The Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT) for Windows 7 RTM have been released to microsoft.com. These include the Hyper-V tools for remote management of Windows Server 2008 R2 and Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2.
Once you install the update, you can enable one or more of the following tools from the Control Panel under Programs, Turn Windows features on or off.
You can download RSAT here.
All of you know that Microsoft Windows 2008 R2 will be available in the end of this year! When you want to migrate to Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2, there’s no support anymore for Exchang 2007!!
“Stand alone DC/GC can be Windows Server 2008 R2 and it is supported to have Exchange Server 2007 SP2 work against these DC/GCs.
There is NO support for any Exchange Server 2007 SP2 components (any roles, including admin tools) installed on Windows Server 2008 R2. Exchange Server 2007 SP2 will not even install on it – the pre-req check will fail during installation.”
So when you’re planning to upgrade to Microsoft Windows 2008 R2, keep in mind that you not upgrade your Exchange 2007 environment!
By default there are a copple of ProfileSettings available when you install Immidio Flex Profiles. When you install a new application on your Terminal Server environment, you also want to save this application settings for your users! In my Terminal Server environment i’ve installed Adobe Reader and i’ve made some custom INI file for saving the settings for my users.
1.) First make some new INI file in your Flex_Config\ProfileSettings directory
2.) Edit the INI file and type in the RegisterTree or IndividualRegistryValues
3.) Login to your Terminal Server environment, start Adobe Reader and make some changes
4.) Logoff and check the users home directory if there’s a file called <INIfilename.ZIP> in my example AdobeReader9.ZIP. In this file you see all the registry settings!
5.) Login again and see that the settings are saved
6.) Delete the <INIfilename.ZIP> from the users home directory
7.) Login again to your Terminal Server environment
8.) As you can see, all the settings are gone!
9.) If you want to replace a backup, in the users home directory folder _Settings\Settings_Backup is a backup available automatically
A nice tool to manage your environment with Mandatory Profiles is Immidio Flex Profiles.
I’m going to install this tool in my Windows 2003 Terminal Server environment.
– First install the Immidio Flex Profile application on your Terminal Server(s). When executing the Immidio Flex Profiles.msi file, no services are installed and no reboots are required. The Flex Profiles MSI file must be executed under an account with administrative privileges, since a small number of registry keys are added to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE hive.
Note! To install the Framework unattended, just run the following command. msiexec /i “\\Server\Share\Immidio Flex Profiles.msi” /qn
– The Flex Profiles framework includes a compressed file that is used for central configuration purposes: Flex_Config.zip. Extract this file in a central and fault tolerant network share using a Zip program, such as WinZip. The target folder can be a share on a file cluster or the NETLOGON share or SYSVOL folder on a domain controller. The scripts included in Flex_Config.zip help you to centrally configure Flex Profiles.
– Configuring the Flex Profiles in the logon and logoff script is rather simple. The syntax to activate Flex Profiles is as follows.
An example for a logon script may look as follows.
CSCRIPT /NOLOGO “%PROGRAMFILES%\Immidio\Flex Profiles\Flex_Framework.vbs” LOGON \\FLEX.local\NETLOGON\Flex_Config
In the logoff script, specify the LOGOFF option instead:
CSCRIPT /NOLOGO “%PROGRAMFILES%\Immidio\Flex Profiles\Flex_Framework.vbs” LOGOFF \\FLEX.local\NETLOGON\Flex_Config
IMPORTANT: Proper timing is essential when setting up Flex Profiles in a user logon script. It is recommended to run the Flex Framework script in the logon script after the home directories are mapped and before other application settings are configured. Additionally it is recommended to enable the policy Run logon scripts synchronously in order to prevent applications or the desktop from starting while the logon script is still running.
– In order to configure the Flex Profiles Framework the file Framework.ini in the Flex configuration folder needs to be opened and modified with an adequate ANSI editor, such as Notepad.
