Server 2012 beginner questions

I am testing windows server 2012 R2 64 and sharepoint 2013 on virtualbox. I have two instances of server 2012 installed. One with share point and one without. Here are my questions.
I am told one needs to be a domain controller, which one? the one without sharepoint installed?
I was told to open a CMD and enter dcpromo to make one server a domain controller, which one?
How do I create a local domain?
I am jsut testing this at home and want it to be similar to work, as we are implementing sharepoint and I want to be somewhat in the know.

Sounds like you are having some major configuration issues. Those links are fine. If you can't get to them, it seems like you are going to have to resolve your networking issue before proceeding.
If you have no experience in setting a static IP address on a Windows machine, you are going to be having lots and lots of questions. I would suggest that you locate some step-by-step documents to help you with the basics. this previously posted link
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/22622.building-your-first-domain-controller-on-2012-r2.aspx looks like it should give you the basic. Nobody is likely to copy and paste the whole article into this forum for you, so you definitely
have to get your figure out why the links aren't working. Did you try cutting and pasting into your browser?
. : | : . : | : . tim

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Hyper-V Server 2012 Migration Questions

Hello All,
This is my first post here, but I have used these forums many times for information. Sorry in advance for the long post.
I have a few questions regarding migration to Hyper-V server 2012 for my production environment. I have done quite a bit of reading, but I have a few direct questions and I would like to get some direct answers.
My current production environment consists of one PowerEdge 2900 with 2 Xeon X5460 Quad Core 3.16GHz CPUs, 24 GB of RAM and a RAID 10 consisting of 8, 500 GB HDDs for a total of 2TB of storage. I am currently running Server 2008 R2 Enterprise w/ GUI as the
Hyper-V host OS. I have 4 virtual machines all also running Server 2008 R2 Enterprise. The 4 virtual machines consist of 1 domain controller, 1 Exchange Server with Exchange 2010 Standard, 1 Server running SharePoint 2010 Enterprise and the remaining server
running IIS with FTP and HTTP.
The network topology is as follows….
Hopefully it is clear from my diagram that the Hyper-V host OS is connected to the same physical network as the domain, but is not a joined to the domain. I set it up this way because I had concerns about connectivity and manageability because the domain
controller is a guest VM. Also, the IIS server is on a completely different physical network independent of the domain.
What I would like to accomplish is the migration of the above environment to Hyper-V Server 2012 as is. I want to keep my existing guest VMs unchanged and running Server 2008 R2 for now as well as keep the existing network topology intact.
I have 3 additional servers in a separate test environment that would be able to serve as temporary storage or whatever is needed for the migration process.
Here are the two main things I would like to accomplish with this migration…
1. Make the transition from Server 2008 R2 to Hyper-V Server 2012 as a host OS.
2. Migrate virtual hard disks from .VHD to the new .VHDX format.
All that being said, I have finally come to my questions regarding this process.
First and foremost, I would obviously need to back up my current setup in case something goes horribly wrong during the migration. My question regarding the initial backup is would it be better to do a bare metal backup of the Hyper-V host or should I do
individual backups (bare-metal?) of the Guest VMs from within their operating systems?
Second, since I plan to use Hyper-V Server 2012, I will have to manage the host OS using the RSAT from a domain joined client running Windows 7 Professional. How much of a pain is it going to be to setup RSAT and manage the non-domain joined host from a
domain joined client? Is there a better way without using SCVMM or using Server 2012 w/ a GUI as the host OS?
Third, are there any concerns I should have, precautions I should take or procedures I need to do before, during or after the migration regarding the existing VMs and the new virtualized hardware environment on the same physical host?
Forth, should I use the trial version of SCVMM 2012 SP1 (or another previous version) to perform the migration? What should I be aware of using SCVMM for the migration and then discontinuing its use after the migration is complete and moving to management
using the RSAT?
Fifth, if I don’t use SCVMM for the migration, what is the best procedure for moving the VMs? Should I just copy the VHDs to a temporary storage location, install Hyper-V server 2012, copy the VHDs back, create new VMs and attach the VHDs or should I use
the export/import process?
Number six, when is the best time to migrate the VHDs to VHDX format and what would be the best method?
And finally, do I need to worry about USN rollback with a single domain controller? From my reading, this seems to be a point of disagreement. Some people say it could happen while others say it won’t. Is there any point during the migration process where
it could occur either during the copying of VHDs or from the switch to VHDX?
Again, sorry for the long post and thanks for staying with me this far. Any information would be much appreciated

