, db and moss) and basic demos I have been showing using my laptop with Windows Server 2008 as host operating system and MOSS included. Now I wanted to be able to show demos also in virtual Windows Server 2008 based environment.
The following is a short story of how did I put up the first server in the environment.

The first thing to install was a server with Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) using the core option of Windows Server 2008 Standard edition. I downloaded the x64 media from MSDN and created a new virtual machine for it using Hyper-V RC1. You need to have RC1 or later for Hyper-V to be able to use Integration disk for guest operating system.
The first part was like installing full version but after the first boot I had to log in with administrator account, change the password from blank into something else and I saw only the command prompt for managing the server.

First thing I did was I installed Hyper-V Integration services to enable e.g. virtual NIC. I did it by selecting Inser Integration Services Setup Disk from the Hyper-V Virtual Machine Connection.

After having bits intalled I renamed the server. To do it I needed to find out the current name using the hostname command and after that I renamed the server.
- hostname
- netdom renamecomputer <Current Computer Name> /NewName:dc
- shutdown /r /t 0

To install AD DS I needed to set static static ip and dns settings. First I needed to check the index number of my NIC to be used.
- netsh interface ipv4 show interfaces
- netsh interface ipv4 set address name="<index number of the nic>" source=static address=10.0.0.10 mask=255.255.255.0 gateway=10.0.0.1
- netsh interface ipv4 add dnsserver name="<index number of the nic>" address=10.0.0.10 index=1

Before running the dcpromo I started the DNS role for the server
- start /w ocsetup DNS-Server-Core-Role

Then I created an unattend file into c:\temp directory to be used when running dcpromo. I did basic setting in the file and set the forest and domain to be on Windows Server 2003 compatible mode.
- md c:\temp
- notepad c:\temp\unattend_ad.txt
---clip content of the unattend file below---
[DCINSTALL]
InstallDNS=yes
NewDomain=forest
NewDomainDNSName=<the FQDN for the domain like mydomain.local>
DomainNetBiosName=<the netbios name for the domain like mydomain>
SiteName=Default-First-Site-Name
ReplicaOrNewDomain=domain
ForestLevel=2
DomainLevel=2
DatabasePath="%systemroot%\NTDS"
LogPath="%systemroot%\NTDS"
RebootOnCompletion=yes
SYSVOLPath="%systemroot%\SYSVOL"
SafeModeAdminPassword=<your safe mode admin pwd>
---clip content of the unattend file above---
- dcpromo /unattend:c:\temp\unattend_ad.txt
- shutdown /r /t 0

I enabled remote desktop for remote administration
- cscript C:\Windows\System32\Scregedit.wsf /ar 0

I disabled the firewall to be able to connect to the server from remote. I could have also done it using rules but I will have ISA also in the environment to protect the servers.
- netsh firewall set opmode disable

I activatited the server with MAK key
- slmgr.vbs -ipk mak_key
- slmgr.vbs -ato

I changed time settings and time zone
- control timedate.cpl

I enabled autoupdates to update the server and afterwards I will disable the feature
- cscript c:\windows\system32\scregedit.wsf /au 4
- (cscript c:\windows\system32\scregedit.wsf /au 1) will disable autoupdate

I joined a full Windows Server 2008 guest into the domain (the future db server) and was able to do rest of the settings like for DNS, checking out event log etc using the GUI.

Am I missing something?

ilija

IW architecture is not only about MOSS

ilija — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 00:09:00 GMT

Sure we all know that but do we really take all the aspect into account? As we all know MOSS can be used as a platform for internal and external services which require different approaches. At the same time we must think about availability and/or scalability of the service. Security is required piece always in the picture. How about services around MOSS like instant messaging, ecommerce, backend integration, management etc.

Please find below pictures of the logical topology for Information Worker services and also sample topologies for MOSS based collaboration sites with simple and failover scenarios. You can also utilize the picture set using the original Visio format. Pictures can be used as a starting point for discussions regarding MOSS implementations with customers or integrators.

Enjoy.

Logical topology with required and optional services for implementation and web zone for external facing services.

Simple implementation of the environment.

Implementation with scalability and availability in mind

MOSS is a Solution platform

ilija — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 01:58:00 GMT

I confront customers almost daily asking me the question what MOSS, Microsoft Office SharePoint Server, is for and what can you do with it out of the box (OOB). Most of you have probably seen the following pie with feature areas of MOSS at some point.

It gives you some idea, but to embrace the platform I decided to take it to the next level and invite you to collaborate. The MOSS mindmap based version will start the life cycle today and continue in various ways.

I will blog about each feature during the next weeks and months to ensure common understanding how I see the platform with OOB features and what it takes to deploy MOSS successfully. Feel free to suggest new topics and content into topics like partners, ISVs etc. This is just the beginning of the drill-down. Stay tuned.

ilija