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

       

       

       

       

       

       

   

Cool free Windows 8 app…Server Posterpedia

Microsoft has released a great new free Windows 8 app…Server Posterpedia!Server Posterpedia is an interactive app that uses technical posters as a reference for  understanding Microsoft technologies.

You can download the app using the following URL: http://apps.microsoft.com/webpdp/nl-NL/app/server-posterpedia/f988071c-66dc-4281-8028-637ac0f09061 or in the App Store! How cool is that!

       

       

How to Check if Your CPU Supports Second Level Address Translation (SLAT)

Windows 8 will bring a lot of new features to the Windows computing environment, one of which will be Hyper-V. In order to run Hyper-V your processor must support Second Level Address Translation (SLAT). Read on to find out if your processor supports SLAT.

What is SLAT?

Second Level Address Translation is a technology introduced in both Intel and AMD flavors of processors. Both companies call their version of the technology different names, Intel’s version is called EPT(Extended Page Tables) and AMD calls theirs RVI (Rapid Virtualization Indexing). Intel introduced Extended Page Tables in its processors that were built on the Nehalem architecture, while AMD only introduced RVI in their third generation of Opteron processors codenamed Barcelona. Hyper-V uses this to perform more VM memory management functions and reduce the overhead of translating guest physical addresses to real physical addresses. By doing this, Hypervisor CPU time is significantly reduced, and more memory is saved for each VM.

How it works

The processor has a Translation Lookaside Buffer (TLB) that supports virtual to physical memory address translation. A TLB is a cache on the processor that contains recently used mappings from the page table. When a virtual to physical address translation is required, the TLB checks it’s cache to determine whether or not it contains the mapping information. If the TLB contains a match, the physical memory address is provided and the data is access. If the TLB doesn’t contain a record, a page error occurs, and the Windows checks the page table for the mapping information. If Windows finds a mapping, it is written to the TLB, the address translation takes place, and then the data is accessed. Because of this buffer, the hypervisors overhead is substantially decreased.

So what?

With all the hype surrounding Windows 8, it has been made known that Windows 8 will come with Hyper-V as a vitalization platform. While that might not appeal to everyone at first glance, it has been thought that this will be the only form of backwards compatibility, somewhat like XP Mode. SLAT will be required for Hyper-V in Windows 8.

How do I know if I have SLAT?

To find out if your processor supports SLAT, you will need to download a copy of CoreInfo. Once you have downloaded it you will need to extract it. You should extract it so that coreinfo is in the root of your C:\ drive. To see if your processor supports SLAT you will need to run “coreinfo.exe -v”.

On an Intel if your processor supports SLAT it will have an asterix in the EPT row. This is seen in the screenshot below.
On an AMD if your processor supports SLAT it will have an asterix in the NPT row.

If your processors dont support SLAT you will see a dash in the EPT or NPT rows.

1.) Run the CMD command prompt as an Administrator
2.) Browse to the CoreInfo folder on your C: drive
3.) Enter the command CoreInfo.exe -v

How to: Install a domain controller in Windows Server 2012

Now the Release Candidate version of Windows Server 2012 is available, I’ve setup a new testlab to play with this new version of Windows. A few posts ago you’ve seen the installation of Windows Server 2012. Now we’re going to prepare this server to become a domain controller. The simple command “DCPROMO” don’t work anymore, so we’ve to do some additional actions.

1.) Open the Server Manager and select Add roles and features
2.) Select Role-based or features-based installation
3.) Select the right server, in my example W2012 (172.16.1.100)
4.) Select the roles Active Directory Domian Services and DNS Server
5.) Select the features Group Policiy Management and DNS Server Tools
6.) After the installation of this roles and features, there’s a notification within the Server Manager Dashboard
7.) Select Promote this server to a domain controller. A Deployment Configuration Wizard starts
8.) Select Add a new forest and fill in the Root domain name. In my example TESTLAB.LOCAL
9.) Both Forest and Domain functional level are Windows Server 2012 Release Candidate
10.) If the domain controller is also an DNS Server, check the Domain Name System (DNS) server
11.) The domain controllers becomes also an Global Catalog (GC)
12.) You could choose to install an Read only domain controller (RODC)
13.) Fill in the NetBIOS name of the new domain. In my example TESTLAB
14.) Specify the location of the AD DS database, log files, and SYSVOL directory. Default it will be
C:\Windows\NTDS and C:\Windows\SYSVOL
15.) After all configuration, there’s a last prerequisites check. After this step, you can hit Install
16.) The server will reboot and the new Domain Controller is ready to use.

You can script all the steps above with powershell. You can use the following script.

#
# Windows PowerShell script for AD DS Deployment
#

Import-Module ADDSDeployment Install-ADDSForest ` -CreateDnsDelegation:$false ` -DatabasePath “C:\Windows\NTDS” ` -DomainMode “Win2012” ` -DomainName “TESTLAB.LOCAL” ` -DomainNetbiosName “TESTLAB” ` -ForestMode “Win2012” ` -InstallDns:$true ` -LogPath “C:\Windows\NTDS” ` -NoRebootOnCompletion:$false ` -SysvolPath “C:\Windows\SYSVOL” ` -Force:$true

       

       

       

       

   

How to: Install Windows Server 2012 in VMware Workstation

This week Microsoft has released the RC version of Microsoft Windows Server 2012, so I wanted to install it directly 🙂 Because I don’t have that much fysical hardware available, I’ve installed Windows Server 2012 in VMware Workstation 8.x.

1.) Create a new Virtual Machine
2.) Choose for Custom (advanced)
3.) Choose for Workstation 8.0 hardware compatibility
4.) Choose for I will install the operating system later.
5.) Guest operating system Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 x64
6.) Browse to your .VMX file on the hard drive and add the following rule into this file:
vmGenCounter.enable = FALSE
7.) Save the .VMX file and open your VM properties
8.) Attach your ISO to the VM
9.) Start the installation of Windows Server 2012
10.) You can choose two options for installation, Server Core Installation or Server with a GUI. In this example I’ve installed the GUI version.
11.) After the installation has finished, install the VMware Tools
12.) Choose for Custom installation
13.) Disable the SVGA Driver
14.) Install the VMware Tools en reboot the VM