This article is also very helpful if you want to script the promotion of your domain controllers.

DCPROMO.exe

Just like on a full server install dcpromo.exe is still used to promote a machine to a domain controller.  One of the nice features of dcpromo.exe is that if the Active Directory Domain Services (ADDS) role is not installed dcpromo.exe will add that role to your server for you.

However if you would like to install the ADDS and DNS roles before you begin the promotion process the command lines would be:

dism /online /enable-feature /featurename:NetFx2-ServerCore

dism /online /enable-feature /featurename:NetFx3-ServerCore

dism /online /enable-feature /featurename:DirectoryServices-DomainController-ServerFoundation

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

The full command argument options of dcpromo.exe can be found at the Microsoft TechNet documentation site.

The common arguments used in either a new domain or existing domain scenario are:

Creating a new Forest

The bare minimum command to create a new forest is:

dcpromo.exe /unattend /replicaOrNewDomain:domain /newDomain:forest

/newDomainDnsName:serk.local /domainNetbiosName:SERK

/safeModeAdminPassword:<Password for Directory Services Restore Mode>

Remember that when you create a new Forest you are really creating a new Root level Domain so a lot of the commands will be referencing domain creation.

The common parameters used when creating a new forest are:

Creating a new Domain in an existing Forest

The bare minimum command to create a new domain in an existing forest is:

dcpromo.exe /unattend /replicaOrNewDomain:domain /newDomain:child

/newDomainDnsName:child.serk.local /parentDomainDNSName:serk.local

/domainNetbiosName:CHILD-SERK /childName:child

/userDomain:serk.local /username:administrator /password:*

/safeModeAdminPassword:<Password for Directory Services Restore Mode>

The bare minimum command to create a new tree in an existing forest is:

dcpromo.exe /unattend /replicaOrNewDomain:domain /newDomain:tree

/newDomainDnsName:tree.local /parentDomainDNSName:serk.local

/domainNetbiosName:TREE

/userDomain:serk.local /username:administrator /password:*

/safeModeAdminPassword:<Password for Directory Services Restore Mode>

The common parameters used when creating a new domain in an existing forest are:

Adding a Domain Controller to an Existing Domain

The bare minimum command to add a domain controller to an existing domain is:

dcpromo.exe /unattend /replicaOrNewDomain:replica /replicaDomainDNSName:serk.local

/userDomain=serk.local /username=administrator /password:*

/safeModeAdminPassword:<Password for Directory Services Restore Mode>

The common parameters used adding a domain controller to a domain are:

Windows Intelligence

There will be tracks covering Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, Server Virtualization, Desktop Virtualization, Office 2010, and Exchange 2010.  Each track will have five one hour breakout sessions plus there will be two keynotes.

At the Orange County event I will be speaking on:

• High Availability in Windows Server 2008 R2
• Back-ups, Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity in Server Virtualization
• IIS 7.5 in Windows Server 2008 R2

My schedule for the San Francisco event has not been set yet.

This is a great event that spans the gap between free community events (eg User Groups) and the large conferences such as TechEd.  If you are looking to spend a day getting caught up on the latest Microsoft technologies this is the perfect event for you.

If you register before February 26th the cost of the event is only $299.  Plus if you leave a comment on this post I can send you a discount code for $50 off bringing the event down to $250.

Roles and Features Available to Install

To get a list of roles and features available to install you can run the command:

dism.exe /online /get-features

dism.exe is the Deployment Image Servicing and Management Tool.  This command is available on all editions of Win7 and Windows Server 2008 R2.

/online tells dism to work on the currently active installation of Windows.  You can also point it to a stored image even if it is not currently running.

/get-features tells dism to get a list of available features and their current status.  The output of this command on my system (truncated to just a few lines) is:

Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool
Version: 6.1.7600.16385

Image Version: 6.1.7600.16385

Features listing for package : Microsoft-Windows-ServerCore-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~6.1.7600.16385

Feature Name : NetworkLoadBalancingHeadlessServer
State : Enabled

Feature Name : SUACore
State : Disabled

After the basic header information it shows us a feature and it’s current state.  The first two features are “NetworkLoadBalancingHeadlessServer” which is installed and SUACore which is not installed.

The list of roles and features available are at the bottom of this post along with any relevant notes next to them.

