Skip to main content

Add Roles and Features to Windows 8 Server Core

 
This demo is tested on Windows 8 Server Developer Preview
Server Core has been something that many Network Administrators shy away from due to the text based interface. Windows gain much of their market share by the graphical interface and pulled market share from Novel and Unix in the 90’s. Why did Microsoft go back? Well, look at it from my perspective:
 
  • Fewer updates mean less reboots.
  • Without the extra code needed to generate the GUI, you have fewer vulnerabilities.
  • Best of all, fewer resources required for the OS means more resources available to the applications.
 
In Windows Server Core 2008 R1, we had to execute many command lines and scripts to do basic tasks. With the R2 version, the sconfig menu driven interface relieved us of much of the memorizations of NETSH and scripts. We still needed to manually install roles and features through the text environment. We had the ability to manages those roles and features from a full installation of Windows Server or a Vista/Win7 client with RSAT installed, but still have to do the installation at the command prompt.
 
With Windows Server 8 Developer Preview, we no longer have to do this. Once you join the server core to the domain, go to your DC our server that you are using for server management.
 
Step 1: Configure Server Core for remote management.
 
On the server core, type sconfig and press Enter.
Select option 4) Configure Remote Management
Select option 1) Enable Remote Management
Confirm your selection.
 
Step 2: Add the server to a full Windows 8 installation’s Server Manager.
 
Click Manage and then select Add Servers
clip_image001

Type part of the servers name in the blank field under All Machines.

Click the Search image icon.
Select the name of the server and then click the image to add the server to the list.

Click Finish.
image


Step 3: Add Roles and Features.

On the Server Manager Dashboard, click Add Roles.

image

Click Next twice.

Select the Server Core from the list of available servers and click Next.
image

Select the Roles that you want to install and click Next
image

Select the Features that you and click Next.

You will now need to do the initial configuration of the roles and features that you selected and tell the Server Manager to Install.

If you receive a failure of the installation, it may mean that Server Core needs to reboot.
Once the installation completed, and if necessary a reboot finishes, click Finish.

Click All Servers, select the server core and scroll to the bottom on the page.

You can now see the installed role.
image

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Adding a Comment to a GPO with PowerShell

As I'm writing this article, I'm also writing a customization for a PowerShell course I'm teaching next week in Phoenix.  This customization deals with Group Policy and PowerShell.  For those of you who attend my classes may already know this, but I sit their and try to ask the questions to myself that others may ask as I present the material.  I finished up my customization a few hours ago and then I realized that I did not add in how to put a comment on a GPO.  This is a feature that many Group Policy Administrators may not be aware of. This past summer I attended a presentation at TechEd on Group Policy.  One organization in the crowd had over 5,000 Group Policies.  In an environment like that, the comment section can be priceless.  I always like to write in the comment section why I created the policy so I know its purpose next week after I've completed 50 other tasks and can't remember what I did 5 minutes ago. In the Group Policy module for PowerShell V3, th

Return duplicate values from a collection with PowerShell

If you have a collection of objects and you want to remove any duplicate items, it is fairly simple. # Create a collection with duplicate values $Set1 = 1 , 1 , 2 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 1 , 2   # Remove the duplicate values. $Set1 | Select-Object -Unique 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 What if you want only the duplicate values and nothing else? # Create a collection with duplicate values $Set1 = 1 , 1 , 2 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 1 , 2   #Create a second collection with duplicate values removed. $Set2 = $Set1 | Select-Object -Unique   # Return only the duplicate values. ( Compare-Object -ReferenceObject $Set2 -DifferenceObject $Set1 ) . InputObject | Select-Object – Unique 1 2 This works with objects as well as numbers.  The first command creates a collection with 2 duplicates of both 1 and 2.   The second command creates another collection with the duplicates filtered out.  The Compare-Object cmdlet will first find items that are diffe

How to list all the AD LDS instances on a server

AD LDS allows you to provide directory services to applications that are free of the confines of Active Directory.  To list all the AD LDS instances on a server, follow this procedure: Log into the server in question Open a command prompt. Type dsdbutil and press Enter Type List Instances and press Enter . You will receive a list of the instance name, both the LDAP and SSL port numbers, the location of the database, and its status.