How to: Create multiple boundaries in ConfigMgr 2012 within a few seconds

When you’re installing and configuring a new ConfigMgr 2012 environment, one of the steps is to configure the right boundaries for your environment. Sometimes there’re only a few boundaries you have to create, but what if there’re several boundaries to configure. Are you gonna click that much….Let’s create some Powershell command to do the job for us.

1.) First of all we are going to import the ConfigMgr 2012 Powershell module. Use the x86 Windows PowerShell, bacause x64 is not supported!!
Import-Module “C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Configuration Manager\AdminConsole\bin\ConfigurationManager.psd1”
4.) Make a connection to your Primary Site server
Set-Connection P01
3.) Now we are going to create some new boundaries. In this example a whole IP subnet (172.16.10.0 and 172.16.11.0)
New-CMBoundary -Name “Client VLAN1” -Type IPsubnet -Value “172.16.10.0”
New-CMBoundary -Name “Client VLAN2” -Type IPsubnet -Value
“172.16.11.0”
5.) Create a new boundary group. In my example “Main Building”
New-CMBoundaryGroup -Name “Main Building”
6.) The next step is to add the boundaries to the right boundary group
Add-CMBoundaryToGroup -BoundaryName “Client VLAN1” -BoundaryGroupName “Main Building”
Add-CMBoundaryToGroup -BoundaryName “Client VLAN2” -BoundaryGroupName “Main
Building”

Now the job is done. How easy and fast was that…

CMB_01    CMB_02    CMB_03

CMB_04    CMB_05    CMB_06

CMB_07    CMB_08    CMB_09

CMB_10    CMB_11    CMB_12

How to: Enable Jumbo frames on your ISCSI network interface using PowerShell

When building an Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V environment, you want to automate some steps on all the cluster nodes. One of this steps is definitely enabling Jumbo frames on your ISCSI interface(s). You can do this on the properties of you NIC interface, but when you’re installing Hyper-V 2012 Server…YES, there’s no GUI.

The great thing is that there is something called PowerShell ;). You can configure Jumbo frames using PowerShell.

1.) Open PowerShell
2.) Generate an overview of all the Network Interfaces in your Hyper-V host
Get-NetAdapter | ft Name
In my labenvironment there are two ISCSI interfaces (ISCSI01 and ISCSI02)
3.) Show the advanced NIC properties of the ISCSI interfaces
Get-NetAdapterAdvancedProperty -name ISCSI01
Get-NetAdapterAdvancedProperty -name
ISCSI02
As you can see, Jumbo Packet is Disabled
4.) Configure the most common Jumbo Frame setting of 9014 bytes. Note that not all SAN’s supports this value.
Set-NetAdapterAdvancedProperty -Name ISCSI01 -RegistryKeyword “*JumboPacket” -Registryvalue 9014
Set-NetAdapterAdvancedProperty -Name ISCSI02 -RegistryKeyword “*JumboPacket” -Registryvalue 9014
5.) Now Jumbo frames is enabled
Get-NetAdapterAdvancedProperty -name ISCSI01
Get-NetAdapterAdvancedProperty -name
ISCSI02

JF_01    JF_02    JF_03

JF_04    JF_05    JF_06

How to: Create a NIC team within Windows Server 2012

A very nice new feature in Windows Server 2012 is native NIC teaming. This means you can create a team of different NIC’s, without instelling any 3th party drivers or software! Even with different NIC families, for example Intel and Broadcom. Cool!

Within a few clicks, youre NIC team is up and running. Offcourse you can also use PowerShell to manager or create a NIC team. Let’s have a look on some examples from my labenvironment. I’ve created a virtual Windows Server 2012 machine whit a copple of NIC’s in it.

1.) To list all adapter in the machine, you can use the following command
Get-NetAdapter
2.) Rename the adapters
Rename-NetAdapter -Name OLDNAME -NewName NEWNAME
In my example I’m going to create a team of 4 network interfaces (TEAM-INT1,2,3 and 4)
3.) The next step is to create a new team interface
New-NetLbfoTeam -Name LAN-TEAM -TeamMembers TEAM-INT-1, TEAM-INT-2, TEAM-INT-3
As you can see, I’ve only added 3 NIC’s to the team. In the next step, we’re going to add another NIC to the team.
4.) Next we are going to add TEAM-INT-4 to the LAN-TEAM
Add-NetLbfoTeamMebmer -Team LAN-TEAM -InterfaceAlias TEAM-INT-4
5.) Let’s view the team properties
Get-NetLbfoTeam -Name LAN-TEAM
As you can see, all the 4 NIC’s are member of the NIC team
6.) Open the Server Manager and select “Local Server”
7.) Select “NIC Teaming” Here you can edit the properties of your NIC team and see the status of each interface (speed, status, etc.)
8.) When we disable one interface, you see the new status directly

So in this exmple, you have seen how easy it is to build a new NIC team with different NIC’s. No special drivers, no tooling, no 3th party software…just Windows Server 2012!! #cool!

