serverhelps Organisation

Installation of Hyper-V

2011-05-05T22:26:00.000-07:00

Installing and Configuring Microsoft Hyper-V Server - Step by Step

Back in October, Microsoft released Hyper-V Server 2008 for free. Unlike the Hyper-V role of Windows Server 2008, Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 is a stand-alone bare metal hypervisor. If you have not had a chance to download and install Hyper-V Server, Tarek Majdalani put together a very nice step-by-step guide (with screen shots) on the installation and configuration of Hyper-V Server. From the screen shots, you can see that Hyper-V Server looks a lot like Windows Server 2008 Server Core:

Install Exchange Server 2010 Unified Messaging Beta

2011-05-04T22:15:00.000-07:00

On April 14, 2009, Microsoft released a beta version of Exchange Server 2010. To expand on Scott Schnoll’s blog on How to Install Exchange Server 2010 Beta, this topic will discuss how to install the Exchange 2010 Unified Messaging Server Role.
To install the Exchange 2010 Unified Messaging Server Role on a Windows Server 2008 operating system, the following prerequisites must be installed first:

Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5
Windows Remote Management ( WinRM ) 2.0 Community Technology Preview 3 (CTP3)
Windows PowerShell V2 CTP3
Update from KB 951725
Extensions for ASP.NET AJAX 1.0
IIS 7.x Prerequisites

ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Server ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Metabase ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Lgcy-Mgmt-Console ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Basic-Auth ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Windows-Auth

Microsoft Windows Media Player Audio/Video Codecs

ServerManagerCmd -i Desktop-Experience

Exchange Server 2010 also supports installing the above pre-requisites by using an Answer File with ServerManagerCmd, and answer files are included in the \Scripts folder. To use them, you run ServerManagerCmd -ip <Name of File>. For example:
ServerManagerCmd -ip Exchange-UM.XML
For more information about the requirements for Exchange Server 2010, see Exchange 2010 System Requirements.
For purposes of this demonstration, all Exchange 2010 Server Roles will be installed on one physical lab server. The Mailbox, Hub Transport, and Client Access Server roles have already been installed beforehand.
Launch Setup.exe from the installation folder and select Step 4: Install Microsoft Exchange.

In the Exchange Maintenance Mode window, click Next.

In the Exchange Server 2010 Setup window, select Unified Messaging Server Role. If necessary, change the paths of the Specify the path for the Exchange Server installation files and Specify the path for the Exchange Server installation fields. Click Next.

The system and server will be checked for the prerequisites mentioned at the beginning of this blog.
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Once all readiness checks have successfully passed, the Readiness Checks window will be displayed. Click Install.

While Setup is progressing, a Progress window will be displayed.

Once Setup has completed successfully, the Completion window will be displayed.

Click Finish to complete the installation of the Exchange Server 2010 Unified Messaging Server role.
If necessary, select Step 5: Get Critical Updates for Microsoft Exchange to download and install the latest patches, hotfixes, and upgrades for Exchange Server 2010 Beta.

At this point, you can launch the Exchange Management Console to begin configuring the Exchange Server 2010 Unified Messaging Server role.

We will cover the configuration in another blog posting in the near future. In the meantime, you can read about all the new features in Exchange 2010 Unified Messaging here:

Voice Mail with Unified Messaging

Also, check out this video:

Exchange 2010 Videos: What’s New in Unified Messaging

Citrix XenApp 6.0 server not showing local PC shared HDD & Shared printer

2011-05-03T23:26:00.000-07:00

Citrix XenApp 6.0 server not showing local PC shared HDD & Shared printer

IF the ICA client as well as citrix server not showing the local PC from where you accessing the citrix that's PC HDD not showing in the Citrix than folow this steps on the Citrix xenapp 6.0 Server.

First open the registry edit
Go to Start - Run - regedit.msc
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Window NT\Current Version\Winlogon\Appsetup than check in the value cmstart.exe was written or not if there not written this than write and close it than sure your problem will be fixed.

ICA client not getting to access the Citrix XenApp 6.0 Server

2011-05-03T23:16:00.000-07:00

ICA client not getting to access the Citrix XenApp 6.0 Server

This is the problem in the registry if you see this type of error than check the following and than modify it
Error screen shot

soloution
Go to the registry edit from go to Mycomputer -C:\
To avoid this issue is to rename the file concurrent_state.xml located in C:\Program Files (x86)\Citrix\Licensing\LS\conf.

Installation Of Exchange server 2010

2011-05-02T22:12:00.000-07:00

Introduction
Just got my hands on this latest new messaging product from Microsoft, and this has been one of the most anticipated products - Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 Beta (code named Exchange 14). You may can find the download link here, if you wish to test this out in your environment.
Design Diagram @MyLab

Below is the Exchange Server 2010 design in my Lab setup, all the servers are virtualized.

Prerequisites

Before installing Exchange Server 2010, here are the prerequisites to be installed in all the servers

1. Net Framework 3.5
2. Powershell 2.0 CTP 3
3. Windows Remote Management

The above three components must be installed regardless of which role you wish to install.
Step by Step
1. Prepare your forest and organization in Active Directory
First you need to do the Schema preparation. Since this is a fresh new setup in the lab, I will perform the preparation on domain controller

Run Setup from the directory where your Exchange 2010 installation files are located. Here is the cmdlets

Setup /PrepareSchema or Setup /ps

*If you are running the prep process on the computer which is member of the forest or domain, and the OS is Windows Server 2008, you need to install the following component before executing the prep.

ServerManagerCmd -i RSAT-ADDS

Below screen capture shows that its completed.

Next, you will need to prep the domain and organization. Here is the cmdlet

Setup /p /on:SG or Setup /PrepareAD /OrganizationName:SG (where SG is my organization name in the Lab)

Now we have done the initial preparation. The forest and domain are ready to have the first Exchange 2010 server installed.
2. Install first Exchange 2010 server
We will do that on server "Bugis" which will have Client Access Role, Transport Role and Mailbox Role. But we will eventually remove the Mailbox role and deploy DAG on server "Outram", "Redhill" and "Dover". There is a reason behind why I choose to have 3 mailbox servers to form a DAG. That will be discussed in my future articles soon.
There are additional components needed before Exchange installation.,
As my first Exchange server is a combination all the 3 roles mentione above, I used the following command (refer the below screen capture)

ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Server Web-Metabase Web-Lgcy-Mgmt-Console Web-Basic-Auth Web-Windows-Auth Web-Net-Ext Web-Digest-Auth Web-Dyn-Compression NET-HTTP-Activation Web-ISAPI-Ext RPC-over-HTTP-proxy RSAT-ADDS

Here is the break down of what you will need to install in role level.
Client Access Role

ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Server Web-Metabase Web-Lgcy-Mgmt-Console Web-Basic-Auth Web-Windows-Auth Web-Net-Ext Web-Digest-Auth Web-Dyn-Compression NET-HTTP-Activation Web-ISAPI-Ext RPC-over-HTTP-proxy RSAT-ADDS

Transport Role

ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Server Web-Metabase Web-Lgcy-Mgmt-Console Web-Basic-Auth Web-Windows-Auth Web-Net-Ext RSAT-ADDS

Mailbox Role

ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Server Web-Metabase Web-Lgcy-Mgmt-Console Web-Basic-Auth Web-Windows-Auth Web-Net-Ext RSAT-ADDS

*For Mailbox Role, you have to install another component call "MSFilter Pack"
After the installation, you are required to perform restart server.

There are some updates & fixes need to be applied in specific.

Client Access Role
KB951725, KB950888, KB952664, KB953290
Transport Role
KB951725, KB950888, KB952664
Mailbox Role
KB951725, KB950888, KB952664

Now we are truly ready for the installation. I will not talk about installation using UI, because I prefer using command line.
Execute the command as shown in the screen capture below.

Here are the definitions of the parameters

/m = /mode
/r = /role, /roles
H = Transport or you can use HT
C = Client Access or you can use CA
M = Mailbox or you can use MB

Just hit "Enter" and sit back enjoy your coffee or newspaper. :-)

Voila, you have now completed the installation and enjoy. (below are the two screenshots of new Exchange Management Console and OWA after installation)

Installation of Fedora Linux 14

2011-05-01T21:56:00.000-07:00

Linux Logical Volume Manager, as the default disk partitioning scheme. The installer creates three logical volumes by default, besides the non-LVM /boot partition. The three logical volumes, for /home, /, and swap, are the minimum recommended for a desktop installation. The problem with the default installation is that all available disk space is allocated to the logical volumes, living none for future use when it might be needed to grow a partition, or create a new logical volume. This installation guide takes you through the process of editing each logical volume to free up disk space, space that is not needed for the system to run. At the end (of this tutorial), I will show an example of how to resize (grow) a logical volumes, a basic LVM management task.
When writing these tutorials, I always like to exclude those images that are not pertinent to the subject matter. And so the first image in this tutorial is taken from the step where disk management starts. The default option is to install to Basic Storage Devices, like you would find on a personal computer. The other option is for enterprise-grade installations. Click Next to continue.

Installation options

The Fedora installer offers several disk partitioning methods. The default is shown below, and would be ok if Fedora is the only OS you want on the disk. Just like the default, the other options are self-explanatory. Because the objective of this tutorial is to modify the default partitions, be sure to enable “Review and modify partitioning layout.” And to take advantage of Fedora’s one-click, full disk encryption scheme, enable “Encrypt system.” Next.

Disk partition methods

These are the default partitions and logical volumes created by the installer. We have two primary partitions, one of which is for /boot, and the other is the Physical Volume, that is, the primary partition initialized for use by LVM. If you enabled the encryption option as in this example, the Physical Volume will be encrypted. The test system, which was in a virtual environment, had a disk size of 100 GB, all of which the installer allocated to /boot and the three logical volumes. This is where we begin to modify the logical volumes to free up space, leaving just enough on the logical volumes to install the system.

You can see in this example that about 50% of the available disk space was allocated to lv_root, the root file system, and a similar percentage to lv_home. Since a default installation of Fedora 14 uses less than 2.5 GB of disk space, nothing will be adversely affected if you reduce the size of the logical volumes. To start editing the logical volumes, select each and click on the Edit button, or just double-click on the one you want to edit.

Default partitions

Note: the only entry that is not editable at this step is the physical volume. Try it and you will get the alert shown below.

Volume edit error message

Ok, if you selected any logical volume for editing, the following window will be opened. The first one being edited here is lv_root. The primary goal is to reduce the size, but we can also edit the name of the logical volume. I prefer the logical volume names to be without the lv_ prefix. So lv_root I would rename to just root, lv_home to home, and lv_swap to swap.
Knowing that a new installation of Fedora 14 can be installed on less than 2.5 GB of disk space, reducing the size of lv_root to any value above that should be fine. For this example, I have reduced it to 8 GB. 3 GB should be good too. The name of the logical volume will also be changed as suggested in the previous paragraph.

This is the edited logical volume. Notice the changes from the default. Click OK to close the window and return to the main window. Note that because the physical volume in this example has been enabled for encryption, it is not necessary to encrypt the logical volumes. Doing so would be overkill, but if you are that security conscious, go ahead. Depending on the situation, I would, but in this case, it is not necessary.

Edited /root logical volume

If lv_home is selected for editing, these are the defaults. As with lv_root, the primary item we want to edit is the size.

Default /home logical volume

This is the edited window. Again, notice the difference from the defaults.

Edited /home logical volume

For lv_swap, these are the defaults.

Default swap logical volume

And this is the edited version. For this logical volume, I edited just the name, leaving the size at the default of about 1 GB. Keep in mind that if you do not change the size of swap here, you can only resize it on a running system from the command line. System-config-lvm, the graphical management tool for LVM, does not allow resizing of the swap partition.

Edited swap logical volume

With all three logical volumes edited, this is the new partitioning window. Notice that we now have about 76 GB, roughly 75%, of disk space free. This can then be used to grow or create new logical volumes, if there is a need for it. Click Next to continue with the installation.

Edited partitions

If disk encryption option was enabled, you get this prompt. The passphrase requested here will be used to encrypted the disk.

Encryption passphrase

After the first stage of the installation process has ended, you will be asked to reboot to continue with the second stage of the installation. At the second stage, you will have to create a user, have the option to modify the default boot loader configuration, enable the Network Time Protocol, etc.
When the second stage has completed and you reboot the computer, the disk encryption passphrase will be needed to unlock the disk, that is, if disk encryption was enabled.

