Windows Server 2012 – Server Core installation

Let us go through the step by step procedure for installing the Server Core variant of Windows Server 2012.
Boot the system using the DVD containing Windows Server 2012. The booting screen will appear as show below

Boot Screen while booting from Windows Server 2012 DVD

The screen below shows the first setup screen. It is asking for Language, Time and currency format and Keyboard. Select the desired value in each field and click on Next.

First Screen of Setup Window

The second screen of Windows Setup appears as shown below. It bears an “Install now” button. Click on it to start the installation of the server.

Second Screen of Setup Window

The next screen that appears is the one for entering the product key. You cannot proceed further without entering the product key. Please enter the key and click on next button.

Screen asking for Product Key

The next screen as shown below will ask for the OS you want to install. By default the Server Core variant will be selected. Click on Next to continue

OS selection window

Accept the license terms by checking the check box “I accept the license terms” in the appeared screen and click on Next

License Terms Screen

Select the desired type of installation on the next screen. We will select “Custom…” here, since we are installing on a fresh hard disk. By default “Upgrade….” will be selected. Clicking on installation type will take you to the next screen

Installation type selection screen

On this screen the setup wizard will ask you about the location were it should install Windows. Select the desired disk and click Next. To format or partition a disk, click on the link “Drive options (advanced)”.

Disk Selection Window

Now the installation procedure has started. The screen will show the progress of the installtion

Installation Progress Screen

After the installation the system will reboot and the first time login window will appear as shown below. This screen would ask you set a password. On clicking the “OK” button the screen for creating the password will appear

First Login Window

After setting the password the system will login and the screen as shown below will appear. Since this is Server Core installation there will be no GUI, only a command prompt window will be there.

The Desktop for Server Core

arp and ipconfig commands in Windows 7

These commands help a system administrator, while troubleshooting the network problems of a system

arp

This command helps to view and modify the ARP cache of a system. Please see some of the useful variants of this command below

arp –a

This variant will display the ARP cache entries for all the active network interfaces of the system

arp –d * | arp –d

These variant will help to delete all the ARP cache entries.

arp –a ip_address

This variant displays the ARP cache entry for that particular ip address

arp –d ip_address

This variant delete the ARP cache entry for that particular ip address

ipconfig

This command helps to view the ip address configuration for the system

ipconfig

This variant will display the summary IP information for the system

ipconfig /all

This variant will display the detailed IP information for the system

ipconfig /displaydns

This variant will display the DNS resolver cache entries for the system

ipconfig /flushdns

This variant will flush the DNS cache of the system

Mapped network drives in Windows 7 Registry

When we map a network drive persistently in windows 7 an entry relating to the drive is created under the following key in registry:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Network

For each drive a key with the name as that of the drive letter is created. For example if you mapped a network drive with letter “W” the key will be “HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Network\W”

The key will contain the following values

 

Value Name	Type	Description	Default Value
Connection Type	REG_DWORD	What is the type of this connection. If it is Drive redirection the value will be 1 and if it is Print redirection value will be 2	1
DeferFlags	REG_DWORD	Whether the drive need to be connected immediately on logon or not. If the mapped drive’s credential is same as that of logged on user or the credentials have been saved the value will be 4. If the username part of the credential is different and password not saved value will be 1.
ProviderName	REG_SZ	What type of network provider is used to connect to the network drive	Microsoft Windows Network
ProviderType	REG_DWORD	What type of Provider is used. For Microsoft LanMan Provider the value will be 0x002000. For other third party vendor provider different numbers will come	0x002000
RemotePath	REG_SZ	UNC path of the share
UserName	REG_SZ	The username used to connect to the share. If current user is used the value will be blank.	(blank)