I finally got around to installing a new Windows Server 2008 instance using the server core option. As with a standard Server 2008 install, the install procedure itself is extremely easy and straight forward. You get asked for your language, keyboard layout, and what drive you want to install and off it goes. That's it, when it's done you're ready to start configuring your server.

One thing to point out, is that you must have 512MB of ram in order to proceed with the install. I was able to change the amount of memory to 256 after install without issue.

Another thing to point out is that you are not prompted for a product key. By default you are allowed 60 days to enter a key and activate. See my section below on product activation.

So the first thing I noticed was that you still get a Server 2008/Vista style logon prompt. At first I thought I had accidentally selected a full install instead of server core, but after logging in, I got the expected command prompt window. I guess I was expecting a  *nix console login.

One thing that people might  be wondering is how much disk space and memory does server core use out of the box. I have 5.9GB of a 8GB partition free, so simple math gives us 2.1 GB. Task manager shows that I have 171MB of RAM in use.

So now what? I got a command prompt, and, well, yeah. If you remember Server 2008 is supposed to be secure by default, so the firewall should be on, and the network card should be disabled to allow you to configure your server before exposing it on a network.

As I mentioned before about logging in, there is still some GUI. The task manager is available by pressing Ctrl+Alt+Del, and when you install applications (i.e. VMWare tools) you do get dialog box prompts. In case you close your command window, you can do Ctrl+Alt+Del and start a new command window by going to File\Run and typing cmd.

Some web sites you might find useful are:

• Server Core blog on Technet
• Step by Step server core configuration
• Enable specific MMC snap-in's in Windows Firewall
• Blog post by Michael Kleef - Links to command line tools, and a quick walk thru to get your box on the network and domain. He gives a pretty good tip in that once you have server core as part of a domain, you can use GPO to configure things like the firewall.

VMWare Tools

I needed to install the VMWare tools on the version of ESX server I was running before the network card would show up (netsh interface ipv4 show interfaces).

• Manually mount the cd-rom image for the VMWare tools
• Browse to D:\ and run setup.exe
• Follow on screen prompts

Setting the IP Address (From Michael Kleef)

• At a command prompt, type: Ipconfig /all
• Record the relevant information or redirect it to a text file (ipconfig /all >ipconfig.txt).
• At a command prompt, type:

Netsh interface ipv4 show interfaces

• Verify that there is an interface list.
• At a command prompt, type:

Netsh interface ipv4 set address name="<name of interface from interface list>" static address=<preferred IP address> <mask> <gateway address> 1

• Verify by typing Ipconfig /all at a command prompt and checking that there is the IP Address you configured

Setting the DNS (From Michael Kleef)

• At a command prompt, type:

Netsh interface ipv4 add dnsserver name=<name of interface from ipconfig /all> address=<IP address of the primary DNS server> index=1

• At a command prompt, type:

Netsh interface ipv4 add dnsserver name=<name of interface from ipconfig /all> address=<IP address of the secondary DNS server> index=2

• Repeat as appropriate to add additional servers.
• Verify by typing Ipconfig /all and checking that all the addresses are correct.

Rename the Server (Step by Step server core configuration)

• Use hostname to determine the current computer name
• At a command prompt type:

netdom renamecomputer <ComputerName> /NewName:<NewComputerName>

• Restart the computer - shutdown /r /t 0

Join a Domain (From Michael Kleef)

• At a command prompt type:

Netdom join <ComputerName> /domain:<domain> /userd:<domain>\username> /passwordd:*

• Note: The value ComputerName should match the current name of the server core instance you are working with. Rename the computer before attempting to join the domain.

Enable Remote Desktop

• At a command prompt on the server core install type

cscript C:\Windows\System32\ Scregedit.wsf /ar 0

Product Activation

• View current activation status: slmgr.vbs -dli
• Add a product key: slmgr -ipk <ProductKey>
• Activate: slmgr -ato
• Note, if you are installing from MSDN like I am, you must enter your MSDN product key using slmgr. Also, some of the commands take awhile to run, and you should see a window popup for commands like -dli.

Active Directory Install

• You must use a answer file with dcpromo: dcpromo /unattend:<fileName>
• If you have another W2K8 member server (not server core), you can run the dcpromo gui and at the last step there is an option to save the options as an answer file. I didn't have this luxery, but I found a sample file from this article. Use notepad on server core to create this file.

[DCInstall]
; Replica DC promotion
ReplicaOrNewDomain=Replica
ReplicaDomainDNSName=techmentor.com
SiteName=Default-First-Site-Name
InstallDNS=No
ConfirmGc=Yes
DNSDelegation=No
UserDomain=techmentor.com
UserName=*
Password=*
DatabasePath=C:\Windows\NTDS
LogPath=C:\Windows\NTDS
SYSVOLPath=C:\Windows\SYSVOL
; Set SafeModeAdminPassword to the correct value prior to using the unattend file
SafeModeAdminPassword=
; Run-time flags (optional)
; CriticalReplicationOnly=Yes
; RebootOnCompletion=Yes
TransferIMRoleIfNecessary=No

Commands:

• Shutdown - shutdown /s /t 0
• Restart - shutdown /r /t 0
• LogOff - shutdown /l
• netsh - Networking command. This needs it's own post.
• notepad
• regedit