Unlock disk

To showcase one advantage, or benefit, of LVM, I will show how easy it is to grow (resize or extend) a logical volume, and I will use the logical volume for /home as an example. Fedora 14 comes with two graphical disk management utilities. One is the GNOME Disk Utility (Applications > System Tools > Disk Utility), and the other is system-config-lvm (System > Administration > Logical Volume Management). Disk Utility is unable to manage encrypted LVM, so the only (graphical) option available is system-config-lvm.

The image below is from the Logical View of system-config-lvm, and the logical volume in focus is for /home. To change the size of this or any other logical volume, just click on the Edit Properties button.

Logical volume view

This is the Edit Properties window. The original size of this logical volume is about 20 GB, and the volume group has about 75 GB of disk space free. To illustrate how easy it is to grow this logical volume, I am going to increase the size to 30 GB.

Original LV properties

This is the edited size. Click OK and you should see the new size reflected in the main window of system-config-lvm. A df -h or lvdisplay at a shell terminal will also show the new size. Note that with ext4 file system, the resizing is accomplished online, that is, you do not need to unmount the volume before editing the properties.
From the command line, resizing a logical volume is even easier. To accomplish this same task from the command line, all that is needed is this command: lvresize -L +10G /dev/vg_hu/home path-to-physcialvolume. You can use lvextend in place of lvresize and still get the same result.

Edited LV properties

In just the same manner that a logical volume can be extended, the size of the volume group can also be extended by adding another disk or disk partition to the volume group. That and other more involved tasks will be covered in a future article

Installation of Exchange server 2007

2011-04-30T00:12:00.000-07:00

How to Setup Exchange Server 2007

Follow the steps below to correctly configure your Exchange Server 2007 email server for general use, and for use with IGetMail. Note that for this document we are assuming you are installing Exchange 2007 on Windows Server 2008 64-Bit.

Pre-Installation Checklist
- Install Windows Server 2008 64-bit version
- Configure your static IP address
- Activate Auto Updates
- Add role - Active Directory Services
- Add role - Active Directory Lightweight Services
- Add feature - Windows Process Activation Service
- Add role - Web Server (IIS)
- Add feature - PowerShell
- Roles / Features NOT to install
Installing Exchange Server 2007
Allow Mail access to your Exchange Server
Adding E-Mail Users

Pre-Installation Checklist
Make sure you have all of the following steps in place before you setup Exchange Server 2007 on Windows Server 2008 64-Bit.
For simplicity we are assuming you are setting up a small office where one machine will be used for both the Active Directory and the Exchange Server. This setup works just fine and reduces the number of machines to maintain. If you have a larger office you may want to consider separating the Active Directory machine and the Exchange 2007 Server.
Install Windows Server 2008 64-bit version
Exchange 2007 is a 64-bit application and requires 64-bit versions of Windows Server 2003 or Windows Server 2008. You should select a computer that is capable of running the 64-bit version of Windows Server 2003 or 2008. For this example we will start with a clean installation of Windows Server 2008 64-bit version that has not had any roles installed.
After installing Windows Server 2008, we set the clock and the name of the server to be "EX2007". At this point this server is configured to be a stand-alone computer with default settings.

Configure Your Static IP Address
The default installation of Windows 2008 sets your IP v4 and IP v6 addresses to use DHCP. Since we will be configuring this computer to be a domain controller, you must change the IP address of the computer to be a static IP address.
To change your IP address, click on "View Network Connections" in the Server Manager screen.
This will display the list of active network interfaces.

Double-click on your network adaptor to display the adaptors status.

Press the Properties button.

Highlight "Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4)" and press the Properties button.

Change the radio button to "Use the following IP address" and enter an IP address you want to use for this server. In our example, we chose to assign this server the internal IP address "192.168.1.25". We also have a firewall appliance that operates as a gateway at the IP address "192.168.1.1".
NOTE: It is important to include this computer in the DNS list. You should list the IP address of this computer as the first entry in the list of DNS servers. In the "Alternate DNS server" field, enter the IP address of a DNS server provided by your ISP.
Press OK to save your changes.
Now you will need to modify the support for IP v6. If your network uses IP v6, then you will need to select "Internet Protocol Version 6 (TCP/IPv6)" and press the Properties button. Enter a static address. If you are not using IP v6, you can leave the IP v6 set to the default setting of DHCP.
NOTE: Exchange requires that IP V6 be enabled. Even if you do not use IP V6 you must leave it enabled. During the setup of Active Directory, the Active Directory Setup Wizard will check that both IP v4 and IP v6 have static addresses as long as the IP v4 address is static you can continue the installation. DO NOT DISABLE IP V6 or else the Exchange Hub Transport Service will not start.
At this point you should have all IP addresses on this server configured as static IP addresses. OR you have the IP v4 address configured as static and the IP v6 configured using DHCP. Press OK to save your changes and close the network connection screen.
Activate Auto Update
The next step in making this server a domain controller is to activate auto update. Active Directory will not install until this computer has auto updates active. To activate auto updates click on the link "Configure Updates". Then select the option to have Windows automatically install updates. At this time Windows will download updates and will most likely need to reboot your computer. Allow the updates to be applied and the computer to be restarted until all updates are applied before installing Active Directory. You do not want to be in the middle of installing Active Directory when an auto update needs to reboot your computer.

Add role - Active Directory Services
The process of installing Active Directory consists of two steps, the first step is to install Active Directory and then you will need to configure your Active Directory. Once this is complete your Windows Server will now be a domain controller.
Step 1 - Install Active Directory
At the Computer Management Screen press the "Add Roles" link. At the Select Server Roles dialog check/tick the option "Active Directory Domain Services" and press Next.

Active Directory Domain Services will present information about the changes it will make to your server. Review this information and press Next.

Now the installation will scan your configuration and inform you if there are any pre-requisites that you have not fulfilled. If the Active Directory Installation presents an errors, correct these at this time and then repeat the installation. Once the Setup program indicates that you have met all pre-requisite, then press the Install button to start the installation process.

The setup program will now install Active Directory on your Server.

When the installation is complete you should see a message indicate "Installation Succeeded", press Close to return to the Server Management Screen.

Step 2 - Configure Active Directory
At the Server Management screen you should now see that you have 1 role installed. The Active Directory Domain Services may indicate that it is installed but there are errors. This is because the software is installed but not configured.

To configure Active Directory click on the line under Roles labeled "Active Directory Domain Services". The Server Manage will show you a page about the status of the Active Directory Role.

Click on the link "Run the Active Directory Services Installation Wizard (dcpromo.exe)" and the Active Directory Domain Services Installation Wizard will appear, press Next.

The Installation Wizard will present information about the version of Active directory, press Next.

Since we are assuming this Exchange Server will be the first Domain Controller, we chose to create a new domain in a new forest. Press Next.

Enter the name of your domain. The domain name you enter here is the domain name that Exchange will associated with all of your email. If you use a hosting company to host your Internet Domain, then you may want to enter the name of your Internet domain with ".local". If you host your own Internet Domain then you would enter your domain name here.
In our example we are assuming that IGetMail.com is hosted at an Internet Hosting Company. Since we do not host IGetMail.com on this Exchange Server, we will use IGetMail.local to indicate our internal domain for IGetMail.
NOTE: Once you enter your domain name it is very hard to change it in the future, so you should take great care when enter this name.
Press Next once you have decided on the name of your internal domain, that will be your Active Directory Domain and the domain serviced by Exchange.

Next the Installation Wizard will ask you about compatibility. If you plan to have domain controllers running various versions of Active Directory then you will want to chose a function level to include the lowest version of Windows that you are using for domain controllers. Press Next.

Next you will be asked a similar question which is at the domain level instead of the forest level on the previous screen. You should follow the same approach and include the function level to include the lowest version of Windows you plan to use for domain controllers. Press Next.

The first Domain Controller needs to have a DNS server running locally. The optimal location is to start out with having the installation wizard install the DNS server locally. Also it will automatically make this computer a global catalog server. Press Next.

You can specify where you want Active Directory to store its data. If you only have on e drive in your Server then use the defaults. If you have multiple drives, you can select which drive to use. Press Next.

Should you need to restore Active Directory in the event of a hard drive failure you will need to boot your Server into a special mode called "Directory Restoration Mode". Should you need to boot your computer into this special mode, you will need to use a special password just for this restoration. You can define this password at this time. NOTE: This password is different than the administrator account and if you change the administrator password this password will not change. So you will need to store this password forever in a safe place. Press Next.

Now the Installation Wizard will summarize the configuration that it is about to create. Press Next to start the process of configuring your new Domain Controller.

The Installation Wizard will show its progress as it configures your Server. This will take a long time.

When the installation is complete, you will be shown a final screen. Press Finish.

Then restart your computer.

After restarting your computer Windows should show you the Server Manager. You should see on the Server Manager screen that you have Active Directory and DNS Server roles installed. Also the process of installing Active Directory will add the features "Group Policy Management" and "Remote Server Administration Tools".

ISA Server 2006: Installing ISA 2006 Enterprise Edition (beta) in a Unihomed Workgroup Configuration

2011-04-29T00:07:00.000-07:00

However, we’ll change our approach a little bit now with the release of ISA Server 2006. The reason for this is that the new ISA firewall, ISA Server 2006, has new features and improvements that are primarily focused on the Web proxy filter components that support Web Publishing Rules. These components include:

Improved OWA, OMA, ActiveSync and RPC/HTTP publishing support
Improved SharePoint Portal Server support
Improved Windows SharePoint Services support
Support for publishing Web farms
Support for binding multiple certificates to a single Web listener
Support for wildcard certificates bound to the published Web server
Support for multiple new authentication delegation scenarios
Support for LDAP authentication for Web Publishing Rules
And many more!

I won’t go through an entire review of what’s new and improved in the new ISA firewall product at this time. I’ll prepare another article on that topic for you and publish here on ISAserver.org in the near future. At this point I just want to make it clear that the major thrust of the new ISA firewall product is on secure Web Publishing scenarios.

Apologia for Unihomed ISA Firewall Deployments

One advantage of the Web Publishing scenario is that you can place the ISA firewall just about anywhere on the network. And one of the most popular deployment scenarios in a Web publishing only scenario is placement of a unihomed ISA firewall in Web proxy only mode in an existing firewall’s DMZ segment. The existing firewall can be a multihomed ISA firewall, or it can be any other kind of network firewall.
I’ve already gone into the details of how to configure a unihomed ISA firewall in a DMZ segment over at http://www.isaserver.org/articles/2004pixwebproxy.html so I won’t repeat that effort here. What I will do in this article is demonstrate how to install ISA Server 2006 on a single NIC server on the corporate network. In an article that follows this one, I’ll describe how to install ISA Server 2006 Enterprise Edition on an array of single NIC servers.
This article also represents a major departure from how I usually configure the ISA firewall in another way: the unihomed ISA firewall won’t be a member of an Active Directory domain. While domain membership significantly enhances the overall security the ISA firewall can provide when deployed in full firewall mode, this isn’t necessarily true when the ISA firewall is installed as a unihomed Web proxy server dedicated to Web publishing. This is especially the case with ISA Server 2006, given that we now have integrated support for LDAP authentication.

Procedure for Installing ISA Server 2006 Enterprise Edition on a Unihomed Computer

Before you get started installing ISA Server 2006 Enterprise Edition on a new computer, make sure you have done the following:

Install Windows Server 2003 and installed Windows Server 2003 SP1 and all current updates
Do not join the unihomed computer to the domain
Configure a static IP address on the network interface
Configure a DNS server address on the network interface that enables the unihomed ISA firewall to resolve its own name and the names of the published servers. You should configure the device to use a domain name suffix that matches your Active Directory domain so that the machine can resolve its own name.
If you are not allowing dynamic DNS registrations on your internal DNS servers, manually enter a Host (A) record for the unihomed ISA firewall device into your DNS
Configure the unihomed ISA firewall’s network interface with a gateway address that allows it to reach both the Internet and the published servers
Obtain the ISA Server 2006 Enterprise Edition beta trial software at http://www.microsoft.com/isaserver/2006/beta.mspx

Once you’ve performed those actions, you’ll be ready to install ISA Server 2006 Enterprise Edition on your unihomed computer.
Perform the following steps to install ISA Server 2006 Enterprise Edition:

Copy the installation files for ISA Server 2006 Enterprise Edition to the unihomed ISA firewall device. Then double click on the isaautorun.exe to bring up the installation dialog box.
In the Microsoft ISA Server 2006 beta installation dialog box, click the Install ISA Server 2006 link.
Click Next on the Welcome to the Installation Wizard for Microsoft ISA Server 2006 Beta page.
On the License Agreement page, select the I accept the terms in the license agreement option and click Next.
On the Customer Information page, enter your User Name, Organization and Product Serial Number and click Next.
On the Setup Scenarios page, select the Install both ISA Server services and Configuration Storage server option. Note that this option implies that you can install both ISA Server firewall services and the CSS at the same time, and then later install additional array members once you have this installed. This is not true. Use this option only if you plan to deploy a single member ISA Server 2006 Enterprise Edition array. If you plan to add additional array members later, then do not select this option. Since this article is focused on installing a single ISA Server 2006 Enterprise Edition unihomed device as a single member array, we will use this option. Click Next.

