Good day, Cloud Gurus, and welcome back.
In this lesson,
we're going to review the fundamentals of Windows Server.
Let's take a look at what we're going to cover.
First up, we're going to take a look at what you should know
before you install Windows Server.
We'll take a look at the basics, like hardware requirements,
servicing channels, editions, and installation options.
And we'll also take a look at roles and features.
And then we'll take a look
at the initial configuration of Windows Server.
And then finally, we'll do a quick demo
of installing and configuring Windows Server.
Now, if you've been working
with Windows Server for some time,
you might be thinking
that you could easily skip over this lesson.
And it's true that most of this lesson
might be provisioned for those of you
that have had plenty of Windows Server experience.
But I just want to level the playing field,
and close off any gaps that you might have.
All right, let's get started.
When you're installing Windows Server,
the first thing you need to ensure
is that you're installing on supported hardware.
You can install Windows Server directly
on physical hardware.
But more often than not these days,
you'll be installing Windows Server in a virtual machine.
And that means that there's actually a hypervisor
sitting directly atop the hardware,
abstracting or hiding away the hardware
from the operating system.
The hypervisor might be Hyper-V,
or it might be VMware,
or it might be a cloud provider's hypervisor.
Later in this course, we'll take a look at Hyper-V
and Microsoft Azure as hypervisors.
Regardless of whether you decide to deploy
on physical hardware or on a virtual machine,
you need to meet some minimum requirements.
And these include things
like you must have a 64-bit processor
at least 1.4 gigahertz in speed.
You also need to have
at least 512 megabytes of RAM at a minimum.
And if you want to have
the full desktop user experience on your server,
that jumps to 2 gigabytes.
And then you need at least 32 gigabytes of disk space.
You're likely going to need significantly more than that
once you've installed everything that your server needs,
but 32 gigabytes is the minimum requirement
provided by Microsoft.
Now, when it comes to installing the operating system,
there are a few important considerations.
The first is the servicing channel.
In previous versions of Windows Server,
there were multiple servicing channels.
But Windows Server 2022
only supports the Long-Term Servicing Channel or LTSC.
The Semi-Annual Channel is reserved for containers.
And we'll be covering Windows Server for containers
later on in this course.
For now, we'll be using
the Long-Term Servicing Channel release of Windows Server.
You'll also need to decide what edition of Windows Server
you're going to install.
And there are 3 editions.
They are Standard, Datacenter, and Azure Edition.
There are some subtle differences
between each of these editions.
Standard edition is your base edition,
and it supports most scenarios.
Datacenter Edition adds support for things
like software defined networking,
including the new network controller feature.
It adds support for unlimited storage replica,
which is something else we'll be covering
later on in this course.
It also adds support for Storage Spaces Direct.
And you can run unlimited virtual machines or containers
on Datacenter Edition of Windows Server.
And there is one new edition of Windows Server
called Datacenter Azure Edition.
And it only supports being run in Azure,
and supports some unique features,
including Azure Extended Network,
which we'll cover later on in the course,
and Hotpatch, which allows you to install Windows Updates
without rebooting the operating system.
And then finally, you need to select an installation option.
You can install Server Core,
which is recommended for most workloads.
It has a smaller installation,
requires less frequent patching,
but there are some roles and features
that cannot be installed on Server Core.
Or you can install the Server with Desktop Experience.
It includes a full graphical user interface,
which has a larger installation,
requires more frequent patching,
but it supports all roles and features.
It's also worth mentioning that with Windows Server 2022,
you can't change the installation option
from Server Core to Server with a Desktop Experience
after you've installed Windows.
Now, once you've deployed your operating system,
you can add functionality to Windows Server
using roles and features.
And roles are a server's purpose.
Whereas features are additional Windows capabilities
that can improve the functionality of the server,
or improve support for applications.
There are a variety of roles and features available.
And in this course, we'll cover quite a few of them.
Now, as I mentioned,
some roles and features aren't supported on Windows Server,
with the Server Core installation option.
To get support
for some of those additional roles and features,
you can install Application Compatibility
Features on Demand,
which improves the compatibility of Windows Server Core.
