The next window prompts for the type of
installation you want to perform: Upgrade or Custom (advanced).
Because you’re doing a
clean installation from
media, the Upgrade
option is disabled (i.e.,
grayed out), and you
must select Custom
(advanced). Note that
if you run the installation
process from
within Windows Server
2003, both options will
be enabled.
A new window
opens that asks one
final question: Where
do you want to install
Windows? A dialog
box displays partitions
and unallocated space.
You can add or remove
partitions, reformat a
previously used hard
drive before installing
Server 2008, and
load additional drivers
as needed. Select the
partition for the installation,
then click Next
to install the OS. If the
partition isn’t formatted,
the installation process quickly formats
the partition as NTFS and proceeds.
That’s it. You’re done—no more questions.
You can go have a drink. But don’t go too far!
Because the installation is image-based, it
doesn’t take long to complete. A window
displays the progress of the installation, and
the server reboots twice during the process.
Configuration
So, what about all the
things you never configured
during installation:
server name, time zone,
administrator password,
IP configuration? A
server has a lot of default
settings, DHCP-assigned
IP address, automatically
assigned server name,
and so forth that you
need to configure after
the installation process
has completed. This is
starting to sound worse than what you had
to do previously to install Windows Server!
In the past, you installed and configured the
OS in one process. Now, do you have to root
through different Control Panel applets to
configure the server? Fortunately, no.
As Figure 3 shows, the first thing you see
after the installation is a window that tells you
the user’s password must be changed before
logging on for the first time. In the Server
2008 installation process, the Administrator
account is created with a blank password, so
the first action is to set a new Administrator
password. Once you’ve set the new Administrator
password, you are logged on as the
Administrator.
If you ever had to install Windows Server
2003 with Service Pack 1 (SP1) slipstreamed
after installation, you know that the Post
Setup Security Updates (PSSU) Wizard
forced you to patch your server and set an
update schedule. With Server 2008, you get
a beefed-up PSSU-type process in the form
of the Initial Configuration Tasks (ICT)
interface.
As you can see in Figure 4, the ICT guides
you through all the main configuration items
for a server with a new installation of Server
2008. The current values are displayed, and
clicking an item opens the appropriate Control
Panel applet for the value you want to set.
For example, when you click the icon to set
the computer name and domain, the Control
Panel System applet opens automatically.
In Server 2008, Windows Firewall is
enabled and Remote Desktop is disabled
by default so that the server is secure from
the start. Furthermore, Windows Firewall
is fully integrated with the OS. Server 2008 offers several server roles (e.g., DHCP server,
DNS server, domain controller) and features
(e.g., backup, clustering) that help the server
perform the role you select. (You add roles
and features in section 3 of the ICT interface
via the “Add roles” and “Add features” links.)
When you enable a role and its supporting
features, the various ports required by the role
and its features are opened automatically in
Windows Firewall; no additional configuration
is required. (To maintain the Windows
Firewall settings over time, you’ll want to use
the Security Configuration Wizard—SCW—
to create templates that let you continuously
monitor Windows Firewall.)
Once you’ve configured the server, select
the “Do not show this window at logon” check
box and click Close. If you want to perform further
configuration or role and feature maintenance,
use Server 2008’s new role-based
management tool, Server Manager.
Beyond Manual Installation
So that’s a walkthrough of the basic Server
2008 installation experience. As you’ve seen,
you don’t really have much to do, but unless
you need to install the OS on just a few servers,
you’ll want to automate the installation
process.
To create an unattended answer file for
use in an automated process, first download
Microsoft’s free Windows Automated Installation
Kit (www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=c7d4bc6d-15f3-4284-
9123-679830d629f2&DisplayLang=en). The
WAIK contains the Windows System Image
Manager application, which you’ll use to
create your answer file. You can use the
answer file with services such as Windows
Deployment Services to automate your
installations, or you can name the answer
file autounattend.xml, place it on a floppy
disk or USB drive, and insert it as the Server
2008 installation process begins. The process
will read and use the answer file to automate
the installation.
The WAIK documentation details the
minimum requirements you need to specify
for an automated installation. Web Listing
1 (Download a .zip file at the top of the page this page) provides an example of an autounattend.
xml file that will partition the disk and
install the full version of Server 2008 Enterprise.
To use this file, you need to set the product key and also the local Administrator
password value via the Windows System
Image Manager as the local Administrator
password is encrypted. (Note that there are
other options—for example, a key management
system—that don’t require you to
hand out the product key in an autounattend
file.)
)
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muraty April 14, 2008 (Article Rating: