Nirmal Madhawa’s Online Journal

Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Code name: Longhorn consists of 8 editions. Each and every edition can be installed in two different ways which is the Server Core and the GUI installation. Server core is the new installation option which is included by Microsoft in this version of windows

Server core installation method can be deployed to support a single role or multiple roles. By using the server core installation it’s possible to optimize performance for the server roles you’re running because by default none of the services or any server roles get installed. After the installation what you basically get is a command prompt, also note that there’s no Graphical User interface installed when the server core installation method is used. Even if you connect to a server core installed server via RDP you will still get only the command prompt. But it’s possible to monitor using the computer management console remotely by using another server. When talking in terms of security which is a very critical aspect of a good network infrastructure, Server core installation will reduce the attack possibility since only certain server roles what is required by the administrators are installed in the server, also there’s no GUI shell

Another benefit of the server core installation is that it reduces the number of patches since only specific roles are running. Also the server core installation will only take 1.5GB of hard disk space but the full installation will take up to 5.5GB from disk space. Also the server core installation doesn’t support any sound adapters, because the audio stack is not included in the server core installation. Also note that it doesn’t contain any of the printer drivers unlike other Server operating systems. When the server core is configured as a print server you need to manually install the printer drivers from the cd

When deploying Windows Server 2008 it comes to a screen where you could choose between the Server core installation and the server installation with the GUI shell. Server core configuration could be done manually or by using an unattended file. The only difference is that you have to mention server core on your unattended file. Other than that it’s similar to an ordinary unattended file. Also note that if you have specified any features which are not available on the server, the unattended setup will not crash. It’ll still get installed but it’ll contain some extra registry keys e.g. - : some security features mentioned for IE 7, since IE7 is not available on the Server Core installation it’ll just get added to the registry

When deploying windows server core you should consider these facts

· Only a fresh new installation is supported

· It’s not possible to upgrade for a previous version of windows

· After installation Windows Server Core, it’s not possible to upgrade to the GUI Shell and also vice-versa

Now let’s look at how to do some of the initial configurations

• Change Password: - net user administrator *
• Activation : slmgr.vbs script can be used. Also it’s possible to activate remotely
• Configure IP: - netsh interface ipv4
• Join a domain:- Netdom

How to add Server roles

Server roles can only be added by using the command line by using the Ocsetup

Start /w ocsetup %packagename%

Also note that you can’t install active directory using ocsetup command

Only way to promote the domain controller is to use a dcpromo unattended file

Dcpromo /unattended:unattendedfile

When IIS 7 Server roles is installed unlike other roles it runs on reduced functionality. The following functions are not available on the IIS 7 server core installation

• · Management Service and the GUI tools
• · ASP.Net
• · Powershell Cmdlets

These are the server roles available in the server core installation

• · Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol
• · File
• · Print
• · Active Directory
• · Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
• · Media Services
• · Domain Name System
• · Internet Information Service 7
• · Windows Virtualization Service

Also the following options are also available

• · WINS,
• · Failover
• · Clustering,
• · Subsystem for UNIX-based applications,
• · Backup,
• · Multipath IO
• · Removable storage management
• · BitlockerDrive Encryption
• · SNMP
• · Telnet Client
• · Qos

Folks

i’m writing again in my blog after a long time..

Things were bit messy when i started working @ Tech Distribution and i didn’t have time to write on a blog…poor time management i should say but what to do

i just want to make a note that ITPRO FORUM was merged with SLGEEKS and now the forum is up and running..this my dear friends, is the ONLY IT forum in sri lanka..i’m really happy see that the forum is working again

feel free to visit using this link

http://itproforum.lk

That’s all for now..hope to write soon

I passed another mile stone in my life..

I finished my A/L’s last Monday…

talking about the exam..like most exams this one was also tough

anyway no point thinking about that coz it’s over and I’m done with it now

since my a/l’s are also finished I thought of moving on to the NEXT STEP…

I applied for few jobs and guess what..I got one

From tomorrow I’ll be working at TECH DISTRIBUTION (http://www.techdisti.com/SriLanka/index.php)

also i made a virtual lab using VMWare..10 XP Clients and 4 Servers…so it’s time to practice now

Going to start with Active Directly and then move on to DNS..i have forgotten most of the stuff since last 6months i spent doing Mathematics and Accounting

It’s been a while since i wrote something on my blog..

i was kind of busy studying..anyway here we go..

My A/L exam is starting on the 21st @ 11.30 am

first we have the Core Mathematics paper…

this is going to be yet another turning point in my life..coz after the exam it’s going to be a different life..

anyway i will write more about the exam and my experience studying later after the exam..

i really can’t spend much time on this now…

i’m going to grab a cup of coffee and start doing some papers

Labuwaa Woo Aluth Sinhala avurudda

kiriyen paniyen piri,

Barabara jaramara karadara nathi,

Rasabara sundara manahara woo

Jollybara eke weeewaaaaaaaaa !!!!!

Hey guys

I just finished downloading Windows 2003 Service pack 2..

I am just about to install it…

You can get more information regarding the service pack from the following link

www.microsoft.com/technet/windowsserver/sp2.mspx

I would recommend everyone who’s using Windows 2003 Server to install the new service pack. It’s a 380mb download

Anybody watched ghost rider…

well…i just watched it yesterday…

i don’t know…for me it sucks, completely waste of time..

Invain i downloaded that

There’s a movie called EPIC Movie..i have heard that it’s good…

but ghost rider is not a good movie..

i would give 2/5

Yoooo people

It’s working again…

Damn i can’t believe what i’m just seeing, i am on windows again

I don’t know how it happened, i ran the hdd regenerator and then scanned the partitions using “chkdsk” and then i restarted..

I inserted a bootable disk in to my cd-rom but it was too late..

Usually i get a black screen saying some files are missing, but i was surprised because it started booting normally

Then i logged in to windows, nothing seems to be wrong

Anyway good news…im back online

mmm….
Now I have finished using HDD Regenerator.
It recovered about 115 bad sectors.

After that I checked my hard disk with Knoppix and I didn’t have any problem accessing my drives.
Even though I noticed that there are several empty folders but the computer didn’t get stuck like before when I accessed my partitions. I guess HDD regenerator really worked!!!
Now I am using Windows 2003 Recovery Console…using “chkdsk” with the parameter /r

Next thing I’m going to do is to format my system drive and install windows 2003

Hey guys…
Well…at the moment I’m really sick of my computer.
Something is wrong with my hard disk I have no clue why it happened.
My harddisk crashed!!!
It’s a 200gig hard disk and only 4months old.

Yesterday when I was using my computer suddenly it became really slow. so I restarted my computer.
Then it displayed a message saying that “ntoskrml” files is missing so I switched off my computer and turned back on but, it kept on displaying the same old message…

So I booted my computer using Knoppix Live Cd, and I was able to access my NTFS Drives
I was surprised when I accessed my windows folder, because there were no files in it. Not a single file and the computer also got stuck. Then I got my Hirens Boot Disk and ran a Hard Disk Health Test…

Guess what…it shows that there are bad sectors and it was asking me to erase everything and FORMAT the disk.
That’s the last thing I want to do…
Anyway at the moment I am using software called HDD Regenerator which came with hirens boot disk to recover the bad sectors.

If anyone has any ideas please feel free to make a comment
Thanks a lot