Installation and basic configuration
[back]
The same thing as for Full Installation: boot the server with the installation media and go through the installation wizard and select the correct installation mode and disk partition configuration and wait for the OS installation to complete.
Disk configuration
System partition is enough to be 10GB on a Server Core box compared with the recommendation of 40GB for Full Installation.
In earlier operating system versions (up to Windows Server 2003), the system partition couldn't be changed in a native supported way. This has however been fixed in Windows Vista/Server 2008 and newer versions.
Basic command line help
Use cscript scregedit.wsf -cli located in %windir%\system32 to get a starting command line help.
Network configuration
By default, the operating system is configured to use DHCP out of the box and normally not necessary to change to static address. Some services like NLB or DHCP servers must have static address to work.
netsh command works the same as in previous versions of Windows OS to configure IP-address, DNS server etc, but has of course been improved to handle new stuff like IPv6.
R2 release of Server Core has been shipped with the builtin sconfig tool, which is a menu based tool including the most of the basic network configuration steps. netsh can be quicker to use than sconfig if knowing how to use netsh, which also overrides some limitations of the menu based tool.
In previous R1 release, the builtin method was to use netsh command line or download a third party tool like CoreConfig or Core Configuration Console.
In sconfig: use menu option 8 (Network Settings) to access the network configuration section
netsh: set IP-address
To set a single address:
Use DHCP assigned address: netsh int ip set address name="Local Area Connection" source=dhcp
Use a static IP address: netsh int ip set address "Local Area connection" static 10.0.0.9 255.0.0.0 10.0.0.1 1
To add additional adresses:
netsh int ip add address "Local Area Connection" 10.0.0.2 255.0.0.0
netsh int ip add address "Local Area Connection" gateway=10.0.0.3 gwmetric=2
netsh: set DNS-server
To set a single address:
netsh int ip set dns name="Local Area Connection" source=dhcp
netsh int ip set dns "Local Area Connection" static 10.0.0.1 primary
To add additinal addresses:
netsh int ip add dns "Local Area Connection" 10.0.0.1
netsh int ip add dns "Local Area Connection" 10.0.0.3
netsh: set WINS-server
Set a single address:
netsh int ip set wins name="Local Area Connection" source=dhcp
netsh int ip set wins "Local Area Connection" static 10.0.0.1 primary
Add additinal addresses:
netsh int ip add dns "Local Area Connection" 10.0.0.1
netsh int ip add dns "Local Area Connection" 10.0.0.3
Computer name
The server gets by default a random servername.
To rename the server, use option 2 (Computer Name) in sconfig or use command line netdom renamecomputer %computername% /newname:NEWCOMPUTERNAME.
Domain membership
To join the server to a domain, use option 1 (Domain/Workgorup) in sconfig or use command line netdom join %computername% /domain:DOMAINNAME /ud:USERNAME /pd:PASSWORD.
Remote management
To enable remote management and allow GUI tools like Server Manager, remote management nead to be enabled with option 4 (Configure Remote Management) in sconfig.
To allow RDP client to connect to the server, use option 7 (Remote Desktop) in sconfig or cscript scregedit.wsf /AR 0 command.
Also see the remote management page.
Installing roles and features
ocsetup and oclist
To install new roles or features, use ocsetup RoleToBeInstalled command.
Use oclist command to display available roles/features and their installation status.
dism
dism /online /enable-feature /feature-name:IIS-ManagementService
dism /online /get-features
Powershell
To install roles/features by using powershell, the cmdlet module for Server Manager nead to be loaded by using Import-Module servermanager
When the servermanager module is loaded, the roles and features are managed by using Add-WindowsFeature, Get-WindowsFeature and Remove-WindowsFeature.
List backup features: Get-WindowsFeature *backup*
List remote desktop/assistance related roles: Get-WindowsFeature *rds*,*remote*
The nice thing with powershell is the parsing functionality of previous commands making it possibly to pipe the result of Get-WindowsFeature cmdlet into Add-WindowsFeature
Get-WindowsFeature *backup* | Add-WindowsFeature
Additional to using the output of Get-WindowsFeature above, the Add-WindowsFeature can also be used with wildcards or -IncludeAllSubFeatures parameter.
Add-WindowsFeature RSAT*
Add-WindowsFeature RSAT -IncludeAllFeatures
Also see Windows PowerShell blog
Installing a Active Directory role to setup the server as a Domain Controller is done by using dcpromo command with an answer file.
Windows Update
As Server Core lacks of GUI the notify option with the shield icon in taskbas isn't available. This gives two possibly options for Windows Update, either do the check/install manual or automatical configured either through menu option 5 (Windows Update Settings) in sconfig or by using GPOs.
The R1 version lacked of builtin manual installation method more or less enforced the server to use automatical installation option to keep the patching up to date if not having a script using Windows Update API.
In R2 release, the manual installation option has been included in sconfig with option 6 (Download and Install Updates).