1) As Jens said below with Windows Server 2012 you can simple copy the configuration files and VHDs from a 2008 R2 server to a 2012 server and import them - they one caveat to this is that any vlan configuration is lost and you have to simply re-create it.
Optionally you can also export the virtual machines from Windows Server 2008 R2 and then import them on Windows Server 2012.
2) Remote management in a workgroup does have some caveat's associated with it - take a look at
http://blogs.technet.com/b/jhoward/archive/2009/08/07/hvremote-refresh.aspx. Generally I would recommend joining the Hyper-V management operating system to the domain - not just because of these issues but for a number of other features to work properly
(see below)
3) I always recommend validating the hardware and environment after the installation before migrating critical workloads to it - testing networking, backup etc... to make sure they function as expected. Also ensure that you upgrade the integration
components in the VM's after the migration.
4) That is an option - though you might find you like SCVMM
5) Recreating VM's using existing VHD's has some issues for example the BIOS GUID changes, all of the NIC's are re-plug and played etc... When possible copying the configuration or using export is much better.
6) The sooner the better - VHDx has a number of significant advantages, you can do the migration using the Hyper-V manager UI (edit disk) or via powershell with Convert-VHD. Do keep in mind that during the conversation you need 2x the space (for the
original and the new VHDx).
7) In the past you could get into trouble if you for example snapshotted an AD virtual machine and than reverted it - taking one offline and then brining it back online was never a problem. In Windows Server 2012 we addressed this with a feature called
generation ID's.
Domain considerations... A few things to keep in mind regarding the choice to not domain join the Hyper-V server.
- You can't live migrate virtual machines
- You can't utilize Hyper-V over SMB
- Management is more difficult and less secure
-Taylor Brown -Program Manager, Hyper-V -http://blogs.msdn.com/taylorb

RDS (Server 2012) RemoteApp Question

We have an application which 30+ users currently have installed on their workstations. Any time the client needs an update, that requires either touching all those workstations, or scripting something.To simplify maintenance, we're exploring the possibility of running it as a RemoteApp on a Server 2012 R2 instance of Remote Desktop Services.So far it's working perfectly, with one exception... The application has a window in which any website can be displayed. We currently have it set to our internal Confluence instance.The problem I'm having is that users are unable to log into Confluence when using this RemoteApp. There are no errors; you just enter the credentials in the proper fields, and click the log in button - and NOTHING happens. It's not a showstopper; but if we roll this out to our users, I want it to work 100%.I found an...
This topic first appeared in the Spiceworks Community

Hi,
Thank you for posting in Windows Server Forum.
As per my research, sorry to inform that there is no such ways to let the folders always on top.
Hope it helps!
Thanks.
Dharmesh Solanki

What might be my best approach for a very small business to install malware protection on Server 2012?

Hello,
Windows Server 2012 w/ GUI as primary DC, Hyper-V VM's running on this server. This my 1st stand alone server.
This is a rewrite of the original post to shorten and focus it:
It seems there is plenty of guidance that Defender/Security Essentials can be used on Server 2012.
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh831778 (last line of chart)
http://blogs.technet.com/b/clientsecurity/archive/2012/11/05/more-information-on-microsoft-antimalware-protection-on-windows-8-and-windows-server-2012.aspx
Question 1: Is Defender acceptable from a functional point of view and will it not adversely impact server operation?
The 2nd link above suggests management of security software is an issue. I'm wondering if my question has been poorly formed because my installation is so simple I'm not seeing the bigger issues of server security. Obviously security covers a
broad range of issues such as access, protection against accidents, and so on. And while a server shouldn't be used in a way that exposes it to malware threats, we still have to place antimalware protection on every server, yes?
Question 2: Is the bigger issue with antimalware protection related to managing it across a larger number of servers? If so, is Defender acceptable in this regard until my systems grows
larger?
Thanks.

