Windows Server 2012 is a major leap forward for Server Core installations of Windows Server. Not only are Full installations of Windows Server convertible back and forth to Server Core installations without reinstallation, a whole slew of new Server Roles have become available for installation on the mean, clean Server Core installations. Active ...

Server Core installations were a new feature in Windows Server 2008. Now, in Windows Server 2008 R2, it has been given a major upgrade. It now includes the .Net Framework, Active Directory Certificate Services, etc. (for a full list, see this blogpost) Over three years ago I showed you how to install a Server Core Domain Controller in Windows ...

You know, in terms of deploying servers in a smart way, so you can actually utilize them for as long as their economical lifecycle in a supported fashion without a need to reinstall them, I’ve made a stupid decision in advising IT Pros to deploy Server Core Domain Controllers in the last two years. The problem, you see, is the product team ...

Server Core installations of Windows Server 2008 can be utilized in a variety of ways. I’ve written about using them as Web 2.0 Servers with IIS 7, PHP and MySQL, as Streaming media (reverse) proxies, as branch office servers, loaded with DFS, DNS, DHCP and secured with BitLocker Drive Encryption and of course using them as highly-optimized ...

The Read-only Domain Controller is one of the new and most existing features of Windows Server 2008. So is Server Core. Combining these two features opens up a whole new world of possibilities for your Active Directory environment. Server Core Domain Controllers are the high-performance low-maintenance brothers of Domain Controllers running on ...

One of the fun things I get to do is co-organizing the Flaming Dog Lanfestival, where my main responsibility is to design, build and manage the networking infrastructure. About the Flaming Dog Lanfestival Last year Michiel de Jongh and I organized the Flaming Dog Lanfestival for the first time. This event is sponsored by OGD, our employer. In ...

Keeping servers clean and updated seems to be the most important thing for systems administrators these days. A Windows Server 2008 Server Core installation comes without most of the easily targeted components but can not easily kept up to date. There are two main problems. The first problem is you can only enable or disable ...

To server core or not to server core seems like a valid question. Especially when deciding to install Windows Server Codename ''Longhorn'' Domain Controllers. With the advent of Windows Server Codename ''Longhorn'' Beta 3 we can finally take a deep dive into installing Server Core Domain Controllers.   The Server Core ...