If your looking for more information on the topic you might want to check out my Cloud Computing presentation slide deck or the articles I have written on Amazon Web Services.

If your not already subscribed to the feed you can find this episode at http://www.dotnetrocks.com/default.aspx?showNum=565.

Thanks to Peter Kellner we have some pictures of the event.

What you get is an ISO that will install Windows Server 2008 R2 Core edition running Hyper-V.  And the license for that is 100% free.  If you install a guest running Windows you will need a license for that, but if all you did was install Linux guests you could have a 100% licensing cost free environment.

Realistically if you are a windows shop you are going to be buying datacenter licenses for the physical CPU’s to cover an unlimited number of guests.  And if you are not a windows shop you are not going to be using Hyper-V for no other reason than it does not have great Linux support yet.  But if you just want to look at Hyper-V or use it in a lab environment this edition of Hyper-V can come in quite handy.

And yes this blog post is mostly here so I can find the download page in the future.  If you can find it on your own within five minutes then I am impressed.

I recently attended the NYC Code Camp which was an excellent experience for me and was a very well run code camp.

Stephen Bohlen wrote an excellent article about the review system they used and the benefits it had over other review systems I have been subjected a part of at various events.

As a speaker getting good honest feedback is very hard.  One of the things I really liked about their system is I was able to see my reviews in comparison to the other reviews that attendee gave.  So it helped me put in perspective the feedback I received.  For example if the feedback I get from a particular attendee is much better (or much worse) than the general feedback given to the other speakers then I know it is significant.  If an attendee says all the sessions are great than I know that he is just being nice.

I also received much more tangible and actionable feedback than I normally do.  On a “normal” review I will get one actionable comment (eg The way you demonstrated x was good/bad or if you would have done y I think I would have followed along with z better) for every 50 reviews.  I would say that 1 out of 10 from this system gave me actionable feedback.  Of course maybe that is the difference between New York and California cultures also

If your involved in organizing technical events or speak at technical events I highly recommend you read the article NYC CodeCamp Winter 2010: Session Evaluation Process, Results, and Conclusions.

I recently wrote an article Does Cloud Computing Mean You Are Out of Work? Also while at the MVP Summit I briefly had the change to discuss this issue with the interviewer in the video, Joey Snow.  Windows Azure, along with cloud computing in general, is causing significant concern among the IT Pro community regarding their future career paths.  If you are an IT Pro do yourself a favor and watch this video to get up to speed on Windows Azure and your role in it.

[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]

Original Link: http://edge.technet.com/Media/Real-World-Azure-The-IT-Professionals-Role-and-Windows-Azure/

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.