Guide to installing Windows Server 2008 Server Core

Windows Server Core is new to Windows Server 2008 and is a command line, GUI less, cut down version, of the OS. Once installed you are left with a command prompt and thats it. How do you go about getting the server named, networked, updated etc. with only a command line to help you?

Here are my tips for tackling these tasks.

1. Firstly you have to rename your server as it will have been given a randomly chosen name – “WIN084389e79-f” or something.

In the command prompt type
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Then restart

2. Secondly you’ll want to give your server an IP address and sort out the networking configuration. All the addressing needs to be done using “netsh”

In the command prompt type
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The “Local Area Connection” name is the name that’s been assigned, by Windows, to your network card – please check this first by typing “IPCONFIG”

The IP address used here is an example – use your own (IP, MASK, GATEWAY)

The final “1” can be omitted – it’s the metric assigned to this route. You’ll be able to ping IP addresses now.

3. You’ll probably then want to set a dns address for the NIC

In the command prompt type
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replacing, obviously, the dns server address with yours

4. If you want to add a second dns server address

In the command prompt type
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This is a cool little trick which took me a while to locate. You’ll be able to ping dns names now. Notice the slight change in the commands. One uses “set” and one uses “add”.

5. And finally – Restart your Server, just to make sure all the configuration has stuck and the machine boots up without any issues
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This concludes a basic installation of Windows Server 2008, from the command line, including a few extra posts which show how to make this a domain member or even a domain controller.

Enjoy