Installing a Role or Feature

To install a role or feature we use the command

dism /online /enable-feature /featurename:<Name of Feature>

To install the .Net Framework 2.0 we would use the command:

dism /online /enable-feature /featurename:NetFx2-ServerCore

Available Roles and Features in Windows Server 2008 R2 Core

Even if you are comfortable on the windows command line (and let’s be honest here) most of us (pretty close to all of us) would be hard pressed to even set an IP address.  With PowerShell becoming very popular among IT Pros the CLI skills of the average Windows Administrator are improving but PowerShell was not available on core until R2 was released.

In my environments I try to do as much server configuration by group policy as possible so that helps a lot with manual configuration of settings.  However when using Windows Server 2008 Core you are going to have to input some fairly complex commands to get an IP address set and the server joined to the domain.  In R2 though Microsoft has included a tool called SConfig to simplify those initial configuration tasks.  When you run the command it calls itself Server Configuration, but I choose to let the “S” stand for Simple Configuration.

As you can see the basic commands you need to get your server up and running are here for you.  Generally speaking I simply run command #2 to set the computer name, command #8 to set the IP settings, and command #1 to join the server to the domain.

After that point I like to let Group Policy take over to provide a central point for configuration settings.  If you are not in an Active Directory environment I would recommend scripting out your settings to provide consistency and easy documentation.

Advantages

System Resources: Server core uses less disk space and less memory.  In short there is less running and less installed.  The full installation of Windows Server 2008 R2 is approximately 7.5gb, while in Core it is approximately 3gb.  The disk space savings is not a serious advantage in my mind unless we are looking at a virtual server environment where you would have dozens or hundreds of these machines using a shared resource (the physical machines storage).

A default installation of Windows Server 2008 R2 (no 3rd party apps, no roles installed, etc) consumes 385mb of memory after a reboot.  The same setup but a Core install uses 255mb.  That is a 34% decrease in memory usage.  Multiply that by 100 virtual machines in a VMware or Hyper-V farm and that is a serious resource savings.

Security: Since there is simply less stuff installed there is less to patch and less to attack.  The removal of Internet Explorer alone can reduce the number of patches you install significantly.  A component not installed by Core can not be exploited which can possibly provide significant security enhancements.

Raises Required Skill Level of IT Pro: Managing a Server Core system can be significantly harder if you are not comfortable in a command line environment.  Some readers might think this should be in the Dis-advantages section.  However I see it as an opportunity in two ways.

First it sets a minimum skill level for any IT Pro working on the system.  I find Server Core is a great way to keep less experienced administrators away from your critical machines.

Secondly it forces you to work smarter.  Windows administrators are plagued with never learning how to do something from the command line (and therefore being able to script it, automate, etc) because the GUI tool will get the job done faster than you can learn what the command syntax is.  Once you put yourself in an environment where you do not have a choice you quickly start to grow as a Windows Administrator.  Starting with Windows Server 2008 R2 the .Net framework is available on core and this means that powershell is available.  The best way for a Windows administrator to jump start their career and make significant gains in their productivity is to learn how to use powershell to manage your servers.

Dis-Advantages

Limited Roles Available: The roles available on core are limited.  In Windows Server 2008 R2 Core the roles available are:

• Active Directory Certificate Services
• Active Directory Domain Services
• Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services (aka ADAM)
• BranchCache Hosted Cache
• DHCP Server
• DNS Server
• File Services
• Hyper-V
• Media Services
• Print Services
• Web Server (IIS)
  • Note: In Windows Server 2008 the .Net Framework is not available so that means no ASP.net sites.  In R2 the framework is available.

If you are looking to run a role that is not on the list above you will not be able to use core.  Some common examples are Terminal Services, WSUS, Windows Deployment Services and any other not on the list above.

.Net Framework: As noted in the above section the .Net Framework is not available on Core until R2.  The most notable places this is an issue is if you want to run ASP.net sites or if you want to use PowerShell.  Both of these are pretty painful because core makes a great OS for a web server farm and PowerShell makes a great command line interface to manage an OS from.

However unless you have licensing issues preventing you from upgrading there is no reason not to move to R2.  Think of R2 as a really good service pack.  It is an incremental upgrade so it’s already heavily tested, it has a good track record already, and it provides a lot of polish that Windows Server 2008 was missing (such as the .Net Framework on Core).

As long as I am encouraging you to upgrade to R2 take note that it is only available in x64 so that means if you have REALLY old hardware you will not be able to run R2.  Also watch out for some 3rd party apps which have not updated their products to officially support R2.  For example VMware (ESX, workstation, etc) has to be upgraded to a certain version to officially support R2 (although I have seen it work on versions that supports Windows Server 2008).

