So what is Server Core? Well it’s basically a stripped down version of Server 2008 and there are a lot of neat things about it.

Today we’ll focus on Server Core and the DHCP role and I’ll demonstrate the installation, configuration and setup steps.

Here’s what we cover today:

• Server Core – we’ll talk about what Server Core is, how to best utilize it and what the pros and cons of using the core are. I’ll also go over the Server Core roles and when they come in handy.
• Server Core install and core commands — next we’ll look at the installation and the Core commands that you need to know for things like getting system information, renaming the machine, or joining a domain. I’ll also demonstrate how to use the command line here.
• DHCP Role installation — now we move on to installing the DHCP role and the critical commands that you need to know to perform the install, configuration and starting the DHCP service
• Setting up the Firewall — we’ll do this so that we can perform remote administration using MMC on our Server Core
• Installing RSAT — in setting up the Firewall, you may need to install the Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT) to include the MMC Snap-in for a particular role, so I’ll show you how to do that
• Creating an MMC — since not everybody thinks the command line is cool, we’ll use the MMC to connect to our DHCP server

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Related posts:

• Lesson 5: Windows Server 2008 File and Print Servers
• Lesson 7: Server 2008 IIS 7 Web Servers
• Lesson 8: Windows Server 2008 Terminal Services

The problem of course being that since we skipped setting up scopes, the server is unable to service clients.

We are going to fix that with this article because we are going to go through and do some configuration on that DHCP server — by setting up a scope and some common client options that go with it.

DHCP Scopes

The first thing we are going to configure on the server is a scope. You might be wondering what a scope is, so let’s start with that.

A scope is a range of addresses that are allowed to be handed out by the DHCP server. Generally speaking there is only one scope per subnet, but there are exceptions to that called Super Scopes, but that is beyond the scope (no pun intended) of this article.

Within the scope, you can also have Reservations and Exclusions which will do the following:

• Reservations — You can setup certain IPs to be handed out for certain MAC addresses (a MAC address is the unique number for a network adapter). This is generally used for clients or devices that must always have the same IP but you still want to manage through DHCP Server for other options (DNS or Gateway for example)
• Exclusions — An exclusion is either a single IP or range that you do not want managed by the DHCP server. You would do this for the IPs that you would assign statically to devices like Servers that should always have the same IP.

Hopefully before you even installed the DHCP server you have your network diagrammed out and should have to just plug-in the values that you have planned.

Configure a DHCP IPv4 Scope

I am going to walk you through configuring an IPv4 scope for the following IP range and settings:

192.168.10.2 – 192.168.10.230
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
Exclusions: 192.168.10.200 – 192.168.10.230
Reservation: 1 client computer at 192.168.10.190
DNS: 192.168.10.200
Gateway: 192.168.10.1
Least Duration: 20 Days

Some of these are standard fare and others will be done under options. Let’s go ahead and start.

1. Go to Start, Administrative Tools, and click on DHCP

2. Expand out the server and right click on IPv4, then left click on New Scope

3. The New Scope Wizard starts up, go ahead and click Next

4. Go ahead and name your scope. For this demo I am going to call it DHCPdemo and leave the Description blank. Fill in your name for the scope and click on Next

5. Now we are going to enter the IP range we are assigning to the scope.

In the Start IP address: I am going to place 192.168.10.2 and in the End IP address: I will place 192.168.10.230.

For the subnet mask we are going to use 255.255.255.0, and we can enter this either by using the length 24 or placing the 255.255.255.0 in the fields.

Once you fill in your information click Next

6. Now we are going to setup an exclusion range by entering the Start IP address: as 192.168.10.200 and then in the End IP address: place 192.168.10.230.

After that click Add to place your exclusion range in place.

7. Once the exclude range is in place then click Next

8. The Lease Duration window is now up and we are going to change this to 20 days.

You of course should change this to suit your environment, if you have a lot of mobile users you will want to do shorter lease duration, as you will want IPs to free up quicker as the users come and go. After you set your lease time click Next

9. The wizard will now ask if you want to configure DHCP options. There are quite a few options you can send to the DHCP clients, but there are a couple of major ones that make life simple, so select Yes, I want to configure these options now and then click Next

10. The first option to configure is Router (Default Gateway), and we will put in the Router gateway for this subnet 192.168.10.1, click Add and then click Next.

