{"id":2038,"date":"2013-08-20T01:35:48","date_gmt":"2013-08-20T01:35:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pipe2text.com\/?page_id=2038"},"modified":"2013-08-20T01:52:56","modified_gmt":"2013-08-20T01:52:56","slug":"initial-configuration-of-windows-2012-server-core-including-windows-updates-using-sconfig","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/pipe2text.com\/?page_id=2038","title":{"rendered":"Initial Configuration of Windows 2012 Server Core Including Windows Updates using Sconfig"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hi all,<\/p>\n

If you are installing Windows Server Core 2012 there is a quick and easy way to configure you server using sconfig.cmd. In this blog I will be going cover configuring the following settings in Windows 2012 Server Core.<\/p>\n

Configure Network Settings<\/p>\n

Renaming the server<\/p>\n

Joining a Domain<\/p>\n

Adding a user to the local administrators group<\/p>\n

Configuring and running Windows Updates<\/p>\n

Enabling Remote Desktop<\/p>\n

Setting the Date and Time<\/p>\n

Logon to the server as local Administrator, and type sconfig at the command prompt and press enter as shown below.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Now you will see the sconfig utility opens to the \u201cServer Configuration\u201d screen with a menu of configuration options.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

To start, I\u2019m going to configure the network settings so we can complete all the other task which are mostly dependent on network connectivity. Select option 8 and press enter and you will be brought to the \u201cNetwork Adapter Settings\u201d screen. Choose a network adapter to configure by entering the index number. In this example the index number is 10.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Select option 1 to configure the network address. You will then be asked to configure the following options as shown in the illustration below.<\/p>\n

Select either DHCP or a Static address.<\/p>\n

Enter an IP address<\/p>\n

Enter a subnet mask<\/p>\n

Enter a Default Gateway<\/p>\n

Once you\u2019ve entered in all the information the NIC will be set to the new address as shown below.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

To configure a DNS server select option 2 on the \u201cNetwork Adapter Settings\u201d screen. Enter the DNS Server\u2019s IP address and press enter. You will receive confirmation that the preferred DNS server address has been set as shown below. Click \u201cOK\u201d on the confirmation.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

You will then be prompted to enter a secondary DNS server. Type\u00a0an address or just press enter if you don\u2019t want an alternate DNS server configured.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I\u2019m going to press enter and skip putting a secondary DNS server. You will now see all your network settings are configured as shown below.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Select option 4 to return to the \u201cServer Configuration\u201d screen. Now let\u2019s rename the server. Press option 2 for \u201cComputer Name\u201d. Enter in a computer name (in this example the computer name is LABCORE1) and press enter. You will be prompted to restart as shown below. Click \u201cYes\u201d to restart.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

After the reboot, logon to the server and open sconfig. Now let\u2019s join the computer to a Domain. Select option 1 for \u201cDomain\/WorkGroup\u201d. Enter the letter \u201cD\u201d to choose \u201cDomain\u201d. Now you will be asked for the name of the Domain you would like to join (in this example we are using (mytestlab.local). Next you will be asked for an authorized account to join the machine to the Domain. Enter in the user name (in this example its (mytestlab\\administrator). A second screen will open asking you for the authorized user\u2019s password as shown below. Type the password and press enter.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Now you will be prompted with the option of renaming the computer before you restart. I\u2019m going to select \u201cNo\u201d as this has already was completed earlier for demonstration purposes.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

When prompted, click \u201cYes\u201d to restart the server as shown below.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Next we will add a Domain account to the local administrators group. Select option 3 for \u201cAdd Local Administrator\u201d. Now enter in the Domain\\Username<\/em> as shown below (in this example we added a user named \u201cTestuser from the Domain \u201cmyteslab\u201d). You will receive confirmation that the command completed successfully. Click \u201cOK\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Now let\u2019s configure Windows Updates. Select option 5 for \u201cWindows Updates Settings\u201d Since the default is set to manual, for the purpose of this example we will select \u201cA\u201d for automatic as shown in the illustration below. You will then receive confirmation that Automatic Updates has been turned on and will check for updates everyday at 3 AM. Click \u201cOK\u2019 to the confirmation prompt to return to the \u201cServer Configuration\u201d screen.\"\"<\/p>\n

Since this a new server, we want to manually download and install all Windows Updates at this time since we don\u2019t want to have an unpatched server on our network. To do this, select option \u201c6\u201d for \u201cDownload and Install Updates\u201d. Once you choose option 6 \u00a0a new window will open and ask to search for all updates or recommended updates. We will choose \u201cA\u201d for all updates as shown below. Windows Update will now start searching for all applicable updates.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

When the search completes, it will list all apllicable updates. You will have the option to select all updates, no updates or a single update to install. We will choose \u201cA\u201d for all updates. The updates will now begin to download and then install as shown below.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Once the updates are complete, you will receive an Installation result and be prompted to reboot. Click \u201cYes\u201d to reboot.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

In our next step we will enable Remote Desktop. Choose option 7 to enable Remote Desktop. Type \u201cE\u201d to enable Remote Desktop. Now you have the option to allow clients running any version of remote desktop or only clients running Remote Desktop with Network Level Authentication. In this example we will choose option 1 as shown below. You will receive confirmation of your settings. Click \u201cOK\u201d to return to the \u201cServer Configuration\u201d screen.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Next we will set the Date and Time. Choose option 9 to set the Date and Time. Once you select this\u00a0option, a \u201cDate and Time\u201d window will open the same as it would in the GUI. Configure the settings to your needs and click \u201cOK\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Those are all the settings we will cover in this blog. As you can see from the screenshots you can also activate windows, join the customer experience improvement plan and configure Windows Remote Management which is enabled by default. You can also use sconfig to logoff, shutdown or restart your server. Hope this helps. As always, if you have any questions or feedback, please leave a comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi all, If you are installing Windows Server Core 2012 there is a quick and easy way to configure you server using sconfig.cmd. In this blog I will be going cover configuring the following settings in Windows 2012 Server Core. … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2038","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pipe2text.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pipe2text.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pipe2text.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pipe2text.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pipe2text.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2038"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/pipe2text.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2038\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2048,"href":"https:\/\/pipe2text.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2038\/revisions\/2048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pipe2text.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}