Hi Alan Wheeler,
There may have some misunderstand, In Windows 8, Windows Defender replaces Microsoft Security Essentials and System Center Endpoint Protection (SCEP) and Forefront Endpoint
Protection (FEP) will always disable WD during the SCEP/FEP installation process, as far as I know there don’t have the official document indicate the WD support the Windows Server 2012.
More information:
What is Windows Defender?
http://www.microsoft.com/security/pc-security/windows-defender.aspx
I’m glad to be of help to you!
Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help and unmark them if they provide no help. If you have feedback for TechNet Support, contact [email protected]

Applying recommend settings from "microsoft security compliance manager 3.0.60.0" to a standalone Server using LocalGPO.wsf on Server 2012 R2

Hello
Can someone please help me with the following question.
I have a standalone Server and need to apply settings from SCM, I can see how to do this following the instructions in the following article
http://windowsitpro.com/security/q-how-can-i-apply-security-baseline-i-defined-through-microsoft-security-compliance-manager
The problem is the LocalGPO.wsf that ships with the above version of SCM does not run on Server 2012 R2 (only Server 2012)
my question is,
is there a later version of LocalGPO.wsf I can use that works on Server 2012 R2 ?
Thanks
AAnotherUser__
AAnotherUser__

Hi,
Thanks for your post.
SCM Baselines for Windows 8.1, IE 11 and Server 2012 R2 are now live!
http://blogs.technet.com/b/secguide/archive/2014/09/04/scm-baselines-for-windows-8-1-ie-11-and-server-2012-r2-are-now-live.aspx
For more SCM related issue, i think you may ask in:
https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/home?forum=compliancemanagement
Regards.
Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help and unmark them if they provide no help. If you have feedback for TechNet Support, contact [email protected]

Windows server 2012 r2 evaluation

I downloaded windows 2012 R2 evaluation version from the TechNet. But when i install it . always saying windows server 2012R2 slandered evaluation – Windows license is expired . so due to this, the server shutdown every 1 hour time and
I’m facing an issue because I’m not able to test whether this is compatible with my environment or not.
Can you please check this and advise

Hi Rikab,
Please post your Window Server 2012 related questions/issues
here.
Thanks!
If this answers your question please mark as answer. If this post is helpful, please vote as helpful by clicking the upward arrow mark next to my reply.

SQL Server 2012 Failover Cluster configuration questions

Hi,
I have few questions on , SQL Server 2012 Failover cluserting pleasse provide suggestions:
1) In SQL Server 2012 is there a configuration for active / passive Failover Cluster installation? If so how is it done? if you could provide any links or articles that would help.
OR
Is this been replaced by Always ON Availability Groups?
2) Also in our environment we have done active/active installation but at a time my understanding is only node has the ownership to the shared storage versus both the nodes, is that correct? If not please provide an explanation?
Any additional information would be valuable in clearing my doubts?
Thank youy
Malini=

Hi malinisethi,
If you install SQL Server in a cluster and configure Active-Passive cluster. In the first node, select “New SQL Server Failover Cluster installation” option , when we are installing Active-Passive cluster, we have to specify one virtual/network name. (Note:
For Active-Active clustering you have specify different network names as per the number of nodes). on the other nodes is similar to installing on the first node except that we have select the Add Node to a SQL Server failover cluster option from the initial
menu. For more information, there is a similar issue about SQL Server 2008 Active-Passive/Active-Active cluster installation, you can review the following article.
http://sqldbpool.com/2009/10/07/sql-server-2008-active-passive-cluster-installation/
About Active/Active SQL Cluster, two clustered SQL Server instance are created in different nodes. Then apply Active /Active configuration of both instance. There is an example about creating an Active/Active SQL Cluster using Hyper-V. you can review the
following article.
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/momalek/archive/2012/04/11/creating-an-active-active-sql-cluster-using-hyper-v-part2-the-clustered-instances.aspx
Regards,
Sofiya Li
Sofiya Li
TechNet Community Support