11. Now we will setup the DNS Server; you can leave the Parent Domain blank and then fill in the DNS IP address of 192.168.10.200 and then click Add, then click Next

NOTE: If you followed the Install DHCP Role article there will already be a DNS server in place. I have removed that so I can demonstrate adding it here.

12. If you need WINS Servers then place the information on this next screen and click on Next

13. The next screen asks you if you want to activate the scope. I am going to go ahead and select Yes, but choose what works for you and click then on Next

14. You have successfully completed the New Scope wizard! Click Finish

That’s it, now that you have configured the DHCP scope you should see it in the DHCP Manager:

Setup DHCP Reservation

The one thing we did not do in the wizard is setup our DHCP reservation. As I mentioned above, a reservation guarantees the same IP address to a client using their MAC address as the identifier.

I setup an XP client and used the IPconfig /all cmd to find its MAC address of 00-03-FF-2F-95-0C. You can also see from the screen shot that the XP machine was serviced by our DHCP server and received the very first address of 192.168.10.2, we are going to change this with a reservation to receive 192.168.10.1

Now let’s setup the DHCP reservation.

1. Go into DHCP Manager and expand the scope out, then right click on Reservations and left click on New Reservations…

2. In the New Reservation window input the following information then click Add:

Name: Dave’s Test Client
IP Address: 192.168.10.190
MAC Address: 00-03-FF-2F-95-0C
Description: This Space Blank or whatever you want

Note: please use your own data, don’t use the above MAC and expect this to work.

3. In DHCP Manager you now see your reservation under Reservations

4. Now let’s test this on the client by typing Ipconfig /release, then Ipconfig/renew and you will now see that the client received the reserved IP of 192.168.10.190.

Again you would use this for clients or devices that you always wanted to hand out the same IP to, but still mange through DHCP.

I hope this gave you a good overview of the basics for configuring a DHCP server. There are quite a few options you can configure through DCHP, but outside of these basic ones they are very environment specific and you could go your whole career without needing them.

Related posts:

• Install DHCP Role on Windows Server 2008
• Configure BIND DNS on Windows Web Server 2008 – Part 2
• How To Install, Configure & Use SNMP on Sever 2008

DHCP stands for Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol, and its main purpose in life is to give your computer an IP address so it can send and receive data on the network.

In the old days of computing your computers would have to be assigned IP addresses when they were setup, and the job of keeping all these IP addresses in order usually fell to a network administrator.

I can vividly remember starting a new position at a large company and having the outgoing administrator show me the spreadsheets that had all the IP addresses for the plant, along with a notepad with changes that had not been input yet. I tell you that I implemented DHCP within 2 months, because there was no way I was dealing with that headache.

This of course was back in the days of NT 4.0, but surprisingly DHCP hasn’t changed that much since back then. If you have installed DHCP before on a Windows platform, you won’t see too much of a difference on Server 2008, with the exception of adding support for IPv6.

How DHCP Works

Let’s talk a minute about the basic workings of how DHCP works. The DHCP server sits and waits for a client computer to turn on and need an IP. It does this through a very basic 4 step process which I will explain below.

1. Discovery — When a computer is setup to use DHCP and is attached to the network it sends out a broadcast called DHCPDISCOVER looking for a DHCP server. Alternatively, it will request the last IP used by its DHCP client.

2. Offer — The DHCP server will respond with a lease offer that is called DHCPOFFER and includes the lease duration, IP address, subnet mask, clients MAC address, and IP address of the DHCP server.

3. Request — Once the client computer receives the offer and accepts it, it then sends out a broadcast called DHCPRequest that contains the IP address of the DHCP server that issued the accepted client IP. This tells other DHCP servers that their offer if any was refused, and keeps the IPs free for others.

4. Acknowledgement — The DHCP server then sends out a DHCPACK packet to the client that includes lease duration and any other configuration information needed by the client. At this point the IP configuration process is done and the client configures its network interface.

It is important to note that the majority of these messages are broadcasts which means that your routers must be configured to pass these on if the DHCP server is not on the same subnet as the client.

There are other options to get around this limitation, but really, if your router is that old, you are better off upgrading anyway.

Windows Server 2008 DHCP Install Environment

For this demo I am going to assume we have the following already setup:

• Windows Server 2008 Installed
• Active Directory Domain Services Installed
• DNS Server Installed
• Static IP on DHCP Server

The domain for this demo is named tstdemo.com and the server we are installing DHCP on is a domain controller. I normally wouldn’t recommend this, but since I am using a Virtual PC to show this demo, I am going to only have one server to use.

