In this text I will explain how to set up a common business configuration with Windows Server 8. To me this means the following:

Users have access to their own business e-mail, via Outlook or Outlook Web App

LOB applications are available to users via a Remote Desktop Session Host

The Remote Desktop Session Host is also available from outside of the business network to select users

Prerequisites

For this lab we need several things.

A virtualization host, in my case this is vmware ESXi 5 U1

ISO images for the guest machines:

• Windows Server 8
• Windows 8
• Windows 2008 R2 SP1 (for exchange 2010 server)

Don’t think that you need a HP Proliant with 64GB of RAM to run this lab environment. To give you an idea I’m using the following configuration:

• Intel Core i5
• Asus Micro ATX mainboard
• 16 GB RAM
• JBOD disks

I try to spread the vm’s over different hard disks, if you put everything on the same disk you will be waiting for a long time. This is due to the limited amount of IOPS a single hard disk can deliver.

Setting up a base Windows Server 8

We will first create a single Windows Server 8 machine. Afterwards we will copy the machine and generate a new SID.

Go ahead and create a new virtual machine in your vsphere client. In the type of machine dropdown list you can already select Windows 8. Be advised that this is still a work in progress from Vmware. After selecting Windows 8 I provide the following resources to the machine:

• 1vcpu
• 2GB RAM
• 15GB thin provisioned hard disk (this is about as low as you can go for the install, 32GB minimum recommended by Microsoft)
• Remove the floppy drive

When the machine is created you need to edit the settings further. Change the type of virtual machine from Server 8 to Windows Server 2008 R2. If you do not do this you will end up looking at a black screen when you promote your Server 8 as domain controller.

Connect the CD-drive and select the ISO of Windows Server 8.

When you’ve completed the above steps you can start the virtual machine.

Select “Custom: Install Windows only (advanced)”.

Ignore the 160GB, yours should be 15GB (esxi will use the full size of the disk and not the thin disk when you copy the machine).

Get you first cup of coffee.

Get your second cup of coffee.

Fishy!

Enter a password and click on “Finish”.

Next you need to install the “Vmware tools” (VM -> Guest -> Install/Upgrade vmware tools).

Restart to complete vmware tools installation.

Start sysprep (c:\windows\system32\sysprep\sysprep.exe). Select “OOBE”, “Shutdown” and enable “Generalize”.

Once your machine has shut down copy your base Windows Server 8 machine to another datastore. Afterwards rename the folder and add the vmx file to the inventory. I’ll leave it up to you to select a suitable name for the machine. Also, get a third cup of coffee…

Vmware estimates are about as accurate as Microsoft estimates… J

You need to make 3 copies of the Windows Server 8 machine.

In the meantime you can create a 2008R2 vm to install the exchange 2010 Mailbox database on. This will be the only 2008R2 server.

Also create a Windows 8 client machine.

Setting up the domain controller

Start up the first copied Windows 8 server.

The server will ask for a product key. You can just skip this step.

Sysprep has preserved our settings.

Set up a fixed IP for your server.

Give your server a meaningful name, restart the server.

Add “Active Directory Domain Services” role.

Click on “Promote this server to a domain controller”.

Ignore this one and click on next.

Congratulations, you’ve just deployed your first Windows 8 (2012) domain controller.

Start up the other 3 servers, assign a fixed IP and add them to your newly created domain.

• Srv8SH: Remote Desktop Session Host
• Srv8GW: Gateway, Remote Desktop Web Access
• SrvExch: Exchange 2010 Database server (The only 200R2 server)

Install the following beta on the 2008 R2 server ( WMF3 Beta: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=28998 ).

Afterwards run these powershell commands on the 2008 R2 server.

Add your new servers to the server manager on the domain controller. This can be done by clicking on “Manage” and selecting “Add Servers”. This allows you to select servers in the Active Directory.

Deploy Remote Desktop Services scenario-based installation

New in Server 8 is the possibility to deploy roles via a “scenario”. These scenario’s allow you to deploy roles and features to a group of servers via one wizard. In the past you needed to install the roles server per server. The only thing you need to do in advance is add the servers to a server manager.

Right now the only scenario available is “Remote Desktop Services”.

Click on “Manage” and select “Add roles and features”.

Select “Remote Desktop Services scenario-based installation”.

Select “Standard deployment”.

Select “Session Virtualization”.

Select SRV8GW as connection broker.

Select “Install the RD Web Access role service on the RD Connection Broker server”.

Select SRV8SH as Session Host.