Figure 1

On the Component Selection page, accept the default settings. Note that you don’t have the option to install the Firewall client. I’m not sure where or how we’ll end up doing this in the future, as its also not an option on the initial setup page. This will likely be worked out by the time the product releases. Note that Advanced Logging is MSDE logging. If you prefer to use SQL logging or text based logging, then do not select this option Click Next.

Figure 2

On the Enterprise Installation Options page, select the Create a new ISA Server enterprise option. Since this will be the only machine in the array, we need to create a new ISA enterprise. Note that the option Create a replica of the enterprise configuration option is not available to workgroup configurations. This is something to keep in mind in the future if you want to have a backup CSS for your enterprise array. However, its not an issue for us, since this is a single machine array. Click Next.

Figure 3

Click Next on the New Enterprise Warning page.

Figure 4

On the Internal Network page, click the Add button.
In the Addresses dialog box, click the Add Adapter button. In the Select Network Adapters dialog box, put a checkmark in the checkbox next to the single interface installed on the computer. Note that in a typical firewall installation, this NIC would be used to define the default Internal network. In a unihomed ISA firewall Web proxy configuration, this is not the case, since all addresses are considered internal. Click OK.

Figure 5

In the Addresses dialog box, click OK. Note that the addresses listed in this dialog box will have no meaning in the unihomed ISA firewall configuration scheme. In a normal ISA firewall setup with multiple interfaces, these addresses would define the default Internal ISA firewall Network. However, as I mentioned in the last step, with a unihomed ISA firewall in Web proxy mode, all addresses are considered part of the default Internal ISA firewall Network.

Figure 6

Click Next on the Internal Network page. Note again that the IP addresses listed here do not represent the default Internal Network on a unihomed ISA firewall as we'll see later when we apply the single NIC ISA firewall template.

Figure 7

On the Firewall Client Connections page, click Next. We don’t have to worry about Firewall client connections because both Firewall and SecureNAT clients are not supported on a unihomed ISA firewall in Web proxy configuration. Only Web proxy clients are supported.
Click Next on the Services Warning page.
Click Install to being the installation.
On the Installation Wizard Completed page, put a checkmark in the Invoke ISA Server Management when the wizard closes checkbox and click Finish.
Close the Internet Explorer window entitled Protect the ISA Server Computer.

The first thing you’ll notice when the console opens is a link entitled Click here to learn about the Customer Experience Improvement Program. Click that link.

Figure 8

This brings up the Customer Feedback dialog box. I highly recommend that you participate in the Customer Experience Improvement Program. No personal data is sent to Microsoft and the result of your participation is to make the ISA firewall product more flexible and provide even higher levels of security to your network. Select the Yes option to participate in the program.

Figure 9

After you select an option and click OK, the link disappears from the middle pane of the console.
Expand all the nodes in the left pane of the ISA firewall console. Then perform the following steps to see the definition of the default Internal ISA firewall Network:

In the left pane of the ISA firewall console, click the Networks node under the Configuration node.

Figure 10

In the Networks node, click the Networks tab in the middle pane of the ISA firewall console. Double click on the Internal entry.
In the Internal Properties dialog box, click the Addresses tab. Here you see the addresses that define the default Internal ISA firewall Network at this time. However, this will change when we configure this ISA firewall to act as a Web proxy only unihomed ISA firewall. Click Cancel to leave this dialog box.

Figure 11

What we need to do now is apply the unihomed ISA firewall template to configure this machine as a unihomed Web proxy only ISA firewall. Perform the following steps to apply the template:

In the Task Pane, click the Templates tab. Scroll down the list of templates and click the Single Network Adapter template.

Figure 12

Click Next on the Welcome to the Network Template Wizard page.
Click Next on the Export the ISA Server Configuration page. Note that you have the option to export the current configuration, but we’ll not use that option because we haven’t made any configuration changes from the default setting.

Figure 13

On the Internal Network IP Addresses page, you’ll see the addresses that will be configured to define the default ISA firewall Internal Network. Notice that all IP addresses except the local host network range are considered part of the default Internal network. For this reason, SecureNAT and Firewall clients are not supported in a unihomed Web proxy mode ISA firewall configuration. You do not need to make any changes on this page. Click Next.

Figure 14

On the Select a Firewall Policy page, you are offered a single firewall policy to select from. Click on the Apply default Web proxying and caching configuration option. This will apply the default Deny rule to the firewall policy for the array. No Network Rules are created because the Web proxy always replaces its own IP address for the IP address of the Web proxy client connecting to the Internet through the unihomed Web proxy mode ISA firewall. Click Next.

Figure 15

On the Completing the Network Template Wizard page, click Finish.
Click Apply to save the changes and update the firewall policy.
Click OK in the Apply New Configuration dialog box.

At this point you’re ready to start configuring firewall policy and customizing the installation.

Upgrade from Windows Server 2003 Domain Controller to Windows Server 2008

2011-04-28T23:30:00.000-07:00

In-Place Upgrade from Windows Server 2003 Domain Controller to Windows Server 2008
Published	:	December 20, 2007
Last Updated	:	December 20, 2007

Introduction

I have been using Windows Server 2003 for years and I believe its time to shift and try using Windows Server 2008, I have downloaded RC0 and decided to Upgrade my Domain Controller, which is also a DNS & DHCP Server to Windows Server 2008 Standard Edition RC0. In this article, I will show you step by step how to perform an in-place upgrade for a Domain Controller from Windows Server 2003 To Windows Server 2008 RC0

Note: This article was written when Windows Server 2008 was still RC0. Changes might occur later once the product is RTM'd

Upgrade Steps

On you Windows Server 2003 DC, insert the Windows Server 2008 DVD, and then open command prompt and run the following commands, make sure first to browse to the adprep directory inside the Windows 2008 DVD , in my case case, the F drive is the DVD Drive letter, so to browse to the adprep directory I would write the following inside cmd: cd f:\sources\adprerp

adprep/ forestprep
adprep/ domainprep
adprep/ rodcprep (Optional, if you plan to add a Read Only Domain Controller Later)

If the Install Windows page did not auto run before the previous step, double click on your DVD drive where you have inserted the Windows Server 2008 DVD, then Click on Install now

A please wait screen will be followed, then a page to decide what to do, either to go online and get the latest updates for installation or to skip going online by clicking on the Do not get the latest updates for installation option

I will perform the updates later, so for the purpose of this article, I will click on Do not get the latest updates for installation
Enter the product key, click Next
Accept the license terms and click on Next
What we need to do is to upgrade our server, so click on the Upgrade option
The compatibility report will be displayed telling you what hardware might not function once upgrade is completed , also to check with software vendors to check if their software are compatible with Windows Server 2008. click Next
Upgrade is now in process
The Server will be restarted automatically several times, the Upgrade process will continue with the remaining operations:
- Expanding Files
- Installing Features and updates
- Completing Upgrade

After multiple restarts, the Upgrade process will be completed and you will be able to start using your Windows Server 2008.

Summary

In this article, I showed you how to do an in-place upgrade for Windows Server 2003 Domain Controller to Windows Server 2008. The steps are easy and straightforward, just make sure while reading the compatibility report, if any of the hardware/software installed on your Server are compatible with Windows Server 200

Using Windows Server 2008 as a Workstation

2011-04-28T23:27:00.000-07:00

Using Windows Server 2008 as a Workstation
Published	:	April 22, 2008
Last Updated	:	April 22, 2008

Introduction

Many administrators used Windows Server 2003 as their daily workstation, either on their desktops or laptops. Well this will be the same with Windows Server 2008. In this article, I'm going to show you how to disable/enable few options and features in Windows Server 2008 so that you can use it as if it were a client operating system, with the advantage of having it as a server operating system, benefiting from using its different roles and features .

I recently bought a new 64bit laptop, so that I can install Windows Server 2008 with Hyper-V, and use it as my daily operating system on my laptop.
I intend to disable few options and enable other in order to experience the Windows Vista visual appearance, plus removing the extra security features that one do not need on its client operating system.

The options I'm going to deal with in this article are :

Disable Shutdown Event Tracker

Disable Password Complexity Requirement

Disable IE Enhanced Security

Remove the requirement to click CTRL+ALT+DEL

Install Desktop Experience Feature

Install Windows Search Feature

Enable Audio Service

Adjust For Best Performance of Programs

Disable Shutdown Event Tracker

Click on Start > Run

Type gpedit.msc > OK , this will open Local Group Policy Editor

Expand Computer Configuration > Expand Administrative Templates > Click on System

Double click on Display Shutdown Event Tracker > Select Disable > Click OK

Close Local Group Policy Editor

Disable Password Complexity Requirement

Many users had difficulty to logon to Windows Server 2008 when they completed installing it and never knew how to log on to it, this was discussed in the article How To Log On To Windows Server 2008

Well, as we are going to use Windows Server 2008 as a workstation, and we might have family members that would use this workstation, we do not wish to force them to create complex passwords. So to disable the requirement of the password complexity, follow these steps :

Click Start > Run, type gpedit.msc > click OK
Expand Computer Configuration > Windows Settings > Security Settings > Account Policies > Password Policy
From the right side pane, double click on Password must meet complexity requirements > Select Disable > Click OK

Disable IE Enhanced Security Configuration ( IE ESC )

By Default, IE ESC is enabled for the administrators and for the users as well. It configures a number of security settings that define how users browse Internet and intranet web sites, it also reduces the exposure to websites that might pose a security risk. This enhanced level of security can prevent website from displaying correctly in Internet Explorer and restrict access to network resources. I do not wish to get prompted for every site I visit to add it to the trusted sites zone, that's why I prefer to disable it.

To disable it :

Open Server Manager > Security Information > click on Configure IE ESC

You can disable it for both administrators and users, or just anyone of these groups.

Make your selection and then click on OK

Remove the requirement to click CTRL+ALT+DEL

Click on Start > Run

Type gpedit.msc > OK , this will open Local Group Policy Editor

Expand Computer Configuration > Windows Settings > Security Settings > Local Policies > Security Options

Double click on Interactive logon : Do not require CTRL+ALT+DEL, and select Enabled > click OK

Install Desktop Experience Feature

I have covered the Desktop Experience feature in a previous article, check it here Windows Server 2008 Desktop Experience Feature

Install Windows Search Service

I will be using MS Outlook on my machine, and I will need to search my emails. MS Outlook relies on Windows Search Service, so to install it :

Click Start > Server Manager
From the left side pane, click on Roles > then from the right side page, click on Add Roles
On the Before your Begin page, click Next
From the list of available Roles, select File Services > Click Next
On the Introduction to File Services page, click Next
On the Select Role Services page, select Windows Search Service, click Next ( Note: Deselect the File Server role )
Optionally, you can enable Indexing on selected volumes, select the volume(s) you would like to enable indexing on and then click Next, note that if you do not wish to enable indexing on any of the drives, then do not select any drive and just click Next > Install

Enable Windows Audio Service

By default, audio is disabled on Windows Server 2008, and you can notice that there is a red x on the audio icon in the notification area
To enable audio, click on Start > Run > Type services.msc > Click Ok
Double click on the Windows Audio service
Click on Start button, and set the Startup type to Automatic > Click Apply > Click Ok

Now you will notice that the audio icon in the notification area is turned to green.

Adjust For Best Performance of Programs

For best performance as a workstation, I choose to allocate processor resources for programs more than background services.

Click Start then right click on Computer and click on Properties
From the left side pane, under Tasks, click Advanced system settings
Under Performance, click the Settings button
Click on the Advanced Tab, and then select adjust for best performance of Programs, Click OK > OK

Summary

Personally, I prefer using Windows Server 2008 as my daily operating system on my laptop. It performs much better than any client operating system and it has the Hyper-V role that enables me to have Client and Server operating systems as Virtual Machines. By disabling few options and enabling others, you will be experiencing the Windows Vista visual appearance, and have the feeling that you are working with a client operating system.