Install DHCP Role on Server 2008

Ok, now that we have discussed what DHCP is and how it does its magic, let’s go ahead and install the DHCP role.

1. Open Server Manager

2. In the left pane click on Roles and in the center pane click on Add Roles

3. You might get a Before You Begin page next if it hasn’t been disabled before this. It just generally warns you that if you are going to install a role on this server to make sure that it has a strong password, has the latest updates loaded, and has a static IP.

You can place a check mark next to Skip this page by default, if you don’t want to see this warning again or leave it blank and click Next.

4. On the Select Server Roles page go ahead and place a check next to DHCP Server in the list, then you can click Next.

5. The next screen discusses what a DHCP Server does, which we already covered but feel free to read through it again. Once you are done go ahead and click on Next.

6. For the Select Network Connection Bindings page, the wizard will list out the network adapters you have available to bind the server to for servicing clients.

In our case we only have one adapter so it is an easy choice. Select the adapters you are working with and click Next.

7. On the Specify IPv4 DNS Server Settings screen you will fill in the name of the parent domain, and at least one preferred DNS server.

Please note that the DNS server is a Mandatory fill to continue. If you have this information setup on the server already, it will use what you have in the network and Active Directory Domain Services information to pre-fill the fields.

Either confirm or input your own information and click Next.

8. The next screen asks you to specify your WINS server. If you don’t know what WINS is and your network doesn’t need it, consider yourself lucky!

Some legacy applications still need it though, and while I won’t get into an explanation of what it does, you should find out if you are using it before proceeding.

Either select WINS is not required for applications on this network, if you’re not using it, or input the WINS Server IPs if you are. Either way click on Next when you are finished.

9. The next window will allow you to add scopes to your DHCP server. Scopes are the range of IP’s that are handed out to the client computers.

I am going to choose NOT to add a scope at this time, because I will go in-depth on that subject in my next article. At this time just click on Next.

10. Now we come to a new screen for Windows DHCP servers and it asks about configuring IPv6 Stateless Mode.

I will go into this subject at a later time, so for this install I am going to leave Enable DHCPv6 stateless mode for this server selected and click on Next.

11. The next screen will ask for the IPv6 DNS Server Settings, much like the IPv4 screen I am going to use the default for Parent Domain and then type ::1 for the DNS IPv6 address which is the equivalent of localhost. Click Next when done.

12. The next step is to authorize the DHCP server in Active Directory. This is done to keep rogue DHCP servers from being put on the network to service clients.

In this window you will either choose to use the currently logged in users credentials or you can use alternate ones. You can also skip this step and authorize later.

I am going to go ahead and authorize the server, since I didn’t give it any scopes I am not worried about it handing out IPs before I am ready. Make your choice and click Next.

13. The last screen provides a summary of all your selections. Review your choices and then click Install to start. Please note the information message that a server reboot might be needed.

14. The installation results screen will show the status of the install, if everything went well you should see Installation Succeeded. Click on Close.

There you have it, you have now installed the DHCP role on a Windows Server 2008 machine.

In my next article we will go in depth on configuring a scope and other options for the client on the DHCP server.

Related posts:

• Configure DHCP on Windows Server 2008
• 10 Steps to Installing the Web Server Role in Windows Server 2008
• Role Playing with Windows 2008 Server Core

Those lower-level administrators that run to Ted whenever things get tough have stood before the daunting black command-line box and trembled in fear at the blinking white cursor. You sneered as you waited to see if they would break down and cry at the prospect of being without their precious mouse.

But, you’re getting tired of just showing off your GUI-less install. It’s time to take this server out for a spin and see what it can do.

If you aren’t sure what role you want to assign yet, you can just play around with it, "role playing," if you will. Hah! Ok, it isn’t that funny, but a no-GUI sever isn’t that great until it can do something either.

It needs to have a role installed.

Installing a role in a Server 2008 full install is so easy a 1st Level Magic-User Dwarf could do it (more role playing, heh).

Just open up Server Manager and a few clicks later you’ve got a role installed or uninstalled.

Obviously, on a server without a GUI, Server Manager is out … or is it?

Available Roles

On a Windows Server 2008 Core install, just eight roles are available. All other roles take too many dependent processes or are too complicated themselves to reside on a core install. The available roles are:

• Active Directory
• Active Directory LDS
• DHCP Server
• DNS Server
• File Services
• Print Services
• Streaming Media Services
• Windows Server Virtualization

Server Manager Command-Line Style

The beta testing phase for Server 2008 was much longer than usual. As a result, the engineers at Microsoft got some extra time to code in features. One of those features was a command line interface for Server Manager.