3rd Party Applications: Some third party applications simply do not work without a GUI.  Make sure that your anti-virus, backup agents, monitoring agents, inventory agents, etc will install and allow you to do any management you need to do within core.  One piece of software that is notorious for keeping people off of core is network card management software.  If you want to (for example) team a pair of network cards using the Intel or Broadcom software last I heard those do not work on core.

Conclusion

Windows Server Core in the right situations is a great operating system.  Keep an eye on this blog over the next few weeks as I will be publishing some details on how to manage the core operating system.

What bothers me about hibernation being enabled is that it creates a hibernation file that is the same size as your memory.  It does this because for hibernation to work it writes the contents of the memory to disk so that the machine can be powered off.

On physical servers this is not a serious issue because disk space is rarely an issue.  However on virtual machines disk space for each guest is sometimes dialed in pretty tightly and so a large useless file like that can really be problematic.  If you are so inclined it is extremely easy to disable hibernation from the command line:

powercfg –h off

Where appropriate I use a group policy object to run this command on login for my servers or at the very least disable hibernation on VM templates in my environments.

1. The computer meant less work for all kinds of office workers who’s jobs were replaced by computers.  However companies that brought in computers became more efficient, grew as a business, and quickly had more (better?) work for those employees to be doing.
2. Java/C# is more efficient (from a labor perspective) and less error-prone than C/C++ which is more efficient and less error-prone than assembly.  We use these better “tools” to produce better and less error-prone programs with a lot less effort.
3. When NT started to replace Novell it left a lot of systems administrators who did not update (upgrade?) their skills with limited work options.  In this industry we are expected to almost continually be updating our skill set.  When anyone working in technology stops learning they quickly become less and less relevant.

Do I think that a drastic shift to cloud computing will mean those at the bottom of the IT Pro totem pole will be in trouble?  Yes.  Does that bother me?  No.  The IT Pro profession is not going anywhere.

1. The cloud vendors are going to need people to run their clouds, and they are going to need highly skilled, highly paid, and highly respected IT Pros to do that job.  IT Pros that install the operating system from a CD need not apply.
2. I am an IT Pro but by and large the job I do is not being replaced by the cloud.  I architect IT solutions to meet business needs.  Cloud Computing has just offered me another tool to offer my clients to meet those needs.
3. The IT Pros that right now do a job that a script could do in a fraction of the time are giving us all a bad name.  If I was paying someone to create accounts all day I would not be happy.  I would much rather pay someone like me (and hopefully you) to automate that process based off of HR data (just as an example).

Cloud Computing is a new technological challenge we are faced with.  Learn to adapt.  Stop trying to determine how to hold onto the job you have and start trying to determine how to get the next job that you want.

The voting application does not have the best UI I have ever seen.  So I want to make it super easy for you.  Here is the step by step guide to vote for my sessions:

1. Click on this link and it will open a new window which will add my session “Should Your Application use Azure?” to your ballot.
2. Click on this link and it will open a new window which will add my session “IIS 7.5 for Developers” to your ballot.
3. Finally click on this link and it will submit your ballot.
4. Have everyone you know do the same thing.

I appreciate you taking the time to do this.  Hopefully I will see you at MIX10!

I have spent a decent amount of time stressing over exactly who I should thank in this post.  Finally I realized that the list is too long, I will undoubtedly miss someone, and call me old fashioned but a note of thanks on a lightly read blog is hardly appropriate.  I will be seeing each of you I owe a word of thanks to over the course of the next year and I will make sure to take those opportunities to convey my heart felt gratitude.  In the meantime realize that if we know each other I am sure you have played a role in my growth this past year.

I received word that I was a nominee in early October so when was awarded the MVP status it was a nice feeling to finally have that three month old question answered.  That feeling was quickly replaced when I remembered that being an MVP does not make me a super hero.  I still have a lot of work to do.  Session content does not write itself nor does it present itself, networking (the kind that involves human handshakes, not TCP handshakes) still needs to be done, and I still need to find the best way to convert my love of presenting technical content into a viable business model.

I am looking forward to continue working with each of you this year.  In the coming weeks and months I hope to announce my participation in some really exciting events.  Here’s to 2010 and the exciting possibilities it will surely bring.

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