Configuring a Server Core installation: Overview

Because a Server Core installation does not include the Windows user interface, there is
no "out-of-box experience" to help you complete the server configuration. Instead you
must manually complete the configuration using the command-line tools as outlined in
the following steps.

You can also configure certain aspects using the Server Configuration tool. To use the
tool, see Configuring a Server Core installation of Windows Server 2008 R2 with
Sconfig.cmd1.

Note

You can use an unattended setup to configure these settings during installation. For
more information about unattended settings, see the Windows Automated Installation
Kit (Windows AIK) (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=810302).

Administrative credentials

If you are going to join a server running a Server Core installation to an existing
Windows domain, you need a user name and password for an account that has the
administrative credentials to join a computer to the domain.

Known issues for configuring a Server Core installation

• If you close all command prompts, you will have no way to manage the Server
Core installation. To recover, you can press CTRL+ALT+DELETE, click Start
Task Manager, click File, click Run, and type cmd.exe. Alternatively, you
can log off and log back on again.

• Because there is no Web browser, you cannot activate a Server Core

Steps for configuring a Server Core installation

The following procedures explain how to configure a computer running a Server Core
installation. You’ll need to:

• Set the administrative password.

• Set a static IP address.

Note

A DHCP address is provided by default. You should perform this procedure only if you
need to set a static IP address.
 • Join a domain.

• Activate the server and entering a product key, if required.

• Configure the firewall.

• Configure several aspects with one tool (Windows Server 2008 R2 only).

To set the administrative password in Windows Server 2008

1. When your computer starts for the first time after the installation completes,
press CTRL+ALT+DELETE. Type Administrator for the user name and leave the
password blank.
2. The system will inform you that the password has expired and will prompt you to
enter a new password.
3. Type an appropriate password.

To set the administrative password in Windows Server 2008 R2

1. When your computer starts for the first time after the installation completes, the
system will inform you that the user’s password must be changed before logging
on for the first time. Click OK.
2. The system will prompt you to enter a password.
3. Type an appropriate password.

To set a static IP address

1. At a command prompt, type the following:

netsh interface ipv4 show interfaces

2. Make a note of the number shown in the Idx column of the output for your
network adapter. If your computer has more than one network adapter, make a
note of the number corresponding to the network adapter for which you wish to
set a static IP address.
3. At the command prompt, type:

netsh interface ipv4 set address name="<ID>" source=static

Where:

ID is the number from step 2 above.

StaticIP is the static IP address that you are setting.

SubnetMask is the subnet mask for the IP address.

DefaultGateway is the default gateway.

4. At the command prompt, type:

netsh interface ipv4 add dnsserver name="<ID>"

ID is the number from step 2 above.

DNSIP is the IP address of your DNS server.

5. Repeat step 4 for each DNS server that you want to set, incrementing the
index= number each time.

Note

If you set the static IP address on the wrong network adapter, you can change back to
using the DHCP address supplied by using the following command:
netsh interface ipv4 set address name="<ID>" source=dhcp
where ID is the number of the network adapter from Step 2.

To join a domain

1. At a command prompt, type:

netdom join <ComputerName> /domain:<DomainName>

Where:

ComputerName is the name of the server that is running the Server Core
installation.

DomainName is the name of the domain to join.

UserName is a domain user account with permission to join the domain.

2. When prompted to enter the password, type the password for the domain user
account specified by UserName.
3. If you need to add a domain user account to the local Administrators group, type
the following command:

net localgroup administrators /add <DomainName>\<UserName>

4. Restart the computer. You can do this by typing the following at a command
prompt:

shutdown /r /t 0

To rename the server

1. Determine the current name of the server with the hostname or ipconfig
command.
2. At a command prompt, type:

netdom renamecomputer <ComputerName>

To activate the server

• For Windows Server 2008 R2, enter a product key by typing the following at a
command prompt:

slmgr.vbs –ipk<productkey>

Then, for both Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows Server 2008, activate
the server by typing the following at a command prompt:

slmgr.vbs -ato

If activation is successful, no message will return in the command prompt.

Note

You can also activate by phone, using a Key Management Service (KMS) server, or
remotely by typing the following command at a command prompt of a computer that
is running Windows Vista or Windows Server 2008:
cscript windows\system32\slmgr.vbs <ServerName> <UserName>
<password>:-ato

To configure the firewall

• Use the netsh advfirewall command. For example, to enable remote

netsh advfirewall firewall set rule group="Remote Administration"

Note

You can also use the Windows Firewall snap-in from a computer running Windows
Vista or Windows Server 2008 to remotely manage the firewall on a server running a
Server Core installation. To do this, you must first enable remote management of the
firewall by running the following command on the computer running a Server Core
installation:
netsh advfirewall set currentprofile settings remotemanagement enable