Enabling Wireless Networking In Windows Server 2008

2011-04-28T23:25:00.000-07:00

Published	:	August 22, 2008
Last Updated	:	August 22, 2008

Introduction

You deployed Windows Server 2008 on your server machine, then you installed a Wireless Network Adapter to the machine, and tried to connect to a wireless network through the Wireless NIC but noticed that its status is always Disabled ! Or what about if you have a laptop with Windows Server 2008 installed on it, and you found out that its Wireless Connection is disabled and can not be enabled ! Are you wondering why ? Well, this is because by default, Wireless Networking is disabled in Windows Server 2008. To Enable it, you have to install its required Feature. In fact, this is the beauty of Windows Server 2008. Most Features/Services are disabled by default, if you do not need it , keep it disabled, and at any time, if you ever needed any feature/service , all you have to do is to install its required feature or enable its service.

If you opened Network Connections page, you will notice that the Wireless Network Connection is disabled by default. Even if you have tried to right click it and Enable, it will remain disabled.

( To open the Network Connections page, click on Start > Network, click on the Network and Sharing Center button, then under Tasks, click on Manage Network Connections )

To enable Wireless Networking in Windows Server 2008, you have to install the Wireless LAN Service Feature

Open Server Manager, Click on Start > Server Manager , or Start > Administrative Tools > Server Manager

From the left side pane, click on Features

From the Features page, click on Add Features

From the list of available features, scroll down the list and enable the checkbox beside Wireless LAN Service, then click Next

On the Confirm Installation Selections page, click on Install

Installation will start

Once installation is completed, click on Close

Go back to the Network Connections page, and you will notice that the Wireless Network Connection's status has changed from Disabled to Not Connected ( If it didn't show as Not Connected, then right click on the Wireless Network Connection and click on Enable )

To connect to a Wireless Network, right click on the Wireless Network Connection and click on Connect/Disconnect

The list of available wireless connection(s) will be displayed. Choose any and click Connect. You might be requested to enter the shared key if any security settings are set on the Wireless Connection. Or you might need to setup the wireless connection manually, as some Wireless Networks hides their SSID.

As you can see, Wireless Networking is enabled now on my laptop.

Summary

By default, Wireless Networking is disabled in Windows Server 2008. To enable it, you have to install its required Feature, which is called Wireless LAN Service.

Related Links

Using Windows Server 2008 as a Workstation

Enabling Wireless Network for a Hyper-V Virtual Machine

2011-04-28T23:22:00.000-07:00




Introduction

By default, Hyper-V does not have any wireless capability, we simply can not attach a wireless adapter to a Hyper-V child virtual machine ! Imagine yourself in a situation where you need internet connection to your virtual machines, and there is no network cables or switches around you so that you can connect your virtual machine to the network ! or you could be someone like me who uses his machine for presentations and demos, what we can do in these situations, is to simply share the Internet connection from the wireless adapter on the parent server (host).

Note : Before proceeding, you will need to enable wireless networking on Windows Server 2008, read my article Enabling Wireless Networking In Windows Server 2008 .

In this article, we will be completing three steps:

Step 1. Setup virtual networks : In this step we will be creating a new virtual network adapter

Step 2. Add a network adapter to the virtual machine : In this step we will connect the new virtual adapter that we have created in the previous step to the Virtual Machine.

Step 3. Share the wireless network connection : In this step we will share the Wireless Network Adapter on the parent server (host), and choose to share it with the New Virtual Network that we have created in step1.

Now that we have an idea about what we are going to do, lets start with step # 1.

Step 1. Setup your Virtual Networks

Virtual Network Manager enables you to create and manage virtual networks. The following table describes the available settings of Virtual Network Manager:

Setting	Description
External	Creates a connection to a physical network adapter so that virtual machines can access a physical network.
Internal	Provides communications between the virtualization server and virtual machines.
Private	Provides communications between virtual machines only.

We first need to create a new internal virtual network adapter, to allow communication between the parent (host) and the child. This is done using Virtual Network Manager.

To do this, follow these steps:

Open the Hyper-V Manager ( Click on Start > Administrative Tools > Click on Hyper-V Manager )

From the right side pane, click on Virtual Network Manager...

Add caption

From the right side pane, select New virtual network , then under Create virtual network, select Internal and click Add

Give a meaningful name to the new virtual network adapter, then click on OK

Going to the parent's (host machine) network connection page, you will noticed that a new network card is listed there now. If you want, rename this network adapter to something more meaningful, something like VLAN1

Publish Post

Right click on the network adapter, and click on Rename > type the new name for the Network Adapter (VLAN1)

Step 2. Add a network adapter to the virtual machine

To add a network adapter to a Hyper-V virtual machine, make sure that your virtual machine is turned off and then follow these steps :

Open Hyper-V Manager ( Click on Start > Administrative Tools > Click on Hyper-V Manager )

In the middle pane, under Virtual Machines, select the virtual machine that you want to add to it a network adapter.

In the right side pane ( Action pane ), under the selected virtual machine name, click Settings...

In the left side pane, make sure that Add Hardware is selected, and on the Add Hardware page, choose a Network Adapter or a Legacy Network Adapter ( Choose Network Adapter if you have already installed Integration Services on your virtual machine, if you have not yet installed it, then choose Legacy Network Adapter ). I didn't install the Integration services yet, so I'm going to choose Legacy Network Adapter and click Add

From the drop down list, select the name of the virtual adapter that we have created earlier in step 1 (Internal Only NIC) and then click on OK

Step 3. Share the wireless network connection

Open the parent's (host) Control Panel and open Network and Sharing Center
Click on Manage Network Connections
Select the network adapter that you use to access the Internet. I use Windows Server 2008 as my daily OS on my laptop, that's why I always use the wireless connection. Right click on the wireless network adapter, click on Properties then click on the Sharing Tab
Select the checkbox beside Allow other network users to connect through this computer's Internet connection. And from the drop down list, select the Virtual network adapter that we have previously created in step 1 (VLAN1)

and the network connections will look like this ( notice the word shared beside the wireless network adapter )
Your virtual machine is now connected to the internet !! Give it a try and check for your self.

Summary

Many times you find yourself in a situation where you need internet connection for your virtual machines. For example I use my personal laptop daily which has Windows Server 2008 on it, and I use this laptop for presentations and demos. So for providing my virtual machines with internet connection, I simply share my wireless connection with my virtual machines using the steps shown in this article.

Setting a Windows Server 2008 Domain Controller as a Global Catalog

2011-04-28T23:17:00.000-07:00

Published	:	August 15, 2009
Last Updated	:	August 15, 2009

Introduction

Every forest requires at least one Global Catalog server, that's why by default When you create a Windows Server Active Directory Forest, the first domain controller in the forest is automatically configured to be a Global Catalog server. The global catalog is a distributed data repository that contains a searchable, partial representation of every object in every domain in a multi-domain Active Directory forest. A global catalog server is a domain controller that, in addition to its full, writable domain directory partition replica, also stores a partial, read-only replica of all other domain directory partitions in the forest. In this article, I will show you how to set your additional Domain Controller as a Global Catalog Server as well.

To set an additional Domain Controller as a Global Catalog Server, follow the below steps:

Open Active Directory Sites and Services, click Start > Administrative Tools > then click Active Directory Sites and Services.
From the left side pane, expand Sites > Default-First-Site-Name ( If you have renamed the Site name, then this name will reflect your Site name) > Servers > Domain Controllers .
Now expand the Windows Server 2008 that you want to set as a Global Catalog and right Click its NTDS Settings then click on Properties
Under the General Tab, there is a check box beside Global Catalog, if it is unselected then this means that this Domain Controller is not a Global Catalog, if you do want to set it as a Global Catalog server, then select this checkbox and click on Apply then OK. The process it takes the Global Catalog to replicate itself throughout the forest takes time depending on your Active Directory infrastructure.
Close Active Directory Sites and Services and then restart the Domain Controller.

Summary

A global catalog server is a domain controller that, in addition to its full, writable domain directory partition replica, also stores a partial, read-only replica of all other domain directory partitions in the forest. In this article, I have shown you how easy it is to set an additional Domain Controller to be configured as a Global Catalog.

Related Articles

How the Global Catalog Works

Transferring FSMO Roles in Windows Server 2008

2011-04-28T23:16:00.000-07:00

Published	:	August 24, 2009
Last Updated	:	August 24, 2009

Introduction

This is a must to read article for any system administrator who administers Microsoft Windows Servers. One of any system administrator duties, would be to upgrade a current domain controller to a new hardware server. One of the crucial steps required to successfully migrate your domain controller, is to be able to successfully transfer the FSMO roles to the new hardware server. FSMO stands for Flexible Single Master Operations, and in a forest there are at least five roles. In this article, I will be showing you how to transfer the FSMO in Windows Server 2008, and in my next article, I will show you the complete steps required to successfully migrate/upgrade your domain controller to a new hardware server.

The five FSMO roles are:

Schema Master
Domain Naming Master
Infrastructure Master
Relative ID (RID) Master
PDC Emulator

The FSMO roles are going to be transferred, using the following three MMC snap-ins :

Active Directory Schema snap-in : Will be used to transfer the Schema Master role
Active Directory Domains and Trusts snap-in : Will be used to transfer the Domain Naming Master role
Active Directory Users and Computers snap-in : Will be used to transfer the RID Master, PDC Emulator, and Infrastructure Master roles

Note: The following steps are done on the Windows Server 2008 machine that I intend to set as the roles holder ( transfer the roles to it )

Lets start transferring the FSMO roles.

Using Active Directory Schema snap-in to transfer the Schema Master role

You have to register schmmgmt.dll in order to be able to use the Active Directory Schema snap-in

Click Start > Run
Type regsvr32 schmmgmt.dll
Click OK

A popup message will confirm that schmmgmt.dll was successfully registered. Click OK
Click Start > Run, type mmc, then click OK
Click File > then click Add/Remove Snap-in...
From the left side, under Available Snap-ins, click on Active Directory Schema, then click Add > and then click OK
Right click Active Directory Schema, then click Change Active Directory Domain Controller...
From the listed Domain Controllers, click on the domain controller that you want to be the schema master role holder and then click on OK

You will receive a message box stating that the schema snap-in is not connected to a schema operations master. That is for sure, as we have not yet set this Windows Server 2008 domain controller as a Schema Master role holder. This will be done in the next step. Click OK
In the console tree, right click Active Directory Schema [DomainController.DomainName], and then click Operations Master...
On the Change Schema Master page, the current schema master role holder will be displayed ( ex. ELMAJ-DC.ELMAJDAL.NET) and the targeted schema holder as well (ex. ELMAJ-DC2K8.ELMAJDAL.NET). Once you click Change, the schema master holder will become
ELMAJ-DC2K8.ELMAJDAL.NET , click Change

Click Yes to confirm the role transfer

The role will be transferred and a confirmation message will be displayed. Click OK

Then click Close, as you can see in the below snapshot, the current schema master is ELMAJ-DC2K8.ELMAJDAL.NET

Using Active Directory Domains and Trusts snap-in to transfer the Domain Naming Master Role

Click Start > Administrative Tools > then click Active Directory Domains and Trusts
Right click Active Directory Domains and Trusts, then click Change Active Directory Domain Controller...
From the listed Domain Controllers, click on the domain controller that you want to be the Domain Naming master role holder and then click on OK
Right click Active Directory Domains and Trusts, then click Operations Master...
On the Operations Master page, we are going to change the Domain Naming role holder from ELMAJ-DC.ELMAJDAL.NET to ELMAJ-DC2K8.ELMAJDAL.NET, Click Change

Click YES to confirm the transfer of the Domain Naming role

The role will be transferred and a confirmation message will be displayed. Click OK , then click Close

Till now, we have successfully transferred two FSMO roles, the Schema Master role and the Domain Naming role. The last three roles can be transferred using a single Snap-in.

Using Active Directory Users and Computers snap-in to transfer the RID Master, PDC Emulator, and Infrastructure Master Roles

Click Start > Administrative Tools > then click Active Directory Users and Computers
Right click Active Directory Users and Computers, then click All Tasks > Operations Master...
You will have three Tabs, representing three FSMO roles (RID, PDC, Infrastructure). Click the Change button under each of these three tabs to transfer the roles.