In the server manager a new option has been added called “Remote Desktop Services”.

In there we can find a “Deployment overview” which helps the administrator to set up extra roles.

By right clicking on the RD Gateway icon you can add RD Gateway servers.

Select SRV8GW as Gateway server.

Click on “Create new certificate”.

Install Exchange 2010

If you want to try running Exchange 2010 on Server 8 check out the following article: http://exchangeserverpro.com/installing-exchange-server-2010-windows-server-8

I decided to install Exchange 2010 on a Windows 2008 R2 guest. Only the CAS role will be installed on the SRV8GW, this to allow OWA and RDWEB from the same wan ip on port 443.

Run the prerequisites to install exchange 2010.

Select custom installation. Chose the following options:

Hub Transport Role

Mailbox Role

Enjoy another cup of coffee!

Afterwards reboot the server.

Next log on to the Server 8 gateway server.

Open regedit

Go to HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion

Change the CurrentVersion string to 6.1.

Install the Application Server Role, be sure to select framework 3.5.

Run the following powershell commands:

Import-Module ServerManager

Add-WindowsFeature RSAT-ADDS,NET-HTTP-Activation,Web-Server,Web-Basic-Auth,Web-Windows-Auth,Web-Metabase,Web-Net-Ext,Web-Lgcy-Mgmt-Console,WAS-Process-Model,Web-ISAPI-Ext,Web-Digest-Auth,Web-Dyn-Compression,RPC-Over-HTTP-Proxy,Web-Asp-Net,Web-WMI,Web-ISAPI-Filter -Restart

Install the CAS role on this server. Don’t select “Automatically install Windows Server roles and features…”.

Use the same FQDN as the one you used for the RD Web Access.

After the installation return the CurrentVersion key to its previous value of “6.2″.

Reboot the server.

The Exchange Management Console won’t work on the Server 8 machine. But when you look on our 2008 R2 mailbox server you can see that the CAS server was successfully detected.

However when we try to log into OWA something still seems to be wrong L

The key error being “INSUFF_ACCESS_RIGHTS”. Either Exchange does not have enough rights, or the rights are wrong on our user.

Open Active Directory Users and Computers.

On view, click Advanced Features.

Open the properties of the user you are trying to use for log in onto OWA. Go to the permissions tab and click on “Enable inheritance”.

Click on apply. Confirm the rules that will be changed.

Try to log in again. Owa should be working.

Remark: I tried to log in with a user that already existed before the Exchange server was installed. I will try with a post exchange installation user later.

So now you have OWA and RD Web Access working on the same Windows 8 Server.

That’s it for now, in the next few articles we’ll have a look at some further refinements to this environment. Such as:

• Connecting a Windows 8 client to Exchange (With Outlook and the built in mail app)
• Publishing and installing remoteapps
• Setting up group policies on the Remote Desktop Session Host
• Provisioning shares and mapping these

I realize the tiles view from Windows 8 looks strange, it looks even more out of place when visible on a server. The trick is looking beyond it. Just tap on the Windows key on your keyboard and start typing. You’ll soon find what you need. Server Administrators will probably be living in the redesigned server manager.

More info can be found here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2660819/en-us

Be sure to use a domain name which you currently own. By default the structure of the remote web access url is https://remote.domainname.suffix .You can chose to replace ‘remote’ with something else in the ‘Set up your internet address’ wizard. You must create an a-record ‘remote.domainname.suffix’ which is pointing towards the WAN IP of the SBS network. It is also advisable to create a ptr record for the IP if you intend to send mails directly from the server.

With the self signed certificate users will receive a warning when they try to access the website. This is normal behavior as the trusted root certificate is not available on the client machine by default.

To install the certificate you will first need to download it from the remote web app. Click on ‘Continue’.

Open ‘Public’ shared folder.

Navigate to “Downloads\Certificate Distribution Package”. Select “SBSCertificate.cer” and click on “Download”.

Open a new console (Start, run, mmc). Add the certificates snap-in (computer account, local computer). Navigate to “Trusted Certification Authorities\Certificates”.

Right click on the “Certificates” folder and select “All Tasks, Import”. Select the certificate you downloaded.

After restarting internet explorer you should no longer get an error concerning the certificate.

 Be advised: the self signed certificate will expire after about two years. When this happens you will need to re-run the “Set Up your internet address” wizard. When it is completed a new certificate will have been created.