I’ve edit this setting to [LOCATIONS] STOREROOT, this setting configures the root of the path where the profile archives are stored.
STOREROOT=3 uses the user’s Terminal Server home directory directly from AD (Only supported with Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008 in an AD environment). By default the vallue is 1.
– After you login on your Teminal Server environment, and you logoff, you’ll see the following folder in your users home directory _Settings. Here are the user specific settings that will be saved when the users are logoff. As you can see, all the .ZIP file are exactly the same as in your NETLOGON directory, were you can make you settings per application! You can add new INI files if you want to add some application settings, or even delete some INI files from appliations that are not used in your environment.
LCR (local continuous replication)
this was mainly used for small business who wanted to replicate a copy of their Exchange database to another disk on the same server.
SCC (Single copy cluster)
was what I would call a traditional Exchange cluster which used shared storage to host the Exchange database.
CCR (cluster continuous replication)
was used to replicate Exchange database information between 2 Exchange server allowing for hardware and storage redundancy but was limited to 1 Active node and 1 Passive node.
SCR (standby continuous replication)
was introduced in Exchange 2007 SP1 to provide the ability to replicate Exchange databases to an disaster recovery location.
In this article I’m going to set up a Read Only Domain Controller in a Windows 2008 environment. There’s already a writable Domain Controller available in the domain GPO.LOCAL. The first step is to Install a new Windows 2008 Server, in my example it’s a Core Edition. After the installation, you can begin configuring your new server.
– Enter the productkey:
slmgr.vbs -ipk xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx
– Activate Windows:
slmgr.vbs -ato
– Rename the computer:
Netdom renamecomputer “%computername%” /newname:SRV-RODC01 /reboot:15
– Show all network interfaces:
Netsh interface ipv4 show interface
– Set a static IP address:
Netsh interface ipv4 set address name=2 source=static address=172.16.1.11 mask=255.255.0.0 gateway=172.16.1.1
(make sure that you’re choosing the right network interface. In this example it’s 2, so name=2 it means interface 2)
– Set a static DNS server:
Netsh interface ipv4 add dnsserver name=2 address=172.16.1.10 index=1
– Turn Remote Desktop (RDP) on:
Cscript %windir%\system32\SCRegEdit.wsf /ar 0
– Enable Remote Desktop (RDP) in the Windows Firewall:
netsh advfirewall firewall set rule group=”remote desktop” new enable=yes
(Note: type this rule in by your self, copy past will give an error!)
– Enable Remote Management (RemoteCMD) in the Windows Firewall:
netsh advfirewall firewall set rule group=”Remote Administration” new enable=yes
(Note: type this rule in by your self, copy past will give an error!)Making the unattended.txt:
Copy and past the following test into the new textfile and save this file on the C: drive of the Core Server.
==================================================
[DCInstall]
InstallDNS=Yes
ConfirmGc=Yes
CriticalReplicationOnly=No
DisableCancelForDnsInstall=No
Password=********
RebootOnCompletion=No
ReplicaDomainDNSName=GPO.local
ReplicaOrNewDomain=ReadOnlyReplica
ReplicationSourceDC=srv-w2k8dc01.gpo.local
SafeModeAdminPassword=********
SiteName=Default-First-Site-Name
UserDomain=GPO.local
UserName=Administrator
==================================================
– Run the DCPROMO
dcpromo /unattend:c:\unattend.txt15)
– Reboot the Domain Controller
shutdown -r -t 0
As you can see, when you make a connection to the RODC, you’re not be able to make any changes to existing users or groups and the option “New” is hidden when you right-click in your environment.
In the next post i’m going to delete a RODC from the environment. (for example if your server is stolen or something like that).
All of you know that there’s a free edition of VMware ESXi which is bootable from a flash memory (USB drive for example!) Microsoft is also working on a bootable version of Hyper-V Server 2008 R2. This means that you can boot from a flash memory without any disks in your server…cool!!