Click Yes to confirm the role transfer

The role will be transferred and a confirmation message will be displayed. Click OK

As for the Infrastructure role, once you click on the Change button you will receive the below message

By default, when you first install your first Domain Controller, it holds the five roles and beside that it is a Global Catalog. If your environment is a multi-domain/forest, then you should think about structuring your FSMO roles and transfer the Infrastructure role to a none Global Catalog domain controller. Else if you have small number of domain controllers ( ex. two domain controllers) then you should not worry about this. Click Yes
The Tabs should now look like this:

That's it, by now, you have successfully transferred the five FSMO roles to the Windows Server 2008 Domain Controller.

Summary

There are five FSMO roles in a forest, to transfer any of these roles you have to use the appropriate Active Directory snap-in. In my next article, I will be showing you the complete steps required to successfully migrate/upgrade your domain controller to a new hardware server.

How To Log On To Windows Server 2008

2011-04-28T23:11:00.000-07:00

How To Log On To Windows Server 2008
Published	:	Match 16, 2008
Last Updated	:	March 16, 2008

Introduction

You have just completed installing Windows Server 2008, and you hit the CTRL + ALT + DELETE keys and then you were lost, what username should I log on with, what password should I use ? Especially that you did not create any during the installation process ! In this article, I will show you how to successfully log on to Windows Server 2008.

With Windows Server 2008 RC0 and the Beta builds of Windows Server 2008, you were automatically logged on after the successful completion of Windows Server 2008 installation, and then creating the administrator user account password was the first option inside the Initial Configuration Tasks.

Whereas With Windows Server 2008 RC1 and the RTM'd version, you are no longer automatically logged on to your server after the completion of Windows Server 2008 installation.

And the option to Set a password for the Administrator account has been removed from the initial Configuration Tasks

This is because the first page you will receive after your successful installation of Windows Server 2008 is the Press CTRL + ALT + DELETE to log on page !! And it made many Windows Server 2008 administrators confused about how to log on to the server. So what shall you do then , how can you log on to your server ??!!

Click on the Other User icon and you will be asked to enter a username and password ! What username and which password, we didn’t configure any during the installation process ! With previous Windows operating systems, during the installation, we were used to be asked for a password for the Administrator, but with Windows Server 2008, are are neither asked to create a user nor to create a password for the Administrator account.

The answer is to enter the administrator user without any password.

After you type administrator as a username click enter, now will be asked to create a password before you can logon, click on OK,

A default Windows Server 2008 installation has the Password must meet complexity requirements option enabled in the local policy. This will force the user to come up with a complex password. The new password must meet the following minimum requirements:

The password is at least six characters long.

The password contains characters from three of the following four categories:

English uppercase characters (from A through Z)
English lowercase characters (from a through z)
Base 10 digits (from 0 through 9)
Non-alphanumeric characters (for example: !, $, #, or %)

The password does not contain three or more characters from the user’s account name. If the account name is less than three characters long, this check is not performed because the rate at which passwords would be rejected would be too high.

After you type the password and confirm it, you will receive a page confirming that the password has been changed, click on OK.

It will take few seconds to log on as the administrator profile will be created.

Summary

The first time you try to log on to Windows Server 2008 will makes you wonder which username or what password should I use to successfully log on.
A default Windows Server 2008 installation has the Password must meet complexity requirements option enabled in the local policy. That's why the new password must meet a minimum requirements before it can be accepted and created.

Installing Hyper-V and Deploying Windows Server 2008 as Your First Virtual Machine - Part I

2011-04-28T23:09:00.000-07:00


Published	:	May 12, 2008
Last Updated	:	May 12, 2008

Introduction

Hyper-V is the next level of virtualization, with Windows Server 2008 you no longer need to deploy an application such as Virtual Server 2005 or Virtual PC or other virtualization technology in order to build your virtual machines.
Hyper-V is one of the new roles available with Windows Server 2008 where you can install it and then start creating your virtual machines, take different snapshots for every virtual machine and much more. You can use a virtualized computing environment to improve the efficiency of your computing resources by utilizing more of your hardware resources.

In this two parts article, I will show you how to install the Hyper-V role and then in part two I will install Windows Server 2008 as a virtual machine with Hyper-V.
Hyper-V requires specific hardware. You will need the following:

An x64-based processor. Hyper-V will be available only in the x64-based versions of Windows Server 2008, the x64-based versions of Windows Server 2008 Standard, Windows Server 2008 Enterprise, and Windows Server 2008 Datacenter.

Hardware-assisted virtualization. This is available in processors that include a virtualization option; specifically, Intel VT or AMD Virtualization

Hardware Data Execution Protection (DEP) must be available and be enabled. Specifically, you must enable Intel XD bit (execute disable bit) or AMD NX bit (no execute bit).

Before installing Hyper-V, let me show you a table that will summaries the differences between Hyper-V and Virtual Server 2005 R2

	Hyper-V	Virtual Server 2005 R2
Performance / Scalability
32-bit VMs	Yes	Yes
64-bit VMs	Yes	No
Multi-Processor VMs	Yes	No
VM Memory Support	64 GB per VM	3.6 GB per VM
Resource Management	Yes	Yes
Availability
Guest to Guest Failover	Yes	Yes
Host to Host Failover	Yes	Yes
Host Migration	Yes	Yes
VM Snapshots	Yes	Yes
Management
Scriptable/Extensible	Yes, WMI	Yes, COM
User Interface	MMC 3.0 Interface	Web Interface

Perform the following steps to install Hyper-V

Click Start > Server Manager

From the left side panel inside Server Manager, click on Roles

The Roles page will open, where it shows you the number of roles you have installed on your machine, Click on Add Roles

The Add Roles Wizard page will open, click on Next

From the list of roles available, select Hyper-V > Click Next

The Introduction to Hyper-V page will open, take a few moments to read it , and then click on Next

The Create Virtual Networks page will open, You can create many virtual networks on your virtualization server to provide a variety of communications channels. For example, you can create networks to provide the following:

Communications between virtual machines only.

Communications between the virtualization server and virtual machines.

Communications between a virtual machine and a physical network by creating an association to a physical network adapter on the virtualization server.

You can either select the Network Adapter that will be attached with the Virtual machines now, or you can do this later using the Virtual Network Manager , Click Next

You use the Virtual Network Manager to add, remove, and modify the virtual networks. The Virtual Network Manager is available from Hyper-V Manager.

As a best practice, it is recommended that you have at least two network adapters on your machine, so that one of the Network adapters is used by the host, and the other network adapter is used by the guest virtual machines

On the Confirm Installation Selection page, click Install

Installation will be initialized and once completed, you will be informed that a restart is required, click Close

You will be asked if you want to restart your server now, click Yes

Once you log on again to your machine, the installation will resume, and then on the installation result page, you will get notified if the installation encountered any errors or it was completed successfully > Click Close

Summary

In part 1 of this two parts article, I showed you what are the differences between Hyper-V and Virtual Server 2005, also what are the requirement for Hyper-V, and then finally installed Hyper-V on our Windows Server 2008. In part 2 of this article, I will install Windows Server 2008 as a virtual machine using Hyper-V

Identifying Hyper-V Version

Search Amazon.com for hyper-v

Installing Hyper-V and Deploying Windows Server 2008 as Your First Virtual Machine - Part II

2011-04-28T23:05:00.000-07:00

Installing Hyper-V and Deploying Windows Server 2008 as Your First Virtual Machine - Part II
Published	:	May 19, 2008
Last Updated	:	May 19, 2008

Introduction

In part I of this article, I pointed to you the prerequisites to install Hyper-V, the differences between Hyper-V and Virtual Server 2005 R2, and then installed Hyper-V on Windows Server 2008. In this part of the article, I will use Hyper-V Manager to create my first Virtual machine and then install on it Windows Server 2008 as a guest operating system.

Once you install the Hyper-V role on Windows Server 2008, a new console will be installed on your machine, and it is called the Hyper-V Manager. Everything related to Hyper-V is done using this MMC console.

To open Hyper-V, click on Start > Administrative Tools > Hyper-V Manager

The first time you open Hyper-V, an End User license Agreement (EULA) page will open, take a moment to read it and then enable the checkbox beside I have read and agree to the terms of this EULA, then click on the Accept button. If you clicked on the Cancel button, then you will not be able to connect to any server running Hyper-V until you accept the EULA, which will keep popping up whenever you open Hyper-V or even try to connect to a server that has the Hyper-V role installed on.

The Hyper-V Manager console will open

From the right side pane, under Actions, click on Connect to Server . Hyper-V is installed locally on the machine you are working with, so keep the default selection on Local Computer (the computer this console is running on) and then click on OK

The server name will be displayed in the left side pane, and now we have more Actions to select from the right side pane

To Create a new virtual machine, From the right side pane, click on New > Virtual Machine

On the Before You Begin page, click Next

On the Specify Name and Location page, type a meaningful name for your Virtual Machine, as for the location where the virtual machine will be stored, either keep the default location as shown, or change it to another path and then Click Next. I will name the virtual machines as
ELMAJ-DC-01 and will store it in the D drive inside the Hyper-V folder.

On the Assign Memory page, specify the amount of memory to allocate to this virtual machine. This depends on how much memory is installed on your system. Either keep the default displayed memory, or increase it. As I'm going to install Windows Server 2008, I am going to set the memory to be 2 GB. Click Next

Select a Virtual Network from the drop down list on the Configure Networking page. You can keep the virtual machine disconnected by not selecting any Virtual Network, Click Next

For Every Virtual Machine, you will need to connect it to a Virtual Hard Disk, on the Connect Virtual Hard Disk page, we will need to create a new virtual hard disk, as we do not have any existing virtual hard disk ( you can use existing virtual hard disk if you already have created virtual hard disk before , or if you have downloaded a virtual hard disk from Microsoft site )

I will keep the default settings ( name, location, size ) and click Next

On the Installation Options page, you have multiple options to choose from where you are going to install the operating system, or you can even postpone this operation by choosing Install an operating system later. Insert the Windows Server 2008 DVD inside the DVD Drive, and select to install an operating system from a boot CD/DVD-ROM, if you have multiple DVD Drives, make sure to select the one which has the Windows Server 2008 DVD into it. Click Next

On the Completing the New Virtual Machine Wizard, take a moment to review your selections and then click Finish. If you need the virtual machine to be automatically started after it is created, then select the checkbox Start the Virtual Machine after it is created

Windows Server 2008 files will start to load

Select the language to install, Time and currency format and the keyboard language, and then click Next

Click on Install Now

Enter the product key, and keep the checkbox Automatically activate Windows when I'm online to activate your Windows copy when you are online, if you wish not to activate it, as this might be a test lab on your Hyper-V, then deselect this option and then click Next

Accept the license terms and click Next

Click Custom (advanced), on the Type of installation page

Select the drive / partition you want to install Windows Server 2008 on it and then click Next.
If you want to divide the virtual hard disk into two partitions, you can do this by selecting the drive , and then clicking on the Drive options (advanced) option

To divide the drive into different partitions, click on the New option, enter the new partition size, then click on the Apply button

Once you are done with creating the partitions, select the one that you want to install Windows Server 2008 on it, and then click on Next

Installation will start

The machine will reboot several times until the installation is completed.

To create a password and logon to Windows Server 2008, read my article : How To Log On To Windows Server 2008

One last note, in step # 10 , if you did not select to start the virtual machine after it is created, then to start and connect to the virtual machine, right click on the Virtual machine name inside Hyper-V Manager and click on Start, this will turn on the Virtual machine

Then right click on the Virtual machine name and click Connect, this will open the Virtual machine window.

Summary

In part 2 of this two parts article, I showed you how to use Hyper-V Manager to create your first Virtual Machine, and then installed Windows Server 2008 as a guest operating system. Now that you know how to install and use Hyper-V, start building your own test labs and experience the next level of virtualization. Start using a virtualized computing environment to improve the efficiency of your computing resources by utilizing more of your hardware resources. Enjoy Hyper-V !