My Lacie Network Space was still on version 1.2.93 (automatic updates are disabled by me). Installing version 2.2.4 resolved the issue. A few new features also came available:

• Back-up to another NAS via netbackup
• Set up a schedule for backups
• SFTP
• I can now set a power schedule per day (previously only one schedule for all days)

The NAS is still a bit on the slow side, my hopes of performance improvements with this update seem to be idle.

Once again I am reminded that I should keep my peripherals up to date.

• Remote access to files (much like in SBS 2011 Standard & Essentials)
• Remote Desktop Gateway ( to connect to client computers in the network)
• provisioning shares for the network

Unlike it’s home counterpart (Windows Home Server) this Operation System can be added to an active directory. On the Lacie 5 big Office+ both DFS-R, DFS-N, iSCSI roles and features are installed out of the box.

Lacie is pushing this machine as an ideal solution for branch offices and I’d have to agree… However there is always room for improvement:

• Only one AC/DC power supply available on the machine (apparently Western Digital has a similar unit where the addition of an extra power supply is possible)
• You can only backup the unit to another NAS or to the online backup storage of Lacie (Wuala, about €1 per GB per Year. € 1000 if you want to store 10 TB online… Not that anyone will)
• You can not back up other servers with the built in backup solution of Storage Server Essentials (You could install a backup solution and backup to the internal disks, but we all love our off site back-ups don’t we?)
• Technical support: The advantage on brand servers such as HP Proliants is that we can get different support packs. If the standard Lacie support applies on this unit it means we have to ship the entire machine back to Lacie if there is an issue… I’m sure the workers in the branch office won’t mind being without a server for a few weeks)

The demo unit we received also had issues with a built-in fan (probably due to shipping). The performance of the box was unaffected by this. Restoring a Windows machine from this box was also a walk in the park. Despite my previous remarks I am quite charmed by this box. If I were a system administrator on a tight budget, I’dd probably consider these boxes. I cannot however promote it as a 24/7 solution. If my Lacie Network Space 2 ever decides to die on me I might replace it with the Lacie 5big office (same hardware but Windows Home Server 2011).

In other news: HP has announced that 2012 will bring us their next generation of servers. Currently most of our tower-based installations happen on Proliant ML350 G6′s. These have been around for quite a while now and frankly it is time for something new (especially ILO3 instead of ILO2). More info can be found on the HP announcement page.

Microsoft also presented the new logo for Windows 8. To be honest… I prefer the logo of Windows 1.0 … Let’s hope the logo is the only downside to Windows 8 (and its server variants).

Disappointment

Blown capacitor on old board:

Capacitor on newer revision:

Yet another reason why to extend your machines warranty (a maximum of 5 years is possible for HP Proliant servers).

Windows 8 Metro Interface

Well,

Microsoft has released a public preview of Windows 8 upon the world. Keep in mind that the release is not even at Beta status, so hopefully a lot still has to change.

I kind of expected the Metro interface to be a layer that was pasted upon the explorer shell, much like how we’ve always known Windows Media Center to work. Turns out I am  wrong. Metro is in fact part of Explorer in Windows 8. At the time there is no way to use the default Windows Start Menu which we know from Windows Vista / 7. When you click on the Start button you get thrown to the start window of the Metro interface.

The Metro will be a succes on tablet devices. I have no doubt about that. I am however a bit lost on how things will work out for desktop / notebook owners. The issue with Windows 7 on tablets is that it wasn’t designed for the touch interface, with Windows 8 preview it doesn’t seem to be designed for mouse and keyboard input. It’s an upside down world for me. Microsoft has also added extra features to Windows Explorer, which in itself does not run in the Metro interface but on the aero desktop. There is a tile in the Metro interface for the Configuration screen. In it you can adjust various settings, however not every function is available here. If you want to change advanced settings you are directed to the classic configuration screen. It seems to contradict the transition that Microsoft wants to push towards the Metro interface.

I can only conclude that the basic Windows Desktop is still in need of a major overhaul to integrate better with the Metro interface. If it stays the way it is now it will turn out to be one ugly transition for business users. I don’t look forward to instructing them.

Did you actually ever give WebOS a chance? Since the introduction of the Touchpad I have yet to see one in my country. I find it strange that some products never make it across the big pond. Maybe sales would have been better here than in the US…

Or  maybe you shouldn’t have released WebOS on a machine with antiquated hardware?

Honestly… What are you up to HP? The whole WebOs/Touchpad story has turned into a big giant fail…

I hope you aren’t planning on doing anything radical to the reliable Proliant server range!

On a side note: My hosting firm seems to be having issues keeping my blog online…