Server Core Configuration

Now that Server Core is installed, first you need to configure it. Without the normal graphical elements, you don't have the nice Initial Configuration Tasks (ICT) interface that you would normally use to configure Windows Server 2008 server, so you have two options:

• Manually configure the server using command-line tools.
• Automate the configuration using answer files during the actual installation.

The second option is the way to go for any sizable deployment. One of the big pushes of the latest operating system has been zero-touch deployments, so you can automate the install and configuration of all the main components. However, this does take up-front effort and planning but is definitely an option. However, if you go the unattended route, Server Core uses the same unattended syntax as Windows Vista and a normal server. Use the Windows System Image Manager from the Windows Automated Installation Kit (WAIK) to help create the unattended eXtensible Markup Language (XML) answer file. There are some advantages to using the unattended XML, however, because some items are quite hard to configure in Server Core. For example, configuring screen resolution is quite complex without the Display Control Panel applet! The display options are part of the Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup component, and a sample code extract for an unattend.xml is shown here:

<settings pass="oobeSystem">
    <component name="Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup"
processorArchitecture="x86" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35"
language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS"
xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
	<Display>
	    <HorizontalResolution>1280</HorizontalResolution>
	    <VerticalResolution>1024</VerticalResolution>
	    <ColorDepth>16</ColorDepth>
	</Display>
    </component>
</settings>"

If you examine the content of the install.wim file for Windows Server 2008, you see that a CORE version exists for each operating system. If you are using Windows Deployment Services (WDS) or any other XML installation, select the CORE post-fixed version.

Let's look at the main things you normally do when you configure a new server:

• Set the administrator password.
• Set the machine name.
• Set static TCP/IP v4 details.
• Set the time zone.
• Join a domain.
• Set keyboard and international settings.
• Set the default scripting engine.
• Activate the server.
• Install patches.
• Configure the firewall.
• Configure the server pagefile.
• Enable Remote Desktop.
• Configure hardware.
• Add roles and features.

You would normally do all this via GUI interfaces. For example, you would use Network and Sharing Center to configure IP settings, Windows Update for patches, and so on, but none of these interfaces are available. You can still set all of these things using the command line and some Server Core-specific commands. However, most of these are standard commands and can be used on normal installations for configuration and for scripted communication.