To manage all of the roles and features
installed on Windows Server,
you can install Remote Server Administration Tools.
And RSAT can be installed on Windows Server,
or it can be installed on a Windows client, like Windows 10,
In the demo at the end of this lesson,
we will install Features on Demand
and Remote Server Administration Tools.
Once you've configured your operating system
and installed any of your required roles and features,
you can install applications
to extend your server functionality.
The tops of applications that you might install
include things like Microsoft applications
like Exchange Server or SharePoint,
third-party applications from companies
other than Microsoft,
custom applications that you've developed in house,
or containerized applications,
using either Windows or Linux containers.
And for Windows containers,
Microsoft provides a Nano Server image
that can be used to deploy .NET core applications.
You can also install additional management tools
like Windows Admin Center.
After installing Windows Server,
there are a few defaults that you'll want to review
and potentially change.
The first is the computer name.
If you've deployed your server on-premises from an image,
it might have a dynamic name.
And it's important to have a consistent naming convention
for your servers.
Your company should have a naming convention already.
And if it doesn't, it's time to create one.
And if the server is on an Internal Enterprise Network,
you might want to join the server
to an Active Directory Domain.
Otherwise, the default work group will likely be fine.
And then you might want to check your network settings.
If you're deploying your server on-premises,
you might want to set a static IPv4 address.
Or if you're deploying to the cloud,
you can likely leave the IP configuration as dynamic,
and your cloud provider will control the IP addressing.
And then next, you'll also want to check your timezone
and your regional settings.
You'll also want to check your security settings.
You might need to install Windows Updates,
configure the firewall,
or install security software like Microsoft Defender.
And then finally,
you need to make sure that Windows is activated.
Now, typically you won't need to activate Windows Server.
It will happen automatically,
but you should check that it is activated
because a server that hasn't been activated
can cause significant downtime.
It's also worth mentioning that many of these steps
might be automated in your environment
using answer files
created by the Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit,
or using configuration management.
All right, now let's take a look at a demo
of installing and configuring Windows Server.
In this demo,
we're going to install and configure 2 Windows Servers.
And these are servers that we'll use later on in the course.
Firstly, we have our perimeter network.
This network is accessible from the internet
based on external firewall rules.
It has just one subnet at present,
and that's where we will deploy our first server.
We're going to deploy Windows Server,
running the Server Core installation option.
And we plan to deploy the DNS Server role on this server
later on in the course,
which is supported on the Server Core installation option.
And because this server is internet-facing,
it faces an increased risk,
so Server Core is an excellent choice.
We'll configure this server
using the command-line tools available in Server Core.
And while not required for the DNS role,
we're going to install
the Server App Compatibility Features on Demand
on this server.
But this is not something you typically do
in a production environment,
we're just going to do it for demonstration purposes.
And then we also have an internal corporate network
connected to the external perimeter network,
protected by an internal firewall.
And this network has just one subnet at the moment.
We'll deploy a second server to this subnet,
and it will be used to administer other servers
in our environment.
So we're going to install
the Desktop Experience installation option,
and configure this server using the tools available
in the Desktop Experience option.
We'll also install Remote Server Administration Tools
on this server.
Let's jump into the demo.
So here we are on our server
sitting in the perimeter network.
We're going to select our time and currency format.
And for our purposes,
we're going to select English (Australia).
And then we can go ahead and click Next.
And then we'll hit Install.
And this next part will just take a moment,
so we'll speed this up.
All right, the next decision we need to make
is which edition of Windows Server we're going to install,
and which installation option we're going to use.
For our purposes, we're okay to use Standard Edition.
And then we'll go ahead and click Next.
We can accept the License Agreement, and then click Next.
And then we're going to say Custom Install.
And we're going to use the full disk, and we'll hit Next.
And then it'll go ahead and install Windows.
And we'll also go ahead and complete these steps
on our internal server,
but we'll select the server
with Desktop Experience installation option.
And we'll come back
when both of these servers have completed installing.
All right, with the installation
of both of our servers complete,
it's time to get started configuring
our Internal Administrative Server.
And you remember, we configured this server
with the Desktop Experience installation option.