Related Articles

Installing Hyper-V and Deploying Windows Server 2008 as Your First Virtual Machine - Part I

Remove failed DC from AD manually… Never been easier

2011-04-28T22:55:00.000-07:00

You perform metadata cleanup on a domain controller in the domain of the domain controller that you forcibly removed. Metadata cleanup removes data from AD DS that identifies a domain controller to the replication system. Metadata cleanup also removes File Replication Service (FRS) and Distributed File System (DFS) Replication connections and attempts to transfer or seize any operations master (also known as flexible single master operations or FSMO) roles that the retired domain controller holds.. Removing failed DC manual was hard process that need some level of professionalism as I used to do it with Ntdsutil command-line tool.
Please check “How to remove data in Active Directory after an unsuccessful domain controller demotion”
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/216498
How to remove orphaned domains from Active Directory
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;230306
Clean up server metadata
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc736378%28WS.10%29.aspx
I used to use it since Windows 2000, 2003. But I was suprized to discover that Windows 2008, 2008 R2 has new GUI. Really easy and efficient one.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc816907%28WS.10%29.aspx

Clean up server metadata by using GUI tools

When you use Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT) or the Active Directory Users and Computers console (Dsa.msc) that is included with Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2008 R2 to delete a domain controller computer account from the Domain Controllers organizational unit (OU), the cleanup of server metadata is performed automatically. Previously, you had to perform a separate metadata cleanup procedure.
You can also use the Active Directory Sites and Services console (Dssite.msc) to delete a domain controller’s computer account, which also completes metadata cleanup automatically. However, Active Directory Sites and Services removes the metadata automatically only when you first delete the NTDS Settings object below the computer account in Dssite.msc.
As long as you are using the Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, or RSAT versions of Dsa.msc or Dssite.msc, you can clean up metadata automatically for domain controllers running earlier versions of Windows operating systems.
Membership in Domain Admins, or equivalent, is the minimum required to complete these procedures. Review details about using the appropriate accounts and group memberships at Local and Domain Default Groups (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=83477).

To clean up server metadata by using Active Directory Users and Computers

Open Active Directory Users and Computers: On the Start menu, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Active Directory Users and Computers.
If you have identified replication partners in preparation for this procedure and if you are not connected to a replication partner of the removed domain controller whose metadata you are cleaning up, right-click Active Directory Users and Computers <DomainControllerName>, and then click Change Domain Controller. Click the name of the domain controller from which you want to remove the metadata, and then click OK.
Expand the domain of the domain controller that was forcibly removed, and then click Domain Controllers.
In the details pane, right-click the computer object of the domain controller whose metadata you want to clean up, and then click Delete.
In the Active Directory Domain Services dialog box, click Yes to confirm the computer object deletion.
In the Deleting Domain Controller dialog box, select This Domain Controller is permanently offline and can no longer be demoted using the Active Directory Domain Services Installation Wizard (DCPROMO), and then click Delete.
If the domain controller is a global catalog server, in the Delete Domain Controller dialog box, click Yes to continue with the deletion.
If the domain controller currently holds one or more operations master roles, click OK to move the role or roles to the domain controller that is shown.You cannot change this domain controller. If you want to move the role to a different domain controller, you must move the role after you complete the server metadata cleanup procedure.

To clean up server metadata by using Active Directory Sites and Services

Open Active Directory Sites and Services: On the Start menu, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Active Directory Sites and Services.
If you have identified replication partners in preparation for this procedure and if you are not connected to a replication partner of the removed domain controller whose metadata you are cleaning up, right-click Active Directory Users and Computers <DomainControllerName>, and then click Change Domain Controller. Click the name of the domain controller from which you want to remove the metadata, and then click OK.
Expand the site of the domain controller that was forcibly removed, expand Servers, expand the name of the domain controller, right-click the NTDS Settings object, and then click Delete.
In the Active Directory Domain Services dialog box, click Yes to confirm the NTDS Settings deletion.
In the Deleting Domain Controller dialog box, select This Domain Controller is permanently offline and can no longer be demoted using the Active Directory Domain Services Installation Wizard (DCPROMO), and then click Delete.
If the domain controller is a global catalog server, in the Delete Domain Controller dialog box, click Yes to continue with the deletion.
If the domain controller currently holds one or more operations master roles, click OK to move the role or roles to the domain controller that is shown.
Right-click the domain controller that was forcibly removed, and then click Delete.
In the Active Directory Domain Services dialog box, click Yes to confirm the domain controller deletion.

Upgrade VMM 2008 R2 to SP1

2011-04-28T22:49:00.000-07:00

VMM 2008 SP1 RC is out, So I think it is the good time to start testing and deploying it. I took the chance and upgrade my test lab to VMM 2008 SP1. This post provides step-by-step instructions for upgrading to System Center Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 (SP1) from VMM 2008 R2 while retaining your previous VMM data. 1. Log on to the VMM server that is running VMM 2008 R2. 2. On the product media or the location where you saved the Setup files, right-click Setup.exe, and then click Run as administrator. 3. On the Setup menu, click VMM Server to open the Upgrade System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2 wizard. 4. Review and accept the license terms, and then click Next. 5. On the Confirmation page, verify the list of VMM components that are already installed on this computer. To upgrade all installed VMM components, click Upgrade. 6. On the SQL Server Credentials page, provide credentials that have permission to access and update the VMM database by doing one of the following: a. To use the same credentials that you are logged on with, click Next. b. To provide a different set of credentials, select the Use the following credentials check box, type the credentials, and then click Next. 7. The Setup will start updating VMM Server, VMM administration console and Self service portal. 8. On the Completion page, click Close. 9. Run the Upgrade System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2 wizard to upgrade instances of the VMM Administrator Console and the VMM Self-Service Portal on any other computers that will communicate with the upgraded VMM server 10. After upgrading VMM, all hosts and library servers must be refreshed to show the correct status. To perform a manual host refresh, in the upgraded Administrator Console, in Hosts view, select one or more hosts, and then, in the Actions pane, click Refresh. You can check the status of the host refresh in Jobs view. 11. After a host has been refreshed, it will have a status of Needs Attention, except for the VMM server if it is also serving as a host. This is because the stand-alone hosts still have the previous version of the VMM agent installed. These hosts are fully functional, so you do not have to immediately update the agents on all hosts. 12. To update the hosts, in the VMM Administrator Console, in Hosts view, select one or more hosts with a status of Needs Attention, and then in the Actions pane, click Update Agent. You can check the status of the agent update in Jobs view. When the refresh is complete, the host status will be OK. 13. To perform a manual library refresh, open Library view, select one or more library servers, and then, in the Actions pane, click Refresh. If you do not perform a manual refresh, the default library refresh interval is 1 hour. You can check the status of library refreshes in Jobs view. 14. After the library refresh, in the VMM Administrator Console, navigate to Administration view, and then click Managed Computers. 15. Select one or more computers that have a role of Library and an agent status of Upgrade Available, and then, in the Actions pane, click Update Agent. When the update is complete, all stand-alone library servers will have a version status of Up-to-date. For a highly available library server, the version status of each cluster node is updated after the next library refresh. 16. After upgrading VMM, update Operations Manager integration, if necessary. For more information, see Updating Operations Manager Integration After Upgrading to VMM 2008 R2 SP1 (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=199953). 17. Check the new Dynamic memory setting in the VM configurations. References: VMM 2008 SP1 Documentations

Installing Forefront Threat Management Gateway (TMG) Beta 2

2011-04-28T22:40:00.000-07:00

Published	:	February 22, 2009
Last Updated	:	February 22, 2009

Introduction

In a previous post, I have told you that Forefront Threat Management Gateway is the future version of Microsoft ISA Server. In this article, I will be installing TMG Beta 2. Before this I will be pinpointing few notes, then showing you the hardware and software prerequisites. Then will install Forefront TMG.

I wanted to cover the installation of Forefront TMG Beta 2, because I have seen many administrators are having issues and errors while installing TMG. This is because there are few things that you have to take care before proceeding into installing TMG.

To avoid having any issue while we are installing Forefront TMG, and before we start, I want to grab your attention to the following notes :

Forefront Threat Management Gateway is native 64-bit. It can only be installed on Windows Server 2008 64-bit.
One of the most important steps before installing ISA/TMG, is to configure the network interfaces settings on the server. please have a look at this article so that you correctly configure the network interfaces : Configuring ISA Server Interface Settings.
TMG BETA 2 server has to be a domain member. Join the TMG server to a domain before installing Forefront TMG software. Later on, with future builds of TMG, Workgroup scenario will be supported.

Forefront TMG has a hardware & software requirements, as stated below :

Hardware Requirement:

A computer with a 64-bit processor.
Windows Server® 2008 64-bit operating system. You cannot install Forefront TMG on 32-bit versions of Windows Server 2008.
2 gigabytes (GB) or more of memory
2.5 GB of available hard disk space. This is exclusive of hard disk space that you want to use for caching or for temporarily storing files during malware inspection.
One network adapter that is compatible with the computer's operating system, for communication with the Internal network.
An additional network adapter for each network connected to the Forefront TMG computer.
One local hard disk partition that is formatted with the NTFS file system.

Software Prerequisites:

You must install the following programs on your server before installing TMG

Dot Net Framework 3.5 - Download it from here
Two features on Windows Server 2008 have to be added :

Windows Powershell Feature
Message Queuing Server and Directory Service Integration Feature

Installing TMG Beta 2

Double click on the setup file that you have downloaded. On the Welcome screen, click Next
Select the path where the extracted files will be stored, you can either keep the default path or change it to a custom path by clicking on the Change... button and browse to another path. Then click Next

extracting the setup package will start
Once extracting is completed, the Install Forefront TMG page will open automatically, click on Install Forefront TMG
On the Welcome to the installation wizard page, click Next
On the License Agreement page, accept the terms and click Next

I just want to grab your attention to a simple note in the terms:

INSTALLATION AND USE RIGHTS.

· You may install and use any number of copies of the software on your premises to design, develop and test your programs for use
with the software.
· You may not test the software in a live operating environment unless Microsoft permits you to do so under another agreement.
Type your info, and for the product key it will be automatically filled, as this is a Beta version. Click Next
On the Setup Scenarios page, choose the installation option

Selecting scenario # 1 : Install Forefront Threat management Gateway services
This will install Forefront TMG services plus its management console and the Configuration storage server which stores the enterprise configuration for forefront TMG arrays.
Selecting scenario # 2 : Install Forefront Threat Management Gateway Management only
This will only installs the MMC part of TMG, so that you can control remote Forefront TMG servers. This for example can be installed on a client machine, so that you can remotely connect to your TMG server using this installed MMC snap-in.
Selecting scenario # 3 : Install Enterprise Management Server
This will install both the MMC part of TMG and the Configuration Storage Server, which stores the enterprise configuration for TMG arrays

I will be selecting scenario # 1 Install Forefront Threat management Gateway services , click Next.
If you want to change the default installation path, then click on the Change... and choose your installation path, if you want to keep the default installation path, simply click on Next

As you may have noticed, the concept of Standard Edition or Enterprise Edition is no more available with Forefront TMG. There are new terms that we will have to get used to them , such as Standalone Server, Array Manager, Standalone Array, Enterprise Management Server (EMS). You might find it misleading at the current moment. Don't feel that, later on we will get used to these terms, and they will be covered in future articles. To give you a brief illustration, at the moment I'll be installing a Standalone Forefront TMG server.

On the Internal Network page, we need to specify the address ranges that we want to include in the Internal Network . Click on the Add button

To add the Internal Network range, you can either click on Add Adapter, select the appropriate adapter representing the Internal Network ( in case you have multiple adapters ), or you can simply click Add Private and select from a list of predefined address ranges, or click on Add Range and type the range manually, where you have to specify the beginning and the ending IP address of the range.

Once you finish from defining the internal network range, click on the OK button

You will be taken back to the Internal Network page, if you want to edit the address range click on the Change... button, else click on Next
On the Services Warning page, you will be notified that the following services will be restarted or disabled during installation as seen in the below screen shot, click Next
Ok, we are set for the installation, on the Ready to Install page, click Install

Instantly you will receive a notification alert that if you plan to enable E-mail policy protection, you must install Exchange Edge Transport role + Service Pack One for Exchange Server 2007 before installing Forefront TMG, if you do not plan to use the E-mail policy protection then click on the OK button so that installation continues, else if you do plan to use the E-mail policy protection, click on the Cancel button, install Exchange Edge and then run the Forefront installation again.

Installation will proceed
When installation completes, you can invoke TMG Management when the wizard closes by enabling the checkbox available in the below screenshot. Click on Finish

An html page will pop up after you click the Finish button, listing few recommendations. Take a moment to read them.
To open Forefront TMG Management Console, click on Start > All Programs > Microsoft Forefront TMG, click on Microsoft Forefront TMG Management
Forefront TMG management console will open, and we will be greeted with the Getting Started Wizard page opened. This wizard is used to configure or modify basic deployment settings. I believe I will be covering it in my next article.

For the time being you can ignore this wizard and click on Close. I did this because I want to show you the left pane multiple new nodes such as Web Access Policy , E-mail Policy, Intrusion Prevention System , Logs & Reports and Update Center.