NIC_Team_01    NIC_Team_02    NIC_Team_03

NIC_Team_04    NIC_Team_05    NIC_Team_06

NIC_Team_07    NIC_Team_08    NIC_Team_09

NIC_Team_10    NIC_Team_11

How to: Create a Shutdown/Restart/Logoff Windows 8 Tile for the Start menu

In the Microsoft Script Center you can download a powershell script to create a Shutdown/Restart/Logoff tile for the Start menu in Windows 8. This is so cool!! 🙂 It’s also very easy to use when you connect to an Windows 8 machine through the Remote Desktop Protocol, you’re now able to shutdown this host remotely!

http://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/scriptcenter/Create-a-ShutdownRestartLog-37c8111d

1.) Fist edit the Execution Policy on your desktop
Set-ExecutionPolicy unrestricted
2.) Type the command Import-Module <path to script>
Import-Module
C:\Script\CreateWindowsTile.psm1
3.) Type the command New-OSCWindowsTile
4.) Navigate to start and there are the three new tiles!

       

   

How to: Windows 2012 Server deploy remote domain controllers using Server Manager – part II of II

A few weeks ago I’ve posted an article about how to remotely Install a domain controller within Windows 2012 Server using the Server Manager.

How to: Windows 2012 Server Deploy remote domain controllers using Server Manager – Part I of II

Since Windows 2012 Server, creating a new domain controller is much eassier then ever before. There is another option to create a new domain controller….Yes, using Windows PowerShell!!

As you can see in part I of the post, there are two domain controllers. I have installed a clean Windows 2012 Server within my labenvironment, called Server2.

1.) Logon to Server1 with the Administrator account
2.) Open Windows PowerShell
3.) Type the following command:
Install-WindowsFeature -Name AD-Domain-Services -ComputerName Server2
4.) After the Windows feature is installed succesfully, type the following command:
Invoke-Command –ComputerName Server2 –ScriptBlock {Import-Module ADDSDeployment;Install-ADDSDomainController –NoGlobalCatalog:$False –CreateDNSDelegation:$False –Credential (Get-Credential) –CriticalReplicationOnly:$False –DatabasePath “C:\Windows\NTDS” –DomainName “Contoso.com” –InstallDNS:$True –LogPath “C:\Windows\NTDS” –NoRebootOnCompletion:$False –SiteName “Default-First-Site-Name” –SysVolPath “C:\Windows\SysVol” }
When prompted for credentials, enter the username and password of your domain administrator account!

In my labenvironment, I have used the following parameters:
-ComputerName, this is the name of the new domain controller
-NoGlobalCatalog:$False, the new domain controller becomes also an Global Catalog Server
-CreateNDSDelegation:$False, there are no ohter DNS servers available for DNS delegation
-Creadential(Get-Credential), before executing the command, there will be an popup asking your admin crerdentials
-CriticalReplicationOnly:$False, this entry specifies whether the installation operation performs only important replication before a restart and then skips the noncritical and potentially lengthy part of replication. The noncritical replication occurs after the role installation is complete, and the computer restarts
-Databasepath, the location of the ADDS database (NTDS.DIT)
-DomainName, specifies the fully qualified domain name of your domain
-InstallDNS:$True, the new domain controllers becomes also an DNS server
-LogPath, this is the path of the fully qualified, non-UNC directory on a hard disk on the local computer that will  host the AD DS log files.
-NoRebootOnCompletion:$False, there will be no reboot at the end of the installation
-SiteName, this is the name of your Active Directory site where the new domain controller becomes a member of
-SysVolPath, this folder contains all content replicated to the other domain controller (NETLOGON and SYSVOL directories)
5.) After executing the commands above, and the installation has finished, the new domain controller becomes vissible in your Active Directory environment
6.) All you have to do now is waiting for the next Active Directory replication, so all your domain controllers are synchronized

       

       

       

   

How to: Windows 2012 Server deploy remote domain controllers using Server Manager – part I of II

A great new feature whitin Windows 2012 Server is the possibility to manage servers remote through the Windows Server Manager. In part one of this blogpost, I’m going to deploy a new domain controller to my existing domain in my lab environment through the GUI. In part two of the blogpost, I’m going to deploy again a new domain controller. But now I’m going to use Microsoft Powershell.

I already installed two clean Windows 2012 Servers with the right IP configuration. The servers are added to the Windows Server Manager within my first domain controller, so we’ve the possibility to manage this servers! As you can see, in the begin there’s only one domain controller available.

1.) Login to the existing domain controller of your domain
2.) Open the Server Manager
3.) Navigate to All Servers
4.) Select server SERVER1
5.) Select Manager – Add Roles and Features
6.) Click Next
7.) Select Role-based or feature-based installation
8.) Select server SERVER1
9.) Select server role Active Directory Domain Services and click Next
10.) Click Add Features to install the right Windows features to manage your Active Directory environment
11.) In the confirmation screen, click Install
This will install the server role and features only, not configuring!
12.) After the installation succeeded succesfully, click the red flag on top of the screen
13.) Navigate to Post-deployment Configuration and click Promote this server to a domain controller
14.) Supply the right credentials and click Next
15.) Type the Directory Service Restore Mode (DSRM) password and click Next
16.) In the review screen, you can save the Powershell script to perform this actions automatically the next time.
17.) After the configuration is finished, you’ll see the new domain controller within:
Active Directory Users and Computers
Active Directory Sites and Services