First Light

This post assumes that you have already gone through the previous post about the Windows Server 2008 R2 Base Configuration. If not, your system may be in a different state and may show different results on the screen-shots.

With the basic configuration of the Windows Server 2008 R2 done, we already know that we are missing Server Roles and Features – and a look at the Server Manager confirms this:

Roles and Features & what they are

So what are Roles and what are Features and how do I know which ones I need? Good questions – let’s look at the available Roles first:

First of all, I want to point out that the list of available Roles is determined by the type of server you have chosen to install: Standard, Enterprise, Datacenter, Core or Web Server.

Now let’s look at the available Roles for the Standard Edition: some of them we may understand easily, others not – but the thing that becomes obvious: a Role is not something that only impacts the server we are currently working on.

Consider a Role more as a service your service provides to the network of computers that can reach it. Take the Role Web Server (IIS). It installs and pre-configures the Internet Information Server (IIS) on your machine. But usually, this is not done because your machine needs it – it is done because you want your machine to provide that service to the environment – your system assumes the role of the Internet Information Server.

Let’s look at the Features in comparison. Wow – there is plenty of Features listed – significantly more than there are Roles.

Let’s pick one: BitLocker Drive Encryption. Microsoft’s TechNet has the following description for BitLocker:

“BitLocker Drive Encryption allows you to encrypt all data stored on the Windows operating system volume and configured data volumes, and by using a Trusted Platform Module (TPM), it can also help ensure the integrity of early startup components.”

Microsoft TechNet

So BitLocker is something that adds functionality to your machine – in this case encrypted storage of data. How about another Feature – .NET Framework 3.5.1 Features.

Well, this one we are going to actually install a bit later but essentially, it is installing and enabling the .NET 3.5 SP1 functionality on your system.

I think, you are already getting to it – the difference between Roles and Features is their impact on the outside world: Roles offer services that can be consumed by other computers while Features are adding to your system but usually do not have an impact on the outside world.

Roles and Features & Dependencies

Cool, so now that we know what a Role is and what a Feature is, let’s add .NET 3.5 SP1 capabilities to our server – we are going to need them for an application we want to install later. So in the Server Manager, click on Add Feature and select .NET 3.5.1 Features from the list of available Features. Then click Install… wow, wait!

As soon as we have selected the .NET Framework 3.5.1 Features, the system confronts us with a dependency dialog: in order to install the selected Feature, other Features and/or Roles are required.

Thanks to Microsoft, the system know about these dependencies (in earlier times, we might have just ended up with a system not working and a lot of question marks in our eyes…)

Since we got no choice, click the Add Required Role Services button. As an immediate result, we can see that now the Feature Windows Process Activation Service is also selected – that was the one Feature Dependency listed above.

Click the Next button – the system will now show you the configuration section for Web Server (IIS) which is the Role that was selected as a dependency. Click Next again to leave the summary screen and take a look at the Role Services dialog:

Quite obviously, only very few of the available characteristics of the Web Server roles are selected – only those that are required with respect to the selected .NET Framework Feature. Clicking the Next button takes us to the Summary screen and clicking the Install button there actually kicks off installation. Once finished, you are provided with a summary screen and the kind reminder to update your system using the Windows Update feature because the automatic updates are disabled.

And as a result, the Roles Summary and Features Summary section on the Server Manager have been updates, now showing the Roles and Features we just have installed.

Back to our Web Server (IIS) Role…

… which is what we wanted to install in the beginning. Funny enough, that seems the be taken care of at first glance, the Role is already listed amongst the installed Roles. But as you might remember – the installation was limited to only a few pieces of that role. Clicking the Role takes you to the Role Service Details – and sure enough, amongst the installed Role Services, only five are listed:

Yes, by clicking the Add Role Services link in the upper right corner, we can add additional Role Services but… we do not know which ones to add since the Wizard will only provide us with the set of available Role Services but does not pre-select the ones required for a Web Server to work…

Warp back in time

One of the nice things about VMWare are the snapshots – so I take a snapshot now, role back to a previous one and find out which Role Services the system would pre-select if I would install the Role Web Server (IIS) instead of having it installed as a dependency to the .NET Framework.

See the result on the left – that is what would have been selected if we would have chosen to install the Role first instead of the Feature.