So we're going to use Server Manager to configure this
server. When we first log in, it launches Server Manager,
and we get prompted to try managing the server
using Windows Admin Center.
We're going to check out Windows Admin Center
later on in the course,
so we'll go ahead and close this prompt.
And then we're going to get started
managing the local server
by selecting the Local Server node
on the left-hand side of the screen.
Now Server Manager can be used
to complete almost all of the post-installation steps,
including things like setting the computer name,
joining a domain or changing the work group,
managing the Windows Defender Firewall,
managing the networking, including the IP address settings.
You can also configure and install Windows Updates,
configure Windows Defender Antivirus,
and configure the timezone.
And then finally, you can check if Windows is activated.
But for some settings,
you may need to navigate to Window Settings.
You can use Window Settings to configure things
like the regional settings.
All right, let's go ahead
and install the Remote Server Administration Tools
on this server.
So we'll go ahead and close Window Settings.
We'll select Manage, and then Add Roles and Features.
We'll skip past the welcome screen and select Next.
We're going to use a Role-based or feature-based
installation, so we'll select Next.
We're going to use the local server,
so we'll select Next.
We're not going to install any server roles,
so we'll select Next.
And we are going to install
the Remote Server Administration Tools feature,
so we'll scroll down and select that feature.
We need to add the following roles, services,
and features to install Remote Server Administration Tools,
so we're going to go Add, and then we can click Next.
This is just reminding us
that it's going to install the Web Server Role,
which is required for Remote Server Administration Tools.
So we're going to to select Next.
Next again to accept the defaults for the web server.
And then we'll click Install.
And this will just take a moment to install,
so we'll come back when this is completed.
All right, with the installation
of Remote Server Administration Tools complete,
we can go ahead and select Close.
And finally, the last thing we want to do
on this administrative server
before we go on configure the other server
is to rename the computer.
So we'll just select the option next to Computer Name.
We'll select Change to change our computer name.
And then we'll enter in the name of our computer.
We'll select OK.
And then finally, we need to restart the computer
to complete the naming process.
So we'll select OK, Close, and then Restart Now.
And while that computer restarts,
let's jump across and configure our other server.
So here we are on the server in our perimeter network,
with the Server Core installation option.
To configure servers
that use the Server Core installation option,
you use a command-line utility called SConfig.
And SConfig enables you to complete
almost all of the post-installation steps
for Windows Server,
including things like setting the computer name,
joining a domain or work group, installing updates,
configuring remote management, configuring network settings,
date/time settings, and activating Windows.
And once you're done completing the initial configuration,
you can select option 15 to exit to the command line.
And you can use the command line
to complete additional initial configuration steps.
We're going to use PowerShell to add
the Window Server App Compatibility Features on Demand.
Now, the command to install
Server App Compatibility Features on Demand
is actually a little bit crazy,
so I'm going to copy and paste that command in.
So we'll go ahead and run that.
This will take a moment to install,
so we'll come back when this is completed.
All right, with the installation
of the Server App Compatibility
Features on Demand completed,
we're going to go ahead and rename this computer,
and then we'll restart the computer to complete the rename,
and complete the installation of Features on Demand.
To rename the computer, we're going to use
the Rename-Computer PowerShell cmdlet.
All right, and that completes
the post-installation configuration of this server.
Let's wrap up
with a little bit of a summary report we've covered
and some key takeaways.
All right, so what have we covered in this lesson?
First up, you want to use
the Datacenter Edition of Windows Server
if you require unlimited virtual machines or containers.
You also use the Datacenter Edition
if you require unlimited storage replica.
And you can use the Datacenter Azure Edition
if you require Azure Extended Network or Hotpatch support.
And you can use the Server Core installation option
to improve the availability
and the security of your servers.
And use Server Core,
unless you have a really good reason not to use it.
And you should also ensure
that you complete the initial configuration of your server
to avoid future downtime.
And then finally,
there's a Window Server Nano Image
that's available for containerized workloads,
including support for .NET Core.
All right, that concludes this lesson.
Thanks for being with me.
And I hope you found this useful.
And I look forward to seeing you in the next lesson.