Shariq Sheikh | Port 389

Installing VMAdditions on Windows Server 2008 Core can be tricky. In my virtual lab I have Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1, I recently decided to test drive the much hyped Server Core from the Windows Server 2008 lineup. For those of you who don’t know what Server Core is and what it will cater to;

Server Core is a minimal server installation option for computers running on the Windows Server 2008 operating system. Server Core provides a low-maintenance server environment with limited functionality. Server Core is an installation option that is capable of five well-known server roles: File Server, DHCP Server, DNS Server, Media Services, and Active Directory. Server Core is not a development platform for new server applications. Although Server Core is not an application platform, it does support the development of management tools, utilities, and agents.

Server Core management tools, utilities, and agents fall into two categories: those that manage a server remotely, and those that run locally to manage the server or return data to a centralized management tool. Remote management tools should not require any changes to support Server Core, as long as the tool uses one of the remote protocols supported in Server Core, such as RPC. Local management agents and utilities may require changes to run properly on Server Core. There is no Windows shell and very limited GUI functionality (the Server Core interface is a command prompt).

The installation of Server Core was pretty straightforward, and GUI based but when it finished I was left with command prompt where the rest of the configuration and setup would be run from. Like in any other Micrsoft VMs, VMAdditions are must as you don’t have a smooth control of your keyboard and mouse, and video is pretty bad.

I started out by mounting the VMadditions ISO from the web interface of VS2005. (Note that this ISO has been updated with the SP1 of VS2005 R2 and provides better results now). But since the Core does not auto-launch the CDs nor does it understand what ISO images are, it failed to kick-off the installation.

The trick was to change the directory to D:\ and by going to Windows\Setup folder and running the Setup.exe file manually, that immediately started the installation and successfully installed the latest Virtual Machine Additions version 13.813 .

Server Core does provide us the ability to run a DC like infrastructure server on a low end machine with the littler foot print on other network resources.

Time to learn the CScripts, WMIC, Netsh etc. to better manage it however !