At least, we know know which items to check so when I go back to my service with the .NET Feature installed (and with it the Web Server Role), I know can check the missing Role Services for the role manually and correctly.

Doing so and then installing the selected Role Services will bring my system to the point where it has a working Web Server as well as the .NET Framework installed.

Once the installation is finished, it is good practice to perform a Windows Update to see if there have been any patches to the components just installed – remember, the automatic update is switched off and the last update did not consider anything we just installed…

How can I see if the Web Server has properly installed?

Well, after the Windows Update has been performed and the required reboot has taken place, the easiest thing to see if the Web Server is really running would be to try to open a web page from another computer’s web browser and type the address of your server – http://aquila or http://<ServerIPAddress> into the Internet Explorer’s address bar. You should then see the Web Server’s default Welcome page:

Conclusion

As with the operating system itself, installing the Web Server is easy – especially once you have understood Roles and Features. However, that just gives you a basic (but working) web server – you would still have to worry about the configuration yourself and that is – as usual – the bigger tasks. And the one that requires a more in-depth knowledge of IIS. Nonetheless, you now know how to get yourself a working web server for simple tasks.

After the initial installation of Windows Server 2008 R2, the system is far from being usable. There are at least a few steps that remain to be done before the system can be considered usable even in the slightest way. And depending on your environment, your requirements and possible external (or internal) guidances you have to follow, there may be even more.

The Server Manager – your friend and helper

Many administrators might disagree when I am saying that the Server Manager is a good friend and nice help in the daily work – and they may have a point there: many things that require manual interaction in the Server Manager can be more reliably (and more important: more reproducibly) performed using PowerShell Scripts. However, to the inexperienced user, the Server Manager provides help and guidance where otherwise none would be (although you could argue if an inexperienced user should install and configure a system like this).

The Server Manager’s icon is located next to the Start Button in the Task Bar – and if you have not switched it off, it will automatically start when you log on.

What remains to be done?

At a minimum, a couple of things:

• Adjust the computer’s name – it currently has an artificially calculated host name!
• Configure network access where required
• Run the Windows Updates to make sure your system is up to date

And there may be many more things, depending on what you want to achieve or have to provide as prerequisites for applications you want to host on this machine.

Disclaimer

Let me explicitly state that the configuration options, settings and comments represent my personal taste for a casual configuration – enough to do some testing in non-vital environments with non-essential data.

Under no condition should these settings be considered adequate for production use in a corporate environment!

Changing the Computer’s Name

When your computer is placed in a network, it requires a unique address – usually, that is provided automatically or you are setting it manually to make sure your server always has the same network address. A popular network address is the TCP/IP Address which is a quadruple triplet of numbers in the format xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx – sometimes automatically assigned, sometimes manually.

However, it is not a very intuitive naming that people can easily remember – therefore, each computer has a named address – called the host name. The host name is like your name – your friends will easily remember and they will call your name if they want something. Hopefully, you are the only one of your name in the room then, otherwise there might be some confusion…

With the Server Manager open (and Windows knowing you did not change the host name yet), you will find a link to Change System Properties in the Computer Information section of the Server Manager.

If you click that link, the system will display the System Properties dialog:

You can see, the Full Computer Name is somewhat… jerky. Click the Change button to give the server a name people can more easily remember – sometimes, this might be a name like FILESERVER or WEBSITE, or you are having a habit to name your various servers after cities or animals… it does not matter, anything is better than WIN-BU31MRADGBC…

So our computer’s host name is going to change to AQUILA – which is latin for “eagle”. This change requires you to reboot the system to become effective – so please click the OK Button, then the Close button on the main dialog and confirm the system restart Windows is suggesting to you.

Once your system is back and you can see the Server Manager again, you should see the result of the configuration – the Full Computer Name is now listed as AQUILA.

Configure Network Access

Depending on your network and server configuration, you may have to manually put your hands on your network settings. The Server Manager allows quick access to the Network Connections via the View Network Connections link in the Server Manager’s Computer Information section.

As you can see in the Connectivity column, this system currently does not have access to the Internet. Honestly, that might exactly be the way you want it! But in our case, that means the system will not be able to access the Windows Update site in the next step so it needs to be addressed.

Note: larger organization may have other means of distributing the regular updates Microsoft is issuing for their operating systems (and other products). But in smaller environments, it may be required to connect the server to the Internet directly which obviously poses a security threat.

