After setting up my new hardware for my LAB, I thought about installing my Hyper-V Servers as Server Core installations. After reading two minutes in some blogs and the Microsoft TechNet I decided to use the Core Editions.
Basically the setup is the same as the none Core Edition or GUI Edition. But after the installation you have to configure the server without a GUI, your only way to do the basic configuration is the command promt. Btw if you close the command prompt, you can easily recover the prompt by pressing CTRL-ALT-DELETE, click Start Task Manager, click New Task and type cmd.exe.
To do the basic configuration of your Windows Server 2008 (R2) Core, you need the following commands:
Checkout the existing Hostname / Computername:
hostame
oripconfig
Change the Computername / Hostname:
netdom renamecomputer
<ComputerName> /NewName:<NewComputerName>
Change the Computername / Hostname without writing the old name:
netdom renamecomputer %computername% /NewName:<NewComputerName>
Show network interfaces:
netsh interface ipv4 show interfaces
Set Static IP Address, Subnet Mask, and Default Gateway (ID is the shown number in the Idx column when you show your network interfaces):
netsh interface ipv4 set address name="<ID>" source=static address=<StaticIP> mask=<SubnetMask> gateway=<DefaultGateway>
Set DNS Server (index= is the priority of the DNS Server):
netsh interface ipv4 add dnsserver name="<ID>" address=<DNSIP>index=1
Join a Domain:
netdom join <ComputerName> /domain:<DomainName> /userd:<UserName> /passwordd:*
Add a Domain User to the local administrator group:
net localgroup administrators /add <DomainName>\<UserName>
Change or set the product key of your server:
slmgr.vbs –ipk<productkey>
Active the server licence:
slmgr.vbs -ato
If activation is successful, no message will return in the command prompt
Configure the firewall:
netsh advfirewall
netsh advfirewall firewall set rule group="Remote Administration" new enable=yes
Enable Remote Desktop:
cscript c:\windows\system32\scregedit.wsf /ar 0
Restart the Computer:
shutdown /r /t 0
Open Task Manager with the command prompt:
taskmgr
List event logs:
wevtutil el
Find something in the event log:
wevtutil qe /f:
<text>
List running services:
sc query
or
net start
List running tasks:
tasklist
to active Powershell type:
powershell
For the most of this simple tasks there is also a configuration tool, which makes it very easy to do your first configuration with Windows Server 2008 Core Edition. The Tool is called sconfig, and its very simple, just start the program with the following command:
sconfig.cmd
Now this will open the following configuration utility:
Tags: cmd, configure, Core, Core Server, Hyper-V, installation, IT, Microsoft, netdom, netsh, sconfig, sconfig.cmd, Server, Server Core, setup, Task Manager, taskmgr, windows server 2008, Windows Server 2008 Core, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2008 R2 Core Last modified: September 2, 2019
Thank you very much for the excellent documentation – I was able to set up my first core server following the steps you provided.
HI,
Hi,
Will an USB device be seen under prompt command of a Server 2008 R2 Core installation as f: or g: ?
Or is ther any command to invoke to mount it ?
Thanks for help.
Regards,
J.P.
you can use diskpart.exe to check that. start diskpart and type “list volume”
Hi,
Thanks for so prompt answer .
reagrds,
J.P.