Steps to Install AD in Server 2012 Core

As we discussed command line addicted administrators always like to use Server Core. They have lot of benefits to show us on this. Anyway if you are a command line addicted person and if you are working on a Windows Active Directory environment it is necessary to install and configure ADDS (Active Directory Domain Services) in servers.

In this post we are discussing the steps that you should follow to install ADDS in Server Core. Go ahead and follow the steps.

To accomplish this task you should run the commands in Windows power Shell. To open the Run The Power Shell in Command prompt type following command and press enter

Powershell

Type following commands in powershell

Install-windowsfeature –name AD-Domain-Services

Now you can see the interface its collecting data and showing the progress. Once this complete you will able to see a result as below

Success                Restart Needed                          Exit Coed                             Feature Result

True                       No                                           Success                    Active Directory Domain Services 

Ok. The firs step has completed. Now you have the ADDS installed in the server. Next step is to install the Active Directory Forest. Use following codes .

Install-ADDSForest –domainname “your_domain_name”

User your domain name in “your_domain_name”. see following example.

Install-ADDSForest –domainname “nimnet.com”

Once you press enter key it will prompt you to enter the SafeModeAdministratorPassword. Give a strong password and be careful to keep the password in you memory or in any other place. This is the password that the system need when you want to run in the Directory Services Restore Mode.

Once you give the password and confirm it you can see a message in the screen as below

The target server will be configured as a domain controller and restarted when this operation is complete.

Do you want to continue with this operation ?

Press “y” and “Enter” key to confirm.

This will complete your domain installation and will reboot the server.

Hope to see you in a cool topic again. Use the comment box or the mail for doubts.

How to connect a computer to a Domain without connecting to the Network (Offline)

This is an amazing feature that I like to use. Joining a computer to a Domain is not a big deal. But just think if you have hundred of computers to connect to a domain. Normally you can use a script in each computer to join them to the domain. The commands given below will help you to do so. Also I know some administrators configure computers before join them to the domain. In that case this method is a good way to connect the computer before you connect it to the network.

You can configure this in each computer with you and later you can take the computer to the location and connect it to the network.

The magic is when the computer boots it will automatically connect to the domain,

Enough talking, Lets get it done.

Use following provisioning command (Please note you should run Command prompt in Administrator mode )

Djoin /provision /domain “DOMAIN_Name” /machine “Computer_Name” /savefle c:\sharedfiles\”filename.txt”

• Use your domain name in “Domain_name”
• Use your computer name in “Computer_Name”
• Give a name for the text file in “filename.txt”

See following Example

Djoin /provision /domain nimnet.com /machine nimnetpc1 /savefle c:\sharedfiles\data.txt

Go to the client computer and copy the the text file to it in a folder and run following command.

Djoin Command

Djoin /requestoDJ /loadfile “Text File path”  /wndowspath %systemRoot% localos

See following Example

Djoin /requestoDJ /loadfile c:\datafolder\data.txt /wndowspath %systemRoot% localos

Switch Windows Server 2012 GUI to Core

As we discused in a previous post we can swithc windows server 2012 back and forward between GUI and Core. Last post we discussed how to swithced in to GUI from a Core installation. This is the post for administrators who wants to change it back to the Core. Follow the simple steps given below and see what ou do.

Open the Server Manager

Click Manage

In the first screen click Next

Select your server in the list (Local Server) and click Next

We are not ding anything with Roles in next window so click Next and go ahead

Remove check boxes in following

• Graphical Managment Tools and Infrastructure
• Server Graphical Shell

Check the Restart the destination server automatically if requird check box and Click Remove Button

Once the server restart. Ta da.. you are in Core mode..

Congratulations..!!!!

See you in a Hot Topic..

How to Install GUI in Windows Core

Windows core is a very popular windows installation method among administrators. Its giving lot of advantages for them. To save the disc spaces, security, cost and much more. For administrators who are addicted to the command line interfaces this is the best interface to use.

But lot of administrators today likes to use the GUI for server configurations. In this post I am going to explain you the method to convert your Windows Server Core installed server in to GUI.