Resizing User Profile Disks in Existing Server 2012 R2 RDS Deployment Question

Once the initial maximum size is set and the VHDXs have been created in a Server 2012 R2 RDS deployment, will attempting to increase Collection's maximum UPD size by say.. issuing a Powershell command of:
Set-RDSessionCollectionConfiguration -CollectionName MySpiffyNewCollection -MaxUserProfileDiskSizeGB 10
over-write the existing VHDXs instead of simply increasing their size? (max size is currently 5GB)
I'm not at a point where I can test this in a lab condition to find out, and I have not found this question asked (or at least not definitively answered) in this forum yet.
-G

Hi,
Thank you for posting in Windows Server Forum.
We can resize the UPD file with below command:
Resize-VHD –Path c:\BaseVHDX.vhdx –SizeBytes 1TB
After running this mount the .vhdx file and open disk manager and there will be unallocated disk, and then you can click extend disk/volume and its done.
You can refer following article for more information.
Resize User Profile Disks
Hope it helps!
Thanks.
Dharmesh Solanki
TechNet Community Support

Assign 2 of Windows Server 2012 Standard edition licensing question

I'm new at this and I have bought Windows 2012 Standard with 5 CALs back in January from Microsoft store on the Internet using as the host. There is Windows 2008 R2 installed as the virtual machine on the host. Few hours ago I have decided to buy another
license with 5 CALs to upgrade those even that I did need two license of Windows 2012 Standard anyway to support 4 physical processor as my server have quad core processor.
The question here that I need to ask is how do I assign 2 license of Windows Server 2012 Standard edition on the host to lift the limit and that up to 4 VMs will be allowed or does it automatically do that after upgrading to Windows 2012 Standard in
the virtual machine even that 5 CALs plus 5 CALs equal 10 CALs are done automatically?

Hello,
You have 2 questions here:
1. How can I stack multiple OS licence in order to have more virtualization rights (more VMs) running on that host?
2. How can I stack Windows CAL licence from OEM.
Answers are:
1. You only have to licence the original licence on the physical host. You can use the same license key for all 4 VMs or use 2 VM key from the first package and 2 VM keys from the second licence package you just bought.
There is nowhere to register those licence, except one by one inside the VM themselves.
You have to keep all licence document in case of control by Microsoft.
2. Windows CAL allows a user (or a computer) to connect to an unlimited number of Windows Server within your company network. You have 10 CAL so you can have up to 10 users or computers in your company that will connect to your servers (even if you have 1.000
servers)
There is nowhere to register those licence, except one by one inside the VM themselves.
You have to keep all licence document in case of control by Microsoft.
Regards
PS: The only licence that require maintenance and central registration are Remote Desktop Licences.
MCITP: Enterprise Messaging Administrator 2010 MCTS: Lync Server 2010, Configuring MCSE
That is what I thought as I was told before even seen licensing details except a direction of how to attach the second license and I had to make sure. Thank you

SharePoint 2013 Enterprise and SQL Server 2012 Standard edition vs. Enterprise - feature question

I can't seem to find any clear answers to the implications of installing SQL Server 2012 standard edition vs. enterprise in regards to SharePoint 2013.
I understand that to get many of the features you need Enterprise edition of SQL 2012; but, what I can't figure out is if the backend SharePoint SQL 2012 is standard; but, the PowerPivot/SSRS server is Enterprise will we still get the features?
If we have 3 tier SharePoint farm, one of those tiers is for the SQL Server database backend. If that SQL instance is 2012 standard and we add another server to the farm w/ SQL 2012 Enterprise to handle the tabular models, PowerPivot, and SSRS in integrated
mode will we still get the features?
Or, can we (should we) install Enterprise 2012 as the SharePoint database backend and let that instance triple down as also the PowerPivot and SSRS instance?
The Degenerate Dimension