One last reminder, this is a Beta version, do not use it in a production environment. And if you were hoping to have a specific feature and found out that it is not there with this build, don't feel down, a lot of builds yet to be released and a lot of current features are not yet 100% polished.

Configuring ISA Server Interface Settings

Download Forefront Threat Management Gateway Beta 2

Forefront Threat Management Gateway is the future version of Microsoft ISA Server

Introducing Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 - Part 2 : Configuration

2011-04-28T22:35:00.000-07:00

Introduction

In part 1 of this article, I installed Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008. Today I'm going to configure Hyper-V Server 2008 by using the Hyper-V Configuration Window.

As shown in part 1 of this article, the desktop of the Hyper-V server contains only two windows; the Command Line window and the Hyper-V Configuration window. If by mistake you closed any of these windows, you can easily re-open anyone of these windows by following the below steps:

Opening the Command Line window

Click CTRL+ALT+DEL > click on Start Task Manager
Click on New Task...
Type cmd > click Enter or OK

Opening the Hyper-V configuration window

In the command line window, type hvconfig and then click Enter

Now lets start configuring our Hyper-V Server. The Hyper-V Configuration window has a list of configuration that you can go through any of them by typing the number of that item and clicking Enter, you are not obliged to go through them in sequence ( ex. from option 1 download to option 13) . But some options can not be completed, before configuring an option that it depends on. For example, you can not join a domain ( option 1 ) or download updates (option 6) if you have not configured your network settings first ( option 3 ). That's why I will configure the options in the way I prefer.
The following configurations are available with the Hyper-V configuration window

Computer Name

Type 2 and click Enter to change the computer name.
Type the new computer name and click Enter
You will be prompted with The computer needs to be restarted in order to complete the operation. The command completed successfully. Click OK
You will be prompted with You must restart your computer to apply these changes. Restart now? , click Yes
After the machine reboots and you logon, you will see the new computer name.

Network Settings

Hyper-V Server network settings can be assigned by a DHCP Server or an IP Address can be assigned manually.

Type 3 and click Enter to configure the Hyper-V Server network settings.
The Network cards that are attached to your machine will be listed
Type the Index# of the adapter you want to configure and click Enter. I only have one network adapter in my server, so I will type 1
You will be presented with the current configuration for the network adapter you selected.
Type 1 and click Enter to configure the IP address for the selected network adapter

To set the network card to receive its IP address from a DHCP Server

Type D and click Enter

To set a static IP address

Type S and click Enter
Type the IP address then click Enter
Type the subnet mask then click Enter, the default subnet mask is 255.255.255.0 , so you can leave this entry blank and just click Enter
Type the default gateway then click Enter

To configure DNS Server settings for the selected network adapter

Type 2 then click Enter
Type the IP address of the DNS server then click Enter
Click OK on the pop up message box : Preferred DNS server set
If you have an alternate DNS server, then type its IP address then click Enter. If you do not have an alternate DNS Server, then keep this entry blank and click Enter
If in the previous step you had configured an Alternate DNS Server, then click OK on the pop up message box : Alternate DNS server set

To Clear DNS Server Settings, follow these steps:

In the Network Adapter Settings option, type 3 then click OK
Click OK when the pop up message DNS servers removed. DNS servers will be automatically obtained from network is displayed

Add Local Administrator

This option adds a user as a local administrator in the server itself. This option does not create a new user. If your server is on a workgroup and you want to create a new user on the server, then you will need to use the command : Net user username /add

If the server is joined to a domain, then you can set a domain user as a local administrator on this server.

To add a local administrator, follow these steps :

Type 4 and click Enter
Type the username and click Enter, if you the server is joined to a domain, then the username would be domain\username , example : elmajdal\tarek. If the server is in a workgroup, then type the username only as shown in the below image
When prompted, type a password for the user and click Enter
When prompted, type the password a second time and click Enter
Click OK on the confirmation message box User added to local Administrators group. Username.

Domain/Workgroup

By default, Hyper-V Server is joined to the workgroup : WORKGROUP, you can either keep it in the same workgroup, joined it to another workgroup or join it to a domain. In my case, I will keep it in its default workgroup.

If you want to join it to another workgroup, do the following :

Type 1 and click Enter
Type W and click Enter
Type the name of the workgroup you want to join your server to and click Enter
Click OK on the pop up message Welcome to the workgroup: NEW WORKGROUP NAME

To join the server to a domain, do the following :

Type 1 and click Enter
Type D and click Enter
Type the domain name ( ex. ELMAJDAL.NET ) and click Enter
Type the domain username in the following format: domain\user ( ex. ELMAJDAL\TAREK), make sure that this user has the needed permissions to join this server to the domain ( ex. domain admin )
When prompted, type a password for the user and click Enter
You will receive a pop up message You must restart your computer to apply these changes. Restart now? , Click Yes and the server will be restarted

Remote Desktop

Type 7 and click Enter.
Here you have a choice to either selection option 1 or option 2. Option 1 is to allow only clients running remote desktop with Network Level Authentication ( XP SP3, Vista SP1 & Windows Server 2008 ), whereas option 2 to allow clients running any version of remote desktop.
Once you made you selection and clicked on Enter, you will be prompted with a pop up message showing your selection. Click OK
You will notice that the status beside 7) Remote Desktop inside the Hyper-V Configuration window is now displaying as Enabled ( your selection ), where your selection is replaced either by less secure (option 1) or more secure clients only (option 2).

Date and Time

Type 9 and click Enter to configure or modify the Hyper-V Server Date and Time options.

The Date and Time applet will open, configure the desired settings and then click on OK

Regional and Language Options

Type 8 and click Enter to configure or modify the Hyper-V Server Regional and Language options.

The Regional and Language Options applet will open, configure the desired settings and then click on OK

Set Automatic Windows Update

The current Update settings are displayed in the default Hyper-V Configuration window.

To set updates to automatic

Type 5 and click Enter.
Type A and click Enter
You will be prompted with Windows Update set to Automatic. System will check for and install updates every day at 3:00AM
Click OK
You will notice that the Windows Updates Settings status has changed to Automatic

Download and Install Updates

The current Update Status is displayed in the default Hyper-V Configuration window.

Type 6 and click Enter to search for updates. Searching for updates will start and if any updates are available, they will be listed.
If there was no updates to download, then just click on any key to exit from the above window, else type Y and click Enter, this will download the updates and then they will be installed.

Log Off User

Type 10 and click Enter
You will be prompted with Are you sure you want to log off?
Click Yes

Restart Server

Type 11 and click Enter
You will be prompted with Are you sure you want to restart?
Click Yes

Shut Down Server

Type 12 and click Enter
You will be prompted with Are you sure you want to shut down?
Click Yes

Exit to Command Line

Type 13 and click Enter to exit to the Command Line.

Summary

In part two of the article Introducing Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008, I configured Hyper-V Server so that it is set on the network. In the next and last part of this article, part three, I will show you how to connect to the server remotely so that you can start creating your virtual machines.

Introducing Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 - Part 1 : Installation

2011-04-28T22:32:00.000-07:00

Introducing Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 - Part 1 : Installation
Published	:	October 20, 2008
Last Updated	:	October 20, 2008

Introduction

The stand-alone version of Hyper-V is now available and is called Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008. So now if you want to work with Hyper-V and does not have a copy of Windows Server 2008, then download Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008, which is absolutely free, easy to install and easy to configure.

Since day one of introducing Hyper-V with Windows Server 2008, people on the TechNet forums were wondering if a stand alone Hyper-V server would ever be released and how much would it cost. People were very excited for Hyper-V, but not all of them had a hand on experience on Windows Server 2008 With Hyper-V ! For those people who have been waiting, the day had came and Microsoft released Hyper-V Server 2008, which in absolutely free !

Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 requires specific hardware ( they are the same as Hyper-V that is available with Windows Server 2008).
You will need the following:

An x64-based processor
Hardware-assisted virtualization. This is available in processors that include a virtualization option; specifically, Intel VT or AMD Virtualization
Hardware Data Execution Protection (DEP) must be available and be enabled. Specifically, you must enable Intel XD bit (execute disable bit) or AMD NX bit (no execute bit).

Before installing Hyper-V Server 2008 , let me show you a table that will summaries the differences between Hyper-V Server 2008 and Hyper-V role that is available in the different versions of Windows Server 2008.

Virtualization Needs	Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008	Windows Server 2008 Standard	Windows Server 2008 Enterprise	Windows Server 2008 Datacenter
Server Consolidation
Test and Development
Mixed OS Virtualization (Linux and Windows)
Local Graphical User Interface
High Availability—Clustering
Quick Migration
Large Memory Support (Host OS) > 32 GB RAM
Support for > 4 Processors (Host OS)
Ability to Add Additional Server Roles
Virtualization Rights per Server License	Each VM Guest requires a server license	1 Physical + 1 VM	1 Physical + 4 VMs	1 Physical + Unlimited VMs

Download Hyper-V Server 2008 from this link : http://www.microsoft.com/servers/hyper-v-server/how-to-get.mspx
Once you download the ISO image file, burn it to a DVD disk.
Ready to install Hyper-V Server ? Then boot your machine with the DVD disk inserted into the DVD-Rom, make sure that the DVD-Rom is higher than the Hard disk in the boot sequence of the BIOS.

You will be asked to choose the language of the Wizard, then will select the language that will be installed for your Hyper-V server 2008, the time and currency format and the keyboard language. Once you have made your selections, click on Next
Click on Install now
Accept the license terms, by selecting the checkbox beside I accept the license terms, then click on Next
On the Installation type page, click on Custom (advanced). You will notice that the Upgrade option is grayed out, as Hyper-V Server 2008 can not be upgraded from any previous Windows Operating Systems.
Choose the drive/partition that you wish to install Hyper-V Server on, and then click Next
Installing Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 will start, which will include several restarts during installation
Once installation is completed, press CTRL+ALT+DEL to log on.

Click on Other User

Type administrator as a username and keep the password textbox empty, then hit the Enter key or click on the arrow button
You will be asked to change the administrator password, click OK
The new password must meet the following minimum requirements:
Type the new password and confirm it, then click Enter

You will get a confirmation message that your password has been changed, click OK
The administrator account desktop will be prepared and in few seconds you will be logged in.
You will noticed that the desktop of Hyper-V Server 2008 looks as Windows Server 2008 Server Core but with a new windows called Hyper-V Configuration. Now you can use the blue background screen ( Hyper-V Configuration ), where you can easily configure your basic server settings, instead of memorizing different commands as we did with Windows Server 2008 Server Core.

In the second part of this article, I will configure Hyper-V Server 2008 ( computer name, domain membership , etc .. ) and then in the last and third part of this article, I will show how to connect to it using the Hyper-V management console using a remote computer.

Summary

A stand alone Hyper-V Server is now available and it is free. You install it on a physical machine and configure it using the Hyper-V Configuration window, then after that, everything that you need to do with the Hyper-V server such as creating new virtual machines, is done using the Hyper-V management console using a remote machine.

Introducing Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 - Part 2 : Configuration

installation & configuration of DHCP server 2008

2011-04-28T22:23:00.000-07:00

Introduction

Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) is a core infrastructure service on any network that provides IP addressing and DNS server information to PC clients and any other device. DHCP is used so that you do not have to statically assign IP addresses to every device on your network and manage the issues that static IP addressing can create. More and more, DHCP is being expanded to fit into new network services like the Windows Health Service and Network Access Protection (NAP). However, before you can use it for more advanced services, you need to first install it and configure the basics. Let’s learn how to do that.

Installing Windows Server 2008 DHCP Server

Installing Windows Server 2008 DCHP Server is easy. DHCP Server is now a “role” of Windows Server 2008 – not a windows component as it was in the past.
To do this, you will need a Windows Server 2008 system already installed and configured with a static IP address. You will need to know your network’s IP address range, the range of IP addresses you will want to hand out to your PC clients, your DNS server IP addresses, and your default gateway. Additionally, you will want to have a plan for all subnets involved, what scopes you will want to define, and what exclusions you will want to create.
To start the DHCP installation process, you can click Add Roles from the Initial Configuration Tasks window or from Server Manager à Roles à Add Roles.

Figure 1: Adding a new Role in Windows Server 2008
When the Add Roles Wizard comes up, you can click Next on that screen.
Next, select that you want to add the DHCP Server Role, and click Next.