For the sake of this post, I will ignore this threat and open the connection without having a virus scanner installed and a firewall properly configured. I am explicitly discouraging this procedure for business relevant systems and in business relevant environments!

If you select the network connection in question and then click the Change settings of this connection button beneath the window’s address bar, the Local Area Connection Properties dialog is displayed. Make the required adjustments, then wait for the Network Connections dialog to refresh the status.

Note: In this case, the problem was caused by the TCP/IP configuration not being properly set by DHCP.

Windows Update

With the network connections now working, it is time to download and install any update that Microsoft has issued between the finalization of the installation media used and now – and that can be quite a few.

Again, the Server Manager can guide you – first of all, there is a Configure Updates link in the Security Information section. That one will not actually perform any update but will let you specify how the server should deal with updates:

• Install Updates automatically: if you enable this option, the server will by itself check with Microsoft if there are any updates available and will apply them. Although this is the recommended setting by Microsoft, I would strongly discourage that on a controlled environment. Updating the server automatically without knowing the impact of such update might not be such a good idea if you are responsible for system availability…
• Download Updates and let me choose whether to install them: well – that one still automatically phones home to Microsoft but at least it does not install anything. To me, this is as useless as a winter coat on a warm summer day – there is no point in having it.
• Check of updates but let me choose whether to download and install them: another one of these “more than nothing but not what you need” settings – not better than the last one.
• Never check for updates: the setting for me – the administrator is responsible!

Now let me make this one clear: the setting is referring to the automated, unattended installation of updates! Although I do not want that to happen, I want the updates to be evaluated and installed.

But I believe this is what you are paying your Administrators for! So instead of having the system automatically phone home, you might want to consider making it an integral part of your system administrator’s job to make sure your servers are up-to-date and secure! But in that case, you also have to provide them the time and the tools to do so!

Note: Setting the Windows Update Option to Never check for updates is based upon the assumption that the update information is taken from Microsoft. There are, however, scenarios where the system is configured to automatically check for updates by contacting an in-house, corporate-controlled update server which is only fed with verified and approved updates. In such a case, it is more than efficient to use the option Install updates automatically because the process of evaluation and approval of an update has taken place – just not “inside” the system itself.

If no such option is available, you now have to kick off the update process manually. You can initiate it by clicking Start -> All Programs -> Windows Update. With the setting above, you will see an ugly red warning shield – ignore it and click the Check for Updates button.

After talking with Microsoft’s server, your system will find a number of updates to apply. You can review the selected updates by clicking the xx important updates are available link where you can also remove selected packages. Once you click the Install updates button, the system will download and install the patches.

Once all updates have been applied, the system will – most likely – require a reboot.

Conclusion

After the base installation, there is very little to be done in order to connect the system to the Internet, download the latest patches and have a system which can be considered “preliminary configured for testing purposes”.

However, many things remain to be done before a server could be considered ready for production. Besides the selection and configuration of specific server roles which may be required for hosted applications (e.g. Internet Information Server or Fileserver Services), there is a large number of important aspects to be considered and configured – to name a few:

• Virus Protection and Firewall Settings
• User accounts in case the server is not part of a domain
• Remote Desktop Settings
• Server Roles & Features
• Performance and Stability Monitoring

What we have seen here is the topmost tip of the proverbial iceberg – and as with icebergs, there is much more hidden under the surface than you can see! If you want to use a system for your own testing, fair enough – besides the virus protection, I would be happy with that. If you want to use it in production, consult a professional server administrator, either in-house or external.

Don’t put vital corporate data onto an un- or under-protected system! Loss of data is much more expensive than any amount you would pay for reasonable server administration!

For many Windows applications that require a server operating system (as opposed to a Windows Workstation), Windows Server 2008 R2 is the operating system of choice – and it represents the latest version of the Windows Server family publicly available. All good reasons to have a quick look at a straight forward installation – we will be doing nothing fancy in this post, merely running the default setup.

Prerequisites – What do you need?