Hi MMilligan,
SQL Server 2012 Standard is not supported PowePivot for SharePoint . In addition, SQL Server 2012 Standard is also not support some Reporting Services Features.
For more information, please refer to Features Supported by the Editions of SQL Server 2012:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc645993.aspx.
Install SQL Server BI Features with SharePoint 2013 (SQL Server 2012 SP1):
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj218795.aspx.
If you have any problem, please feel free to let me know.
Thanks.
If you have any feedback on our support, please click
here.
Maggie Luo
TechNet Community Support

Question : Service Accounts for SQL Server 2012

Hello,
I am planning to create AD accounts for SQL Server 2012 services that will be installed on Windows 2012 server.
I was reading the following
Configure Windows Service Accounts and Permissions
and
Windows Privileges and Rights
Is there a recommendation / document that would list that assocation of SQL Server Services with Actvie Directory service accounts / privileges required for installation and starting the services.
Isn't it recommended to create separate account for every service and they should not be local accounts ?
Hope to hear soon as to what industry standards are being followed for production systems ?
Thank you very much in advance.
Regards
Nikunj

From MSDN:
Each service in SQL Server represents a process or a set of processes to manage authentication of SQL Server operations with Windows. Each service can be configured to use its own service account. This facility is exposed
at installation. SQL Server provides a special tool, SQL Server Configuration Manager, to manage the services configuration.
When choosing service accounts, consider the principle of least privilege. The service account should have exactly the privileges that it needs to do its job and no more privileges. You also need to consider account isolation; the service accounts should
not only be different from one another, they should not be used by any other service on the same server. Do not grant additional permissions to the SQL Server service account or the service groups.
From Glen Berry's Blog:
You should request that a dedicated domain user account be created for use by the SQL Server service. This should just be a regular, domain account with no special rights on the domain. You do not need or want this account to be a local admin on the machine
where SQL Server will be installed. The SQL Server setup program will grant the necessary rights on the machine to that account during installation.
You will also want a separate, dedicated domain user account for the SQL Server Agent service. If you are going to be installing and using other SQL Server related services such as SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS), SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS),
or SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS), you will want dedicated domain accounts for each service. The reason you want separate accounts for each service is because they require different rights on the local machine, and having separate accounts is both more
secure and more resilient, since a problem with one account won’t affect all of the SQL Server Services.
Depending on your organization, getting these domain accounts created could take anywhere from minutes to weeks to complete, so make sure to allow time for this. For each one of these accounts, you will need their logon credentials for the SQL Server setup
program. You are going to want to make sure that the accounts don’t have a temporary password that must be changed during the next login. If they are set up that way, make sure to change them to use a strong password, and record this information in a secure
location.
Please Mark This As Answer if it solved your issue
Please Mark This As Helpful if it helps to solve your issue
Thanks,
Shashikant

Question on Quorum : Windows Server 2012 R2 + SQL 2014 AlwaysOn AG

OS on all nodes : Windows Server 2012 R2
SQL on all nodes : SQL Server 2014 CU2
2 cluster nodes in primary data center and AlwaysOn AG doing Sync Transfer between these nodes with auto failover.
2 cluster nodes in DR data center(Different subnet) and AlwaysON AG doing an Async Transfer between primary replica and these nodes with manual failover.
As this is a multi sub-net cluster we are giving DR nodes 0 vote. 2 nodes on primary DC has votes and a file share on the primary DC has a vote.
If the primary DC is gone,then should we re-assign node votes to the 2 nodes in DR site and again manually configure a file share witness and give it a vote?
Whats the best strategy here? Any recommendation is highly appreciated.
Thank you,

Anup,
Think if we have network issues between Primary DC and DR DC. DR node might think…Hey, I’m the only one running now. I can take all the resources. We do not want nodes in the secondary site to contribute to a decision to take the cluster offline
when there is nothing wrong with the primary site. Do you mean to say Dynamic Quorum is smart enough to handle this situation?
Is it smart enough on it's own? No. That's why someone has to determine which site they want to stay up.
If you're using dynamic quorum, a new property was introduced called "LowerQuorumPriorityNodeID" which is set at the cluster level. Give it the node of one and only one of the secondary site servers. Set a fileshare witness (if possible) as the
odd vote and make sure both sites can see it equally well. Set this property on the cluster for a node on the secondary site.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn265972.aspx#BKMK_TieBreak
Assume that the fileshare goes down and you have 2 nodes at the local site and 2 nodes at the DR site. Suddenly, communicates between the two are severed. If you have dynamic quorum set and the property I mentioned above, the secondary site will shut down
and the local site will stay up as the secondary site is set for a lower precedence.
Please note, the only reason I brought this up was because you're on Windows Server 2012R2 as this is when it was first introduced.
-Sean
Sean Gallardy | Blog | Microsoft Certified Master