Figure 2: Selecting the DHCP Server Role
If you do not have a static IP address assigned on your server, you will get a warning that you should not install DHCP with a dynamic IP address.
At this point, you will begin being prompted for IP network information, scope information, and DNS information. If you only want to install DHCP server with no configured scopes or settings, you can just click Next through these questions and proceed with the installation.
On the other hand, you can optionally configure your DHCP Server during this part of the installation.
In my case, I chose to take this opportunity to configure some basic IP settings and configure my first DHCP Scope.
I was shown my network connection binding and asked to verify it, like this:

Figure 3: Network connection binding
What the wizard is asking is, “what interface do you want to provide DHCP services on?” I took the default and clicked Next.
Next, I entered my Parent Domain, Primary DNS Server, and Alternate DNS Server (as you see below) and clicked Next.

Figure 4: Entering domain and DNS information
I opted NOT to use WINS on my network and I clicked Next.
Then, I was promoted to configure a DHCP scope for the new DHCP Server. I have opted to configure an IP address range of 192.168.1.50-100 to cover the 25+ PC Clients on my local network. To do this, I clicked Add to add a new scope. As you see below, I named the Scope WBC-Local, configured the starting and ending IP addresses of 192.168.1.50-192.168.1.100, subnet mask of 255.255.255.0, default gateway of 192.168.1.1, type of subnet (wired), and activated the scope.

Figure 5: Adding a new DHCP Scope
Back in the Add Scope screen, I clicked Next to add the new scope (once the DHCP Server is installed).
I chose to Disable DHCPv6 stateless mode for this server and clicked Next.
Then, I confirmed my DHCP Installation Selections (on the screen below) and clicked Install.

Figure 6: Confirm Installation Selections
After only a few seconds, the DHCP Server was installed and I saw the window, below:

Figure 7: Windows Server 2008 DHCP Server Installation succeeded
I clicked Close to close the installer window, then moved on to how to manage my new DHCP Server.

How to Manage your new Windows Server 2008 DHCP Server

Like the installation, managing Windows Server 2008 DHCP Server is also easy. Back in my Windows Server 2008 Server Manager, under Roles, I clicked on the new DHCP Server entry.

Figure 8: DHCP Server management in Server Manager
While I cannot manage the DHCP Server scopes and clients from here, what I can do is to manage what events, services, and resources are related to the DHCP Server installation. Thus, this is a good place to go to check the status of the DHCP Server and what events have happened around it.
However, to really configure the DHCP Server and see what clients have obtained IP addresses, I need to go to the DHCP Server MMC. To do this, I went to Start à Administrative Tools à DHCP Server, like this:

Figure 9: Starting the DHCP Server MMC
When expanded out, the MMC offers a lot of features. Here is what it looks like:

Figure 10: The Windows Server 2008 DHCP Server MMC
The DHCP Server MMC offers IPv4 & IPv6 DHCP Server info including all scopes, pools, leases, reservations, scope options, and server options.
If I go into the address pool and the scope options, I can see that the configuration we made when we installed the DHCP Server did, indeed, work. The scope IP address range is there, and so are the DNS Server & default gateway.

Figure 11: DHCP Server Address Pool

Figure 12: DHCP Server Scope Options
So how do we know that this really works if we do not test it? The answer is that we do not. Now, let’s test to make sure it works.

How do we test our Windows Server 2008 DHCP Server?

To test this, I have a Windows Vista PC Client on the same network segment as the Windows Server 2008 DHCP server. To be safe, I have no other devices on this network segment.
I did an IPCONFIG /RELEASE then an IPCONFIG /RENEW and verified that I received an IP address from the new DHCP server, as you can see below:

Figure 13: Vista client received IP address from new DHCP Server
Also, I went to my Windows 2008 Server and verified that the new Vista client was listed as a client on the DHCP server. This did indeed check out, as you can see below:

Figure 14: Win 2008 DHCP Server has the Vista client listed under Address Leases
With that, I knew that I had a working configuration and we are done!

In this article, you learned how to install and configure DHCP Server in Windows Server 2008. During that process, you learned what DHCP Server is, how it can help you, how to install it, how to manage the server, and how to configure DHCP server specific settings like DHCP Server scopes. In the end, we tested our configuration and it all worked! Good luck configuring your Windows Server 2008 DHCP Server!

Installation of RedHat Linux 6.0

2011-04-28T21:45:00.000-07:00

This is Red Hat 6 RHEL (Red Hat Enterprise Linux) installation guide, step-by-step walkthrough with screenshots. Current version of Red Hat 6 is Beta, but also this RHEL 6 Beta version looks very stable and good OS, so that’s why I decided to write this RHEL 6 Installation guide.

The Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 Beta is available on the following architectures:

i386
AMD64/Intel64
System z
IBM Power (64-bit)

Download Red Hat 6 Beta DVD images here.

Some of the many improvements and new features that are included in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6

Power management – tickless kernel and improvements through the application stack to reduce wakeups, power consumption measurement by Powertop, Power Management (ASPM, ALPM), and adaptive system tuning by Tuned, all enhance more efficient system power usage.
Next generation networking – comprehensive IPv6 support (NFS 4, CIFS, mobile support [RFC 3775], ISATAP support), FCoE, iSCSI, and a new and improved mac 802.11 wireless stack.
Scalable filesystems – ext4 file system provides support for larger file sizes and significantly reduces repair times over ext3. XFS® is a high-performance file system that supports extremely large files and is optimized for large data transfers.
Virtualization – KVM includes performance improvements and new features, sVirt protects the guest and host from unauthorized access, SR-IOV and NPIV deliver high-performance virtual use of physical devices, and libvirt leverages kernel resource management functionality.
Enterprise security enhancement – SELinux includes improved ease of use, application sandboxing, and significantly increased coverage of system services, while SSSD provides unified access to identity and authentication services as well as caching for off-line use.
Development and runtime support – SystemTap improvements, ABRT is a new framework for simple collection and reporting of bug information, and improvements are made to GCC (version 4.4.3), glibc (version 2.11.1), and GDB (version 7.0.1).

On this guide I use Graphical Installer. There is also Kickstart automated installation method and Text-based Installer available. And I install this machine for Software Development Workstation and testing environment. So package selection is following: Desktop, Web server, Databases, Compiling tools, Java. Same method works also for servers, normal desktops and other setups, but of course different software selection. So let’s begin installation…

Burn Downloaded Image to DVD and Boot Computer Using Red Hat 6 Installation DVD

Check RHEL image MD5 sum and burn image to DVD with your favourite CD/DVD burner. And boot computer using Red Hat Installation DVD.

Red Hat 6 RHEL Installation

1. Select Install or upgrade an existing system option on Grub Menu

2. Choose a language

3. Choose a keyboard type

4. Choose a installation media

5. Skip DVD media test (or select media test, if you want to test installation media before installation)

6. Red Hat 6 graphical installer starts, select next

7. Accepct Pre-Release Installation

8. Select storage devices

9. Insert computer name

10. Select time zone

11. Enter a password for root user

12. Select type of installation

Read every options info carefully. And select encrypting if needed and option to review and modify partition layout.

13. Review partition layout

Modify if needed. Default setup with ext4 and LVM looks good for desktop machine.

14. Accept write changes to disc

15. Writing changes (creating partitions) to disc

16. Configure boot loader options

Select device to install bootloader and check/create boot loader operating system list.

17. Select softwares to install and enable repositories

This case we select Software Development Workstation and enable Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.0 Beta Repository and select Customize now.

18. Customize package selection

Select PHP and Web Server to installation.

Select MySQL and PostgreSQL Databases.

Select set of Development tools like Eclipse IDE.

19. Checking dependencies for installation

20. Starting installation process

21. Installing packages

22. Installation is complete

Click reboot computer and remove installation media.

Red Hat 6 RHEL Finishing Installation

23. Selecting RHEL 6 from grub

24. Booting Red Hat 6

25. Red Hat 6 Welcome screen

26. Create normal user

27. Setup date and time and keep up-to-date with NTP

28. Login Red Hat 6 Gnome Desktop

29. Red Hat (RHEL) 6 Gnome Desktop, empty and default look

Raising Windows Server 2008 Active Directory Domain and Forest Functional Levels

2011-04-28T00:02:00.000-07:00

When the first Windows Server 2008–based Domain Controller is deployed in a domain or forest, the domain or forest operates by default at the lowest functional level that is possible in that environment, meaning Windows 2000 Native Mode. This allows you to take advantage of the default Active Directory features while running versions of Windows earlier than Windows Server 2008. When you raise the functional level of a domain or forest, a set of advanced features becomes available.

Make sure you read my "Understanding Windows Server 2008 Active Directory Domain and Forest Functional Levels" article for more info about domain and forest function levels.
Note: In the Windows Server 2008 version of DCPROMO, when you install a new domain in a new forest, you are prompted for the function level of your choice. Therefore, it may very well be that a brand new installation of Active Directory will not hold the "default" domain or forest function levels.

Raising Domain Function Levels

To activate new domain features that available in Windows Server 2008, all domain controllers in the domain must be running Windows Server 2008. After this requirement is met, the administrator can raise the domain functional level to Windows Server 2008.

Important

Raising the domain functional levels to Windows Server 2008 is a nonreversible task and prohibits the addition of Windows 2000–based or Windows Server 2003–based Domain Controllers to the environment. Any existing Windows 2000–based or Windows Server 2003–based Domain Controllers in the environment will no longer function, and in fact, the upgrading wizard will not allow you to continue with the operation. Before raising functional levels to take advantage of advanced Windows Server 2008 features, ensure that you will never need to install domain controllers running Windows 2000-based or Windows Server 2003–based Domain Controllers in your environment.

Membership in Domain Admins, Enterprise Admins, or equivalent, is the minimum required to complete this procedure.
In order to raise the domain functional level:

Log on the PDC Emulator of the domain with domain administrator credentials.

Note:

Open Active Directory Users and Computers by clicking Start > All Programs > Administrative Tools, and then click Active Directory Users and Computers (you can also perform this action from the Active Directory Domains and Trusts snap-in).
In the console tree, right-click the domain node and then click Raise Domain Functional Level.

Under Select an available domain functional level, do one of the following:

Windows Server 2003

Raise

Windows Server 2008

Raise

Read the warning message, and if you wish to perform the action, click Ok.

You will receive an acknowledgement message telling you that the operation was completed successfully. Click Ok.

You can check the function level by performing step 3 again and viewing the current function level.

Note: The current domain functional level appears under Current domain functional level in the Raise Domain Functional Level dialog box. The level increase is performed on the PDC Emulator FSMO and requires the domain administrator.

Raising Forest Function Levels

To activate new forest features that available in Windows Server 2008, all domain function levels in the forest must be running in Windows Server 2008 mode. After this requirement is met, the administrator can raise the forest functional level to Windows Server 2008.
Note that domains that are set to the domain functional level of Windows Server 2003 will automatically be raised to Windows Server 2008 at the same time that the forest functional level is raised to Windows Server 2008.

Important

Raising the forest functional levels to Windows Server 2008 is a nonreversible task and prohibits the addition of Windows 2000–based or Windows Server 2003–based Domain Controllers to any of the domains in the environment. Any existing Windows 2000–based or Windows Server 2003–based Domain Controllers in the environment will no longer function, and in fact, the upgrading wizard will not allow you to continue with the operation. Before raising functional levels to take advantage of advanced Windows Server 2008 features, ensure that you will never need to install domain controllers running Windows 2000-based or Windows Server 2003–based Domain Controllers in your environment.

Membership in Enterprise Admins, or equivalent, is the minimum required to complete this procedure.
In order to raise the forest functional level:

Log on to the PDC Emulator of the forest root domain with a user account that is a member of the Enterprise Administrators group.
Open Active Directory Domains and Trusts by clicking Start > All Programs > Administrative Tools, and then click Active Directory Domains and Trusts.
In the console tree, right-click Active Directory Domains and Trusts, and then click Raise Forest Functional Level.

Under Select an available forest functional level, do one of the following:

Windows Server 2003

Raise

Windows Server 2008

Raise

Read the warning message, and if you wish to perform the action, click Ok.

You will receive an acknowledgement message telling you that the operation was completed successfully. Click Ok.

You can check the function level by performing step 3 again and viewing the current function level.

Note: To raise the forest functional level to Windows Server 2008, you must upgrade (or demote) all existing Windows 2000 or Windows Server 2003 Domain Controllers in your forest.
If you cannot raise the forest functional level, you can click Save As in the Raise Forest Functional Level dialog box to save a log file that specifies which domain controllers in the forest still must be upgraded from older operating systems.