Alexander’s Blog

The Task Scheduler in Windows Server 2008 (WS08) is very different than Windows Server 2003 (WS03). If you want to run a batch file as a task, here’s how you will set that up in WS08.

1. Go to Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Task Scheduler.

2. In the Actions pane, click Create Task. You can also use Create Basic Task, which starts a wizard, but I will use the Create Task option in this example.

3. On the General tab, enter a name for the schedule, e.g. Backup.

4. Select the appropriate options under Security, or leave them to default.

5. On the Conditions, and Settings tab, make changes as necessary.

6. On the Actions tab, click Browse and locate the batch file that you want to run, e.g. Backup.bat.

7. On the Triggers tab, you need to specify the conditions that will trigger the task. If you want to schedule the task, select the first option “On a schedule” and then choose the appropriate options under Settings and Advanced settings section.

8. Click OK twice to finish creating the task.

9. If you decide to later make changes to the task, simply double-click the task. You will notice one new tab called History that provides additional information.

The scheduled task should run at its designated time. The Task Scheduler will display the Last Run Time and the Last Run Result in the columns. You may manually run the task anytime by right-clicking the task and clicking Run.

According to Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG), in a survey of 1,191 IT and business managers, 33% of North American and Western European mid-market and enterprise companies are currently using SharePoint technologies. With the widespread usage of SharePoint, more and more companies are looking into virtualizing their SharePoint 2007 environment. I have been recommending SharePoint virtualization to my clients for quite some time and run our own SharePoint servers in Hyper-V.

Virtualization offers several benefits. Here’s a partial list of benefits.

- Reduction in overall size of your infrastructure

- Cost savings in power usage

- Ease of management

- High availability and better disaster recovery

- Reduction in server space requirements

- Fully supported by Microsoft on Virtual Server 2005 and Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V

According to the findings posted in this article:

In terms of performance, (omitting the SQL backend – which has been virtualized in other tests showing EXCELLENT performance), across 3 baseline tests, on average:

- Our Virtualized SharePoint server infrastructure farm out-performed the physical SharePoint farm by 4%,
- But only used 26% of the electrical power (watts) required to power the physical server infrastructure – put another way, that’s a 74% power saving over physical, put yet another way, going physical means 380% more power.
- 1017 Watts versus 3952 Watts. 6 Power cords versus 22

If you are looking for comprehensive information on virtualizing SharePoint, check out the Virtualizing SharePoint Series on MSDN from Microsoft Consulting Services.

Should You Virtualize Your SQL Servers?

I am no expert on SQL Server but I do know that a lot of people report performance gains by virtualizing their SQL Servers. Brent Ozar, a SQL expert, answers the question about virtualizing SQL Server in his blog. He says that:

- Virtualize only when it’s going to solve a problem, and you don’t have a better solution for that problem.
- Get good at performance monitoring before you virtualize, because it’s much tougher afterwords.
- Start by virtualizing the oldest, slowest boxes with local storage because they’ll likely see a performance gain instead of a penalty.
- Avoid virtualizing servers that have (and utilize) more than 2 HBAs.

He has two excellent blog posts, one on why you should and the other why you shouldn’t virtualize SQL Server.
Why Would You Virtualize SQL Server?
Why You Shouldn’t Virtualize SQL Server

If you are not virtualizing your SharePoint Servers today, chances are you will tomorrow. If you have any inkling about virtualizing SharePoint, I strongly encourage you to read the Virtualizing SharePoint Series on MSDN.

If you are already an MCSE on Windows Server 2003 and would like to upgrade your certification to the new MCITP: Server Administration or MCITP: Enterprise Administrator, here are the certification requirements.

Upgrading MCSE on Windows Server 2003 to MCITP: Server Administrator

Exam 70-649: TS: Upgrading Your MCSE on Windows Server 2003 to Windows Server 2008

and

Exam 70-646: PRO: Windows Server 2008, Server Administrator

Upgrading MCSE on Windows Server 2003 to MCITP: Enterprise Administrator

Exam 70-649: TS: Upgrading Your MCSE on Windows Server 2003 to Windows Server 2008

and

Exam 70-647: PRO: Windows Server 2008, Enterprise Administrator

and either

Exam 70-620: TS: Configuring Microsoft Windows Vista Client

or

Exam 70-624: TS: Deploying and Maintaining Windows Vista Client and 2007 Microsoft Office System Desktop

Windows Server 2008 (WS08) Server Core doesn’t have a GUI. Therefore, when you install the Server Core you need to configure some of the basic parameters to get the server ready for remote administration. For example, you need to configure the IP parameters and open the appropriate ports before you can manage the Server Core from another computer. If you want to run DNS on the Server Core, you need to configure that too at the command prompt. These are some, but not all, of the basic steps that most administrators need to accomplish to get their server ready for remote administration. In this article, I will explain how to configure TCP/IP, configure the firewall to open the necessary ports and then install DNS server on a WS08 Server Core.