Questions in regard to SP2 for SQL Server 2012

We have upgraded from SQL Server 2008 R2 to SQL Server 2012 SP2. We are having issues that were supposedly fixed in previous cumulative updates to SP1 of SQL Server.
Once such issue is the Analysis Deployment Wizard Crashes as mentioned in the URL below: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2809127 I checked the XML file and it reflects that the article mentions, but the problem still persists.
We also have issues with Reporting Services where when you run a report that has lots of items, the expand option does not work, gives the error invalid parameter.
Is there a way to verify that Service Pack 2 included all of the cumulative updates and security updates?
DJ

Hello,
Please use the discovery report as explained on the following article:
http://www.sqlcoffee.com/SQLServer2012_0014.htm
If you installed SP2 the SQL Server version should be 11.00.5058.0.
Installing SP2 does not guarantee you have all the cumulatives updates of SP1. Install CU1 for SP2 to have all updates applied.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2976982/en-us
Hope this helps.
Regards,
Alberto Morillo
SQLCoffee.com

Windows Server 2012 R2 test question

Hello!
There are two servers: DC (domain controller) and Server1, both servers run Windows Server 2012 R2, Server1 runs Core installation.
How would you configure DC to remotely view the Event Log on Server1?
1) Run New-NetIPsecRule command
2) Run Set-netfirewallProfile command
3) Run Get-netfirewallRule command
4) Run Show-NetIPsecRule command
To allow remotely view logs on server1 from server2 we must create/enable appropriate INBOUND firewall rule on server1 -
Q1: No aforementioned command can create/enable inbound firewall rule
Q2: It is Server1 that must be configured, not DC
...am I right or am I missing anything?
Thank you in advance,
Michael

Hi Michael,
The following command can allow administrator to remotely manage a Server Core installation through all MMC snap-ins:
Netsh advfirewall firewall set rule group=”remote administration” new enable=yes
We need to execute the above command at the Server Core command prompt
Regarding this command, the following blog can be referred to for more information.
How to Enable Remote Administration of Server Core via MMC using NETSH
http://blogs.technet.com/b/askds/archive/2008/06/05/how-to-enable-remote-administration-of-server-core-via-mmc-using-netsh.aspx
After successfully executing this command, we can log on to the GUI server, launch Event Viewer, and select the
Connect to Another Computer… option to remotely connect to the Server Core server.
Best regards,
Frank Shen

Questions on managing Office 365/Exchange Online Mailboxes in Server 2012 Essentials

Wondered if anyone could answer a couple of queries:
When managing Office 365/Exchange Online mailboxes in Windows Server 2012 Essentials:-
1. Does the server itself act as the Exchange server i.e. does it do all of the downloading/sending of emails or does Outlook on each workstation still communicate direct with the Office 365/Exchange Online server address?
2. Does Outlook on each workstation have the Exchange server address set to the internal address of the Server 2012 Essentials box or does it still have the external Office 365/Exchange Online server address?
I don&#39;t work for Microsoft - I just use their products.

Hi,
When you integrate Office 365/Exchange Online mailboxes in Windows Server 2012 Essentials,you can see the mailbox usage information on the Essentials Dashboard and manager users. However, the essentials server won't download/send emails and Outlook
will still communicate with the O365/Exchange Online Server. In addition, the Exchange server address would be point to the external server address.
You can also refer to the article below to get more related information:
Email Options Supported by Windows Server 2012 Essentials
Best regards,
Susie
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Server 2012 beginner questions

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