That command is servermanagercmd.exe and it is great for scripting all sorts of commands and even for installing and removing roles.

Since you are a hard-core administrator, you already know all about servermanagercmd and you don’t need no stinkin’ GUI. So, you start typing …

"What the–?" Although servermanagercmd is a command-line utility, it is still part of the very extensive Server Manager program. Unfortunately, Server Manager has too many dependencies on APIs and processes that are not installed on Server Core, so servermanagercmd is out.

Instead, Microsoft has supplied another lower-level command that does not have the dependencies of Server Manger. The command, ocsetup.exe, and its partner in crime, oclist.exe provide the functionality to install server roles.

Neither of these commands exists on a full install of Windows Server 2008, so you’ll have to stick with servermanagercmd for command-line execution on a full install.

Oclist.exe and Ocsetup.exe

Grab your trusty TechNet CD and punch in your query. Installing a role on a Server Core install takes a command called ocsetup.exe. Check out the syntax:

c:\Windows\System32\>start /w ocsetup DNS-Server-Core-Role

The /w switch makes sure that control doesn’t come back to the command prompt until ocsetup has finished executing. This is a good thing because it can take a few minutes to complete installing the role and this way things won’t get messed up by moving on to the next step before the install is complete.

I know what you are thinking, "Yea, though I walk through the Valley of the Shadow of No-GUI, I shall fear no administration task, for I am the meanest administrator in the Valley." You figure you’ll memorize "DNS-Server-Core-Role" so that you never again need to go back into your TechNet to install a role. Ted would want it that way.

Think again, Super-Admin. For some inexplicable reason the ocsetup command is CaSe SensaTive! Not only that, but there is no logic to the naming of the roles. You’re thinking that if DNS Server is DNS-Server-Core-Role then DHCP Server must be DHCP-Server-Core-Role, right? Bzzzz! Wrongo! Hey, where did Ted get that buzzer from anyway?

Installing the DHCP Server role actually takes the parameter DHCPServerCore – no hyphens, no "Role." With eight different roles available on Server Core, you could memorize them all, but then again, there is Super-Admin and then there is Computer Nerd With No Life. You don’t want to go there.

Instead, we turn to the oclist.exe command. Oclist covers much of the role played by servermanagercmd -query over in the full installation world. Type oclist.exe and after a brief delay all the roles and features available are listed along with whether or not they are installed. The way they are displayed, is the way they have to be typed in. No need to memorize.

The Active Directory Role

With ocsetup and oclist you can install all of the roles available on Server Core except for the Active Directory role. The Active Directory role requires more than just copying new files and starting a service. The server must also be promoted.

So, the command necessary for installing the Active Directory role is dcpromo.exe. But, there is a catch (of course there is). Typing dcpromo launches the GUI for promoting and demoting servers. This is Server Core, so there is no GUI.

The trick is to run dcpromo in unattended mode. That way it doesn’t bother trying to launch the GUI. The unattended mode is triggered by the /unattend switch and takes an input parameter of a text file. That text file must contain the input normally provided by clicking around the GUI. So, assuming our input text file is named inputfile.txt then the syntax is:

dcpromo /unattend:inputfile.txt

The format of the text file is fairly simple. It starts with "[DCInstall]" and then each parameter with an equals sign, followed by the value you with to set. So, something like this:

[DCInstall]
UserName=Ted
Password=*
SiteName=TheSite
NewDomain=DomainName
NewDomainDNSName=ourcompany.com

… and so on. Depending on the structure of your enterprise, your inputfile.txt file can be very long (or very short).

Microsoft provides a full list of parameters, their function, and use with the "Appendix of Unattended Installation Parameters" under "Windows Server 2008 Technical Library > Active Directory Domain Services > Getting Started: AD DS > Step-by-Step Guide for Windows Server 2008 Active Directory Domain Services Installation and Removal" either online or on TechNet. (You may have to use the Table of Contents Panel to navigate there online.)

With a server role installed, your Windows Server Core install is ready for the big-time, just like your 11th Level Paladin. Now if we can just find out where Ted keeps that buzzer…

Related posts:

• Less is More — Windows 2008 Server Core
• 10 Steps to Installing the Web Server Role in Windows Server 2008
• Install DHCP Role on Windows Server 2008