Installing Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V

Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V server is essentially Windows Server 2012 Server Core that is designed in only run Hyper-V. You do not have to worry about purchasing a license for Hyper-V server. The Host OS is free. You do need to properly license any virtual machines (VMs) that you run on the Hyper-V server however.

Setup is a breeze. It was, for the most part, just like installing Server Core. It is also very fast. Just download the installation software from Microsoft. For this deployment, I plugged a keyboard, mouse , and monitor into my target server so I can observe all the action. Really, there is not much to watch once you get things started.

Once the server starts up, you need to give it a password for the local administrator account. Then SCONFIG opens up. Use SCONFIG with the following options to place this server in your domain and make it manageable.

8) Give this server a static IP address.

1) Add to the domain. You can also rename it with this option.

7) Allow remote desktop connections to this server.

At this point, you can unplug the monitor, keyboard, and mouse.

Once the Hyper-V server reboots, go ahead and configure either your Windows Server 2012 graphical server or Windows 8 client with RSAT to manage this server.

In Server Manager, click All Servers.

Right click All Servers and select Add Server.

In the name field, type the name of your Hyper-V Server and click Find Now.

Select your server from the list and click the right pointing arrow.

Click OK.

In a few minutes, your Hyper-V server will be manageable from your Server 2012 or Windows 8 client.

Open Hyper-V on your graphical client.

Right click Hyper-V Manager and select Connect to Server.

Type the name of your server and press Enter.

You can now manage the VMs running on this Hyper-V Server.

Comments

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Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services allow you to create a directory service that allows applications to have access to user accounts, groups, and authentication similar to Active Directory Domain Services. The big advantage here is that the schema of the directory service will not be bound by the rules of an Active Directory database. Exchange 2007/2010, for example, use an instance of AD LDS on the Edge Transport Server to provide for user authentication from the internet. Because your Active Directory database is not exposed to the internet, this is more secure. Applications will handle most of the dirty work should they require AD LDS. You may want to make sure the database is being backed up and also have a restore plan in place. Should the database become corrupt, the application that uses that database will fail. This document will walk you through backing up and restoring an instance of AD LDS using the dsdbutil.exe command. Fi...

Jason Yoder, MCT

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