Configure TCP/IP Parameters

At the command prompt, type SET to see the current parameters.

To configure a static IP address, type the following command. Replace the IP address, subnet mask and gateway with your own parameters.

netsh interface ipv4 set address name=”local area connection” source=static address=172.16.1.200 mask=255.255.0.0 gateway=172.16.1.1

Specify a DNS Server

To configure a primary DNS server type the following command. Replace the IP address with your own DNS server’s IP address.

netsh interface ip set dns “local area connection” static 172.16.1.15

Open DNS Ports

Once you have the TCP/IP parameters configured, you can configure the firewall. To verify the current firewall configuration, type the following command:

netsh firewall show state

Notice that the firewall is enabled but specific ports are not open. You need to open the DNS ports as shown below. Type each one of the following commands and press enter. You will be opening ports for DNS server, remote administration, NetBIOS name service, NetBIOS datagram service, and NetBIOS session service.

netsh firewall add portopening ALL 53 DNS-server

netsh firewall add portopening TCP 135 remote-admin

netsh firewall add portopening UDP 137 netbios-ns

netsh firewall add portopening UDP 138 netbios–dgm

netsh firewall add portopening TCP 139 netbios–ssn

netsh firewall add portopening TCP 445 netbios–ns

To see the current configuration and to verify that the ports you just configured are open, type the following at the command prompt.

netsh firewall show config

You will notice various configuration options displayed for Domain and Standard profile. If you scroll down to the section Service Configuration for Domain Profile, you will notice that the File and Printer Sharing and Remote Desktop services are both set to enable. Also notice that the TCP and UDP port 53 for DNS are also open. If you would like to refer back to the information later, you can save the configuration to a text file (e.g. fwconfig.txt) by using the following command.

netsh firewall show config > fwconfig.txt

Install the DNS Server Role

Initially you won’t have any server roles installed on your WS08 Server Core. You can verify that by using the ocslist command. After you’ve installed DNS role, you might want to run ocslist again to make sure DNS role was installed successfully.

To install the DNS Server role, use the following command.

start /w ocsetup DNS-Server-Core-Role

WARNING! The role name (DNS-Server-Core-Role) is case-sensitive.

At this point you will be able to administer DNS on the WS08 Server Core from another computer because you have configured the TCP/IP, opened the necessary ports and installed the DNS server role.

NOTE: You can use Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP), Windows Remote Shell, Terminal Server, Microsoft Management Console (MMC), and Command Prompt to manage a Server Core remotely.

IPv6 is here. Well, if you are like me and are running Windows 7 and/or Windows Server 2008 then you may have already realized some of the advantages of IPv6 protocol and appreciate the built-in support provided by Microsoft in the new operating systems.

If you would like to install IPv6 on Windows XP SP2 or later, follow the procedure described below.

1. Log on to the computer with an administrative account.
2. Click Start, Control Panel, and then double-click Network Connections.
3. Right-click on one of the local area connection icons and then click Properties.

NOTE: When you select one interface and install IPv6, it will be installed automatically on all the interfaces. For example, if you install IPv6 on your wireless interface on your laptop, it will also be installed on the wired interface. If you do not want IPv6 on a specific interface, simply uncheck the box on the interface properties.

4. Click Install.
5. In the Select Network Component Type dialog box click Protocol and then click Add.
6. In the Select Network Protocol dialog box click Microsoft TCP/IP version 6, and then click OK.

7. You will notice Microsoft TCP/IP version 6 added on the General tab of your network card Properties.
8. Click Close to close the Properties box.

Another way to install IPv6 is to use the netsh command at the command prompt by using the following command:

netsh interface ipv6 install

Even though you are not prompted to restart the computer, you should. This is particularly important when it comes to using RPC applications over IPv6.

For Windows XP SP1 the procedure is almost identical. The only difference is that in step 6 you will select Microsoft IPv6 Developer Edition. If you don’t have any Service Packs installed then you can use IPv6 install at the command prompt.