Just say you Installed windows server Core in to your server with an idea of trying it. But now your are getting some difficulties to do some configurations on that server due to the lack of command line knowledge you have or you are getting lazy to type all the commands one by one in the consol.

This post is for them to change the interface in to GUI without reinstalling the windows.

Connect to the server computer

And in the command line interface use following command lines to achieve your goal.

Powershell (Press Enter)

This will open the powershell

Import-module serverManager (Press Enter)

Install-windowsfeature server-Guid-Mgmt-Infra, Server-GUI-shell –restart (Press Enter)

Once the server restart you can see its changed in to GUI.

Congratulations.

Server 2012 DHCP Part 2

OK.. This is the second method of DHCP failover in Windows sever 2012. It calls Load Sharing Mode. This mode is the default mode of the DHCP server. In this case both servers are working together to server to a particular subnet.

You can remember that I have discussed about Hot Standby Mode. In that mode both primary and secondary servers located in different locations. But in Load Sharing Mode Microsoft is recommending that this is the best mode for a situation which both servers are located in the same location (Same Physical Site).

As a administrator you can configure the Load Sharing distribution in both servers as you need in your environment.

In this case you should understand that Load sharing can configure for a single sub net in a single site or multiple sub nets in the single site. This is an amazing thing I had when implementing with clients. I do use it without any errors . You can understand it more in below figure.

Hope to see you with another HOT topic in server 2012. See you guys.,

Server 2012 DHCP Part 1

DHCP.. yes it is . Most administrators love this as its help them to be safe in there client network areas with the IP address assigning tasks. According to (IETF) this is a standard. This has come with many windows server releases. Windows server 2008 didn’t make a huge change to the DHCP server service on server manager. To reduce the complexity of host IP addresses in a TCP/IP network DHCP is the champ of the battle. When Microsoft release Windows server 2012, DHCP armed with new features. Basically we can see three major improvements

• DHCP Failover
• Policy Based Assignment
• PowerShell for DHCP server management

In real world examples we have different kind of DHCP issues if it is not configured properly. If we talk about above mentioned features the first feature is the best in my environment. To provide DHCP server service continuously to the subnet is a real help to get rid of  some server failing errors.

The basic concept of DHCP failover is its making happen to replicate lease information between two DHCP servers in your network (Subnet). If one server gone down the other DHCP server can take the responsibility to serve to clients of the subnet without making any delay errors.

Microsoft has given another option for this failover system. You can configure both DHCP servers with Load Balancing configurations. This will allow sending all client requests in a distributed manner for both servers. If the client requests are huge you can use this method successfully in your network to balance the request and service load.

When configuring failover settings in DHCP servers. You should keep following things in your mind

DHCP failover feature is supporting only for two servers that is serving for once subnet or scope also it will support its relationship only for IPv 4 scopes and subnets.

Above details are very important to keep in your mind when thinking about DHCP failover configurations in the network. These configurations are going under two modes. First one is Hot Standby Mode and the other one is Load Sharing Mode. From the words you can imagine the process which are expressing. I think its better to discuss both modes separately.

Hot Standby Mode

This mode is very simple to understand as it is like a one vehicle with two drivers. If one driver went down or unreachable, the other one will take the responsibility of driving the vehicle. Technically we explain it as below.

You have two servers configured as DHCP servers with Hot Standby Mode. Primary DHCP server has the responsibility to leasing IP address and configuration information to the subnet or scope. If the primary DHCP server went down the secondary DHCP server is taking all the responsibilities which had with primary DHCP server and it is starting to server the subnet or to the scope.

The best thing is that your secondary DHCP server could be a secondary server for another subnet if you configured it to serve those subnets too.

See the figure given below to clearly understand the meaning of above sentence.

 Microsoft suggest to use this Mode for an central location which the servers are serving as backup servers and standby severs which are serving for servers and clients in remote locations. In above figure you can see that the central locations DHCP secondary server is configured to serve to all other three primary DHCP server sites.

I will discus about the other mode of DHCP failover configurations in my next post. :)

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