Windows Server 2008 Core Quick Reference
This month I have been setting up my first Windows 2008 core server to go into a production environment. It has been a very interesting experience as I was expecting a straight forward process but ran into a few challenges. What with some vendor specific hardware and a bizarre WSUS issue, I have certainly had some fun.
Therefore I thought that I would share with you my cheat sheet that has a few basic commands that got me through this build and some commands seemed to be harder to find than expected. Now they are in no particular order from a technical point but are in the order that I found them/needed them. J
Set the computer name
Netdom computername [origcomputername] /add Core.contoso.com
Netdom computername [origcomputername] /makeprimary core.contoso.com
Configure IP address
Netsh int ipv4 set address “Local Area Connection” static 192.168.1.200 255.255.255.0 192.168.1.1
Netsh int ipv4 set address “Local Area Connection” source=dhcp
Netsh int ipv4 set dnsserver “Local Area Connection” static 192.168.1.200 primary
Netsh int ipv4 set winsserver “Local Area Connection” static 192.168.1.200 primary
Change the name of the network interface
Netsh int set interface name = “Local Area Connection” newname = “LAN”
Manage Firewall
Netsh firewall set opmode enable
Netsh firewall set opmode disable
Enable Remote Administration
Netsh firewall set service remoteadmin enable
To set up the registry for remote admin
Cscript C:\Windows\System32\ Scregedit.wsf /ar 0
If you are using an older version of TS client, then you need to drop the security levels on core
cscript C:\Windows\System32\Scregedit.wsf /cs 0
To enable automatic updates
cscript C:\Windows\System32\Scregedit.wsf /AU 4
To use the Disk Management MMC snap-in remotely
Net start vds
To view main hardware/software details of core
Systeminfo.exe
Reset the administrator password
Net use administrator *
To activate the server
Slmgr.vbs –ato
To join the domain
Netdom join <computer name. /domain:<domainname> /userd:<username> /password:<password>
Restart core
Shutdown /r
To remotely find out if this server a core build using WMI
wmic path win32_operatingsystem get OperatingSystemSKU /value
To list installed drivers:
Sc query type= driver
Installing a driver that is not included:
Copy the driver files to Server Core
Pnputil –i –a <path>\<driver>.inf
List of installed patches:
wmic qfe list
Hopefully you will find this useful too :)
