Part 2 - NEXT (Windows Server and SQL installation)

Darton State College is an institution with roughly 1300 computers, 200-300 VMWare boxes, a boatload of servers, and roughly 9000 users.

Historically, we've been using Ghost Solutions Suite 2.0 to image machines. Unfortunately, even with the well designed golden images I've created, flash drives with automatic computer name and just the right drivers for our 95% Dell deployment is still just way too much to manage for such a small group of technicians. We have other things to deal with.

Our SCCM site server is running on VMWare virtualized hardware. I'm not keen on the details, but I use vSphere to manage the system.

I initially tried running with 8GB of RAM, but SQL dragged. Upgrading to 12GB of RAM gave me a modestly peppy system. This time, I'm going to go with 20GB, just to see if it makes a difference.

The processor was previously set up with eight total cores on two sockets. Not sure if the virtual hardware system actually pulls the cores from different batches of hardware, but I figure it's nice to have independent whatever if it happens. I like that configuration.

Right off the bat, dealing with booting in to the DVD was a pain. I couldn't either get to the boot prompt or at least couldn't see that I was getting to it. vSphere via RDP from a MacPro can make basic maneuvers three steps more complicated. I first tried to use a datastore ISO, but I'm not sure it's the ISO I need, because there's no information there.

Decided to use Burn (on Mac) to rip the Server 2008 DVD.

You have to configure vSphere to boot to bios so you can boot from DVD.

We use Server 2008 R2 Enterprise (64-bit). It is probably the slowest booting operating system ever designed, so try not to have to reboot your server, if possible. It requires a ridiculous Administrator password that requires letters, numbers, body measurements and your social security number, encrypted with SHA256, as well.

Set up VMWare Tools if you are virtual. This doesn't speed up the boot time, by the way.

I had to manually set up network and change the name.

Ready to add to the domain!

After adding the computer to the domain, you'll want to add your domain account as administrator.

You'll also want to add Chrome, because you WILL have to download software.

Because IE Enhanced Security is a pain.

I left here to go to lunch–it really took that long to install and get the server on the domain.

Tuna and crackers, but not as fancy as this picture I Googled.

Ask your domain admins to add a container called "System Management" to the System container in all the domains you'll be managing. Full control over the folder needs to be delegated to the SCCM server, as well. In my case, this has already been done.

Now it's time to add server roles and features. Click the Server Manager icon on the task bar. Now Roles and Add Roles.

You're going to add the IIS role for now.

Next is selecting Role Services.

Adding to the defaults, check HTTP Redirection, ASP .NET (which adds three extras), ASP, Logging Tools, Tracing, Basic Authentication, Windows Authentication, Request Filtering, IP and Domain Compression, IIS Management Scripts and Tools, Management Service, and IIS Management Compatibility (which checks all sub-items).

This really is kind of crazy, so I made a screenshot.

IIS's Role Services should look like this.

Next and Install. It says the server may need to be restarted afterward, so I hope you brought some snacks.

I got one warning upon completion--it wants me to turn on Automatic Updating (Windows Update for server?). Aside from this, close the installer.

Now go to the Features tab, under Roles, click Add Features on the right, expand .NET Framework 3.5.1 Features, and check .NET Framework 3.5.1, expand BITS and get BITS for IIS (I realized I missed this in Part 3), then scroll down and get Remote Differential Compression, Next, and Install.

Next we install SQL Server 2012 SP1. Run Setup and authenticate. Click Installation on the left, and then, "New SQL Server stand-alone installation or add features to an existing installation."

SQL Server 2012 Setup does some craziness with Setup Support Rules–click OK when it's done. It might take a minute for the next screen to pop up and ask for the product key. Then it goes through licensing and updates, mostly just "next next next."

The suspense is killing me!

Eventually, after installation and some updates, Setup Support Rules comes back up and tells you everything went fine, but warns you that Windows Firewall is ridiculous. We'll fix that later–I've compiled an equally ridiculous list of firewall ports and rules. For now just hit Next and Next (SQL Server Feature Installation is selected by default). In a far less intimidating list of checkboxes, select Database Engine Services, Reporting Services - Native, and Management Tools - Basic (which auto-selects a sub item). Hit Next when you're satisfied with your selections and Next after the system check.

SQL Feature Selection

I put my dBs on secondary storage. Could be faster, but at least it's SAS with native queueing. Next and Next. The administrator gave me a specific user just for domain SQL service, but I keep deleting the information for security reasons, and it's hard to pin him down. Use the local authority account for now, and set startup to Automatic on all accounts. Don't touch the Collation tab and click Next.

File under "dirty shortcuts."

On the next screen, it complained about the local user; I added myself as an SQL admin, as a result. Leave the other tabs alone, again, and click Next.

It's like the crime shows where they blur out your face. 

Leave Install and configure selected and click Next again. Next next next and install (I got no errors on the last check).

Mad props to Bolo Yeung.

SQL installation gave me a chance to organize my next day.

After installation, you have to reboot the server. You might need run Command as administrator in order to tell the server to reboot using

>shutdown /r

That'll take a few minutes, then you reconnect to the server and pull up MS SQL Server Management Studio. 

Right click the machine object and click properties. Go to Memory on the left. 

The server likes to be limited in memory footprint. I suggest leaving a MINIMUM Minimum of 2GB, optimally I'd suggest 8GB (8192 in MB). For the Maximum, I suggest you subtract a healthy minimum for EVERYTHING ELSE from the total RAM. In my case, I want to leave 6GB for everything else, so I calculated 14336MB for my Maximum. Like I said, the system ran fairly well with 8GB of ram TOTAL, so you can infer your own choices from there. Arbitrary!

Fantastic math!

Tomorrow we'll pick back up with installation of SCCM 2012 R2 proper. About time, right?

This process and blog left me with about 30 minutes left in my work day, add a few minutes where I was taken away from process to help walk-in instructors.