Honestly, you do not need much – mainly, the Windows Server 2008 R2 Installation DVD and the hardware to put it on – or, like in this case, a virtual machine. In any case, the hardware (or virtual hardware) should be somewhat reasonable – don’t expect to run the server on an old processor with 512MB RAM… here is my hardware configuration:

So now insert your installation media or mount an ISO image (for VMWare) and fire up the system…

Getting the Installation done

When the system boots the installation media, Windows Server 2008 cannot hide it is closely related to the later Workstation operating systems – instead of the textual setup you got in the “old days”, you are now presented with the graphical user experience the desktop users have as well – if you like it or not…

The first choice you are given is the Language Selection which not only determines the language of the operating system but also the date and time format the system will be using as well as the keyboard layout.

In my case – living in Germany – I am leaving the server language on English but switch the date format and the keyboard layout to German:

Having made my choice, the next page of the Installation Wizard allows only one option: Install now! Setup is now starting to perform its job – and depending on your system, that might take a while. Depending on the type of installation media, you may be presented with an option to select the operating system you want to install. What does that mean?

Well, it means that your installation media allows you to install more than one type of Windows Server 2008 R2 – there is the Standard Installation, the Enterprise Server and the Datacenter Server (as well as the Web Server). These all are different incarnations of the same operating system – providing different features and having a different cost to they licenses.  Why would Microsoft create different installation media for any of these types if the distinction can be made by the license key? So if you get this choice, then make sure you are selecting the type of server that matches your license key!

Next is the Software License Agreement – read it, understand it and then click the I accept the license terms button. That takes you to the Installation Type page of the Installation Wizard.

In my case, there is not much of a choice since I am not upgrading an existing system – and I want the custom installation anyway! Clicking on the Custom (advanced) option leads to the next question: where to install the operating system?

My small virtual machine does not really have more than one hard disk attached to it – in a real-world scenario, you would of course see all the hard disks of your server and might even have to load specific drivers in case you are using dedicated hardware for disk mirroring, etc. In this case, Disk 0 is the only available location so I can continue with the installation.

The Installation Wizard now has enough information collected to perform the actual installation of the files – this can take a little while, depending on the environment.

During the installation process, your system will restart automatically so you might want to make sure that this time it is not booting from the installation media but from the hard disk…

Setup is still not done at this point – you will see the system updating the registry and then returning to the installation progress dialog. And yes, there will be another reboot of the system as well as an initial preparation phase before you are presented with the finished operating system.

One thing that is missing in the setup is the specification of the system administrator’s account and password – right? Well, Microsoft has decided to take the elegant way here – the built-in administrative account named Administrator (wow, what a surprise!) has simply set the password expiration flag so you are forced to provide a new password the first time you are logging in (which is now).

So go ahead, click the OK button and type in the desired password… but don’t be surprised if you see the following message:

“Unable to update the password. The value provided for the new password does not meet the length, complexity, or history requirements of the domain.”

Right… that means exactly what? Well – it usually means that you have chosen a password not accepted as strong enough. Usually, it is either too short or you have tried to use the user name Administrator as password or the term password as password… get used to it: you need to use a strong password here – something like IWantToConnect2010. Once successful, the system informs you that your password has been changed (so you better remember it!) and takes you to your Windows Desktop – just like you are used to it from Windows 7.

You also will have no choice but to notice that Microsoft is trying to help with the next steps by automatically bringing up the Initial Configuration Tasks dialog. You can close the window but unless you tick the option Do not show this window at logon in the lower left corner of the dialog, it will come back the next time you log on.

But even if you close the Initial Configuration Tasks dialog, Microsoft is not letting you off the hook – you are now getting the Server Manager started for you… same thing here: you can close it but it will come back after each new log on unless you tick the option Do not show me this console at logon.

Not to get me wrong: the Server Manager is a very important and pretty cool feature of Windows Server 2008 R2 – but I prefer to decide which applications I want to use when myself…

A Note to VMWare Users

You are not going to have a lot of fun with the virtualized version of Windows Server 2008 R2 before you have installed VMWare Tools so I am suggesting that you are making that the very first task after you have logged in!

Conclusion

Congratulations – we are done with the base installation now. The system is up and running but be aware: it is of no use so far, we have not even done a single bit of the most basic configuration yet – so this server is neither usable nor secure! But then, this post is named Base Installation and we will cover the Base Configuration elsewhere…

In general, I have to admit that Microsoft is doing a pretty good job with the installers (as well as with the system administration utilities as we will see later) – it is no rocket science to get this server installed and running (it will require a bit more than that to get it configured properly) – clear point goes to Redmond for this straight forward, easy to use and efficient installer!

Disclaimer

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