■ .NET Framework 4.5 Features
■ Streaming Media Services
■ Failover Clustering
■ iSCSI
■ Network Load Balancing
■ MPIO
■ qWave
■ Telnet Server/Client
■ Windows Server Migration Tools
■ Windows PowerShell 4.0
Server Core does not have the normal Windows interface or GUI. Almost everything has to be configured via the command line or, in some cases, using the Remote Server Administration Tools from a full version of Windows Server 2012 R2. While this might scare off some administrators, it has the following benefits:
Reduced Management Because Server Core has a minimum number of applications installed, it reduces management effort.
Minimal Maintenance Only basic systems can be installed on Server Core, so it reduces the upkeep you would need to perform in a normal server installation.
Smaller Footprint Server Core requires only 1GB of disk space to install and 2GB of free space for operations.
Tighter Security With only a few applications running on a server, it is less vulnerable to attacks.
The prerequisites for Server Core are basic. It requires the Windows Server 2012 R2 installation media, a product key, and the hardware on which to install it.
After you install the base operating system, you use PowerShell or the remote administrative tools to configure the network settings, add the machine to the domain, create and format disks, and install roles and features. It takes only a few minutes to install Server Core, depending on the hardware.
One of the new things to keep in mind is that you can upgrade or downgrade to Server Core or MinShell. In Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows Server 2008, if you wanted to switch your Windows Server GUI to Server Core, or vice versa, there was no way to convert to a full Windows Server installation or a Server Core installation without reinstalling the operating system. In Windows Server 2012 R2, the Server Core or GUI installation options are no longer an irreversible selection made during setup. An administrator now has the ability to convert between a Server Core installation and a full installation as needed.
Better Security
When I started in this industry more than 20 years ago, I was a programmer. I used to program computer hospital systems. When I switched to the networking world, I continued to work under contract with hospitals and with doctors’ offices.
One problem I ran into is that many doctors are affiliated with hospitals, but they don’t actually have offices within the hospital. Generally, they have offices either near the hospital or, in some cases, right across the street.
Here is the issue: Do we put servers in the doctors’ offices, or do we make the doctor log into the hospital network through a remote connection? Doctors’ offices normally don’t have computer rooms, and we don’t want to place a domain controller or server on someone’s desk. It’s just unsafe!
This is where Windows Server 2012 R2 Server Core can come into play. Since it is a slimmed-down version of Windows and there is no GUI, it makes it harder for anyone in the office to hack into the system. Also, Microsoft introduced a new domain controller in Windows Server 2008 called a read-only domain controller (RODC). As its name suggests, it is a read-only version of a domain controller (explained in detail later in this book).
With Server Core and an RODC, you can feel safer placing a server on someone’s desk or in any office. Server Core systems allow you to place servers in areas that you would never have placed them before. This can be a great advantage to businesses that have small, remote locations without full server rooms.
If you have a server that is running Server Core, there may be a situation in which you need to use the graphical user interfaces available only in Windows Server 2012 R2 with a GUI mode. Windows Server 2012 and Windows Server 2012 R2 allow you to switch the Server Core system to a Server with a GUI mode, or vice versa.
To convert from a Windows 2012 or Windows Server 2012 R2 Server Core system to Server with a GUI mode, run this code snippet (a restart is required):
To convert from Server Core mode to Server with a GUI mode, follow these steps when the server is initially installed in Server Core mode:
1. Determine the index number for a server with a GUI image (for example, SERVERDATACENTER, not SERVERDATACENTERCORE) using this cmdlet:
2. Run this line of code:
3. Alternatively, if you want to use Windows Update as the source instead of a WIM file, use this Windows PowerShell cmdlet:
After you have completed the management tasks, you can switch the server back to Server Core mode whenever it is convenient (a restart is required) with this Windows PowerShell cmdlet:
NIC Teaming
NIC Teaming, also known as load balancing and failover (LBFO), gives an administrator the ability to allow multiple network adapters on a system to be placed into a team. Independent hardware vendors (IHVs) have required NIC Teaming, but until Windows Server 2012, NIC Teaming was not part of the Windows Server Operating System.
To be able to use NIC Teaming, the computer system must have at least one Ethernet adapter. If you want to provide fault protection, an administrator must have a minimum of two Ethernet adapters. One advantage of Windows Server 2012 R2 is that an administrator can setup 32 network adapters in a NIC Team.
NIC Teaming is a very common practice when setting up virtualization. It is one way that you can have load balancing with Hyper-V.
NIC Teaming gives an administrator the ability to allow a virtual machine to use virtual network adapters in Hyper-V. The advantage of using NIC Teaming in Hyper-V is that the administrator can use it to connect to more than one Hyper-V switch. This allows Hyper-V to maintain connectivity even if the network adapter under the Hyper-V switch gets disconnected.
An administrator can configure NIC Teaming in either Server Manager or PowerShell.
Installing Windows Server 2012 R2
In the following sections, I am going to walk you through two different types of installs. I will show you how to do a full install of Windows 2012 Server with the GUI, and then I will show you how to install the Server Core version of the same software.
Installing with the GUI
In Exercise 1.1, I will show you how to install Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter with the GUI. The GUI represents the Windows applications on the Desktop and the operating system functions that you can control and navigate with a mouse. The Server Core version is a command-line version only – you cannot use a mouse with Server Core unless you are going to use the mouse wheel for scrolling.
Windows Installation
At the time of this writing, I used the first full release of Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter. For this reason, there may be screens that have changed somewhat since this book was published.
EXERCISE 1.1 : Installing