Installing and Upgrading to Microsoft Server 2012 - Considerations

Installing and Upgrading to Microsoft Server - Considerations

There are several considerations to take into account when upgrading to Server 2012. This article is not so much a how to on how to perform an upgrade, but more a guide on some tips and strategies that can be used to make the move easier for you and your organisation.

Upgrade or Fresh Install?

Server 2012 is the first Microsoft Windows Server that allows you to perform an upgrade instead of needing to perform a fresh install. To be eligible for this feature, the existing operating system needs to be Server 2008 or 2008 R2, both 64 bit.

Also for consideration is if the hosted services and applications on that server are capable of handling an upgrade. For this its best to contact the provider or manufacturer directly. In some cases, it may be possible to test this, especially if you have a relevant test environment. Serious consideration needs to be given to Active Directory and also Microsoft SQL server implementations.Other services that need intense considerations include Federated Services and MS Clustering. Microsoft produces several guidelines that can be obtained on their website and are updated regularly.

These reports an be exported as a Word doc and then provided to relevant managers or seniors for approval.

Planning an Implementation

There are several considerations when planning a Server 2012 deployment as follows:

Practice Makes Perfect

Be sure to test the installation in a VM and be familiar with the processes and what you need. There are several free / cheap hypervisors availiable today including VMWare  Workstation as well as Microsoft Hyper V Server. a trial copy of Windows Server 2012 can be downloaded from the Microsoft Website

Preparing for installation

Microsoft Produces the MAP toolkit as a means to verify (in some detail) whether existing systems are a good candidate for upgrade, and if not why not. This is a free downloaded from Microsoft and can be accessed from here : http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb977556.aspx

Beyond the MAP toolkit you will want to be sure that the hardware proposed at least meets the minimum requirements for handling Server 2012. Ideally you will have hardware that exceeds these requirements and also satisfies the requirements for the applications that are to be hosted on the server. A the time of writing the min requirements are:

• CPU - 1.4 GHz 64 Bit
• RAM - 512 MB
• Disk Space - 32 GB

Timing is everything - if you are performing an upgrade make sure that you are doing so in a time that is acceptable to business (perhaps a dedicated maintenance window). taking a system off line in production is not going to make a lot of people happy. Also make sure that you have an up to date and verified backup of any systems that you are tinkering with.

Mass Storage (and other) Drivers

Server 2012 requires digitally signed drivers, and non signed drivers can cause issues in setup. To aleviate this, you can disable this requirement by: Pressing F8 at Startup -> Advanced Boot Options -> Disable Driver Signature Enforcement -> load windows and install driver

F6 is pressed during installation to enable installation of mass storage drivers during install. these may be needed for RAID and other associated disk devices.

  

Set Desktop Background via Group Policy in Windows 7, Windows 8 in a Server 2008 or Server 2012 Domain

Set Desktop Background via Group Policy in Windows 7, Windows 8 in a Server 2008 or Server 2012 Domain

Setting the desktop background for all machines in the domain is easy, and also normally a requirement for machine identification / standardization in a work environment. This article will cover setting for all machines in the domain, however if you wanted to apply to only a certain group of machines you could create a separate policy and apply it to the OU of your choice.

The process for setting the desktop background is as follows:


1. Type \\domain.local\sysvol in the start menu search bar and hit enter
2. Place your BMP or JPG file in that folder
3. Open the start menu and type gpedit in the search bar
4. Right click on the default domain policy and navigate to User Configuration\Administrative Templates\Desktop\Desktop Top\Desktop Wallpaper and set the setting the the JPG you moved to the SYSVOL folder
5. Enable the Prevent Changes policy in that same location
6. Run a GPUPDATE/FORCE on one of the machines, log off and then log back in to test it.

This Article can also be found on our sister site DizzyIT.com at http://dizzyit.com/2013/04/14/set-desktop-background-group-policy-windows-7-windows-8-server-2008-server-2012-domain/

Windows Update Cannot Check For Updates Because The Service Is Not Running

Windows Update Cannot Check For Updates, Because The Service Is Not Running

This error occurs when trying to install Windows Updates. As the name suggests the service is not running, hence the machine cannot check for updates.

 There are several reasons why this may be the case, including service corruption, virus's or even the simple case that the service has been shut down manually or disabled. To Fix this issue:

Windows 8:

1.  Type CMD on the start screen, or in Windows Search, or run command ( can be opened by holding Windows Key and R togeather)

2.  at the prompt, type in net start bits . This starts the Background Intelligent Transfer System (BITS) which is responsible for downlaoding and uploading data between a client and server

3. type in net start wuauserv . This will start the Windows update Service itself.

4. Try Windows update and see if this has solved your issues

Windows 7  /  Vista / XP

1.Click Start and Type Run (or press Windows Key and R together)
2.in the text box named open,  type in cmd (alternativley you can type cmd into the seach box in Windows 7).
3.  at the prompt, type in net start bits . This starts the Background Intelligent Transfer System (BITS) which is responsible for downlaoding and uploading data between a client and server
4. type in net start wuauserv . This will start the Windows update Service itself
5.Try Windows update again and see if this has solved your issue.

A Tool is Also Available from Microsoft to accomplish this task:

http://download.microsoft.com/download/6/C/9/6C970550-32AB-4235-9CDD-7FC9DD848BBB/windowsupdate.diagcab

This Article can also be located on our sister site DizzyIT.com at http://dizzyit.com/2013/04/10/windows-update-check-updates-service-running-2/

Windows Update Error 8024800A in Windows 8, Windows 7, Vista, Server 2008 and 2008 R2

Windows Update Error 8024800A in Windows 8, Windows 7, Vista, Server 2008 and 2008 R2

If you receive Error 8024800A occurs when a windows update there are a few things you can do to resolve the issue.

 Note: Please see this post for ways to troubleshoot Windows Update Issues including 8024800A : How to Troubleshoot Windows Update Issues

Observing Windows update logs are a great place to start and can give you some insite into whats happening in the background. These logs are located at: %windir%\Windowsupdate.log . Google searching the error codes in this log will help solve a large percentage of the issues listed.

Next, run the Windows Update Readiness Tool, located here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/947821 .
Make sure that you choose the appropriate version for both Windows Version and for 32 or 64 Bit. A reboot may be required at the conclusion of this process.

This Article can also be located on our sister site DizzyIT.com at http://dizzyit.com/2013/04/06/view-desktop-blank-desktop-apple-mac/

Extending a Share Quota in server 2008

In server 2008, you use the Share and Storage Management tool to provision shares and storage. In this tool you can create a quota for a share. this is a good idea to stop data sprawl which can occur, especially on shared drives. But what if you want to manage, extend or decrease this quota?

for some reason in their infinite wisdom, Microsoft doesn’t allow you to do so from the Share and Storage Management Tools Window. To increase the quota size:

1. open File Server Resource Manger
2. expand Quota Management and choose Quotas
3. This will present all the available Quotas (known as Source Templates) that you have configured.
4. Find the source template you want to extend, right click and choose edit quota properties
5. From here you are shown the Quota template from which your folder pulls its settings, the specific space limitations of this share and any warnings that you have configured for out of space notifications
6. As you an see above, I have set the Quota to be 350GB in this instance (from a 100GB template) and configured email and event log notifications (note that for email notifications to work you will need to configure SMTP in IIS)
7. click ok and your quota has been set!

please note that this article can also be viewed at our sister site dizzyit.com at : http://dizzyit.com/2011/12/01/extending-share-quota-server-2008/