IT203 - Solution Architecture

A server is primarily a program that runs on a machine, providing a particular and specific service to other machines connected to the machine on which it is found. A server is a machine with a specific set of programs that offer different types of service, which other machines (then called clients) request to do certain tasks.

For example, a file server is a machine which keeps files, and allows clients to upload and download them from it. A web server is a machine that hosts web sites and allows Internet users (clients) to access these web sites. A mail server is a machine which, along with the storage and management of email messages, provides service to email users who can read, retrieve, and manage these emails messages.

Processor:
 Minimum: 1GHz  Recommended: 2GHz  Optimal: 3GHz or faster  *Intel Itanium 2 processor

Memory:
 Minimum: 521MB RAM  Recommended: 1GB RAM  Optimal: 2GB RAM (Full

required for Windows Server 2008 for Itanium based systems

Installation) or 1GB RAM (Server Core Installation) or more  Maximum (32-bit): 4GB (Standard) or 64GB (Enterprise & Datacenter)  Maximum (64-bit): 32GB (Standard) or 2TB (Enterprise, Datacenter, & Itanium-based systems)

Disk Space:
 Minimum: 8GB  Recommended: 40GB (Full

Drive:
 DVD-ROM Drive

Installation) or 10GB (Server Core Installation)  Optimal: 80GB (Full Installation) or 40GB (Server Core Installation) or more

Display:
 SVGA (800x600) or higher

resolution  Keyboard  Microsoft mouse or compatible pointing device

Windows Server 2008 offers two general types of installations: a typical Full server installation and Server Core. Server Core is a stripped down version of Windows Server 2008 that doesnt include a GUI or any other unneeded services. Instead, the server installs only key features that are related to the role that it supports (i.e. Active Directory or Domain Name System (DNS)).

Start the computer and bootup using the Windows Server 2008 installation media. Select the installation language, time and currency format, and keyboard layout and the click Next.

Click Install now to begin the installation process. As you can see on the next figure 2, you can access system recovery tools by clicking the Repair Your Computer option at the bottom of the screen.

Enter the product key. If you dont want to activate Windows as soon as youre computer goes online (for example, if you are simply testing the installation or evaluating Windows Server 2008), you can uncheck the Automatically Activate Windows When Im Online checkbox (Figure 3). Click Next.

Now select whether to install Windows Server 2008 Enterprise (Full Installation) or Windows Server 2008 Enterprise (Core Installation). For now, select Windows Server 2008 Enterprise (Full Installation) (as shown in Figure 4), and then click Next.

If you accept the terms of the license agreement, check the I Accept the License Terms checkbox (required to use Windows), and then click Next (Figure 5).

Select the type of installation you want to perform. In this case, you are performing a clean install, so you should select Custom (Advanced). Youll notice that you cant select Upgrade unless you initiated the setup from an existing Windows Server installation (Figure 6).

If your hard drive is automatically detected, you can create and format a partition as necessary for the installation. If your drive isnt detected, most likely the device driver for your controller isnt built into Windows, in which case you can click Load Driver (at the bottom-left of the screen) to load it. Click Next after you have created the partition to which you are going to install (Figure 7).

Now that Windows Server 2008 has all the basic information it needs to proceed with the installation, it begins the installation process and displays the status of the install, as shown in Figure 8. This is where setup significantly differs from previous Windows Server builds, as you will not be prompted for any further details until the installation is complete and Windows fully starts up. This is a great enhancement, since you can walk away from the server while the installation proceeds without having to worry about additional dialog boxes asking for further information to complete the install.

When setup has completed installing Windows and has rebooted as many times as necessary to install and configure everything, you will automatically be logged in to Windows Server 2008 under the Administrator account, where the Initial Configuration Tasks screen is loaded.

Task: Set the Administrator Password Set Time Zone Configure Networking

Description:
Lets you set the password for the Administrator Account Sets the time zone for the server Opens the Network Connections Control Panel applet so you can configure various network interfaces

Task: Provide Computer Name & Domain Enable Automatic Updating and Feedback

Description: Lets you change the computer name as well as join a domain Lets you specify how you want to configure Windows update, Windows Error Reporting, & the Customer Experience Improvement Program (CEIP)

Task: Downloads & Install Updates

Description: Lets you download and install updates. You should manually set the configuration of the updates based on your own policies to prevent updates from automatically restarting your server.

Task: Add Roles

Description:

Add Features

Lets you add roles to this server that is, Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP), DNS, Internet Information Services (IIS), & so on. This new interfaces replaces the Add/Remove Windows Components from the Add/Remove Programs Control Panel applet in previous versions of Windows & provides a much easier means of additional Windows components

Task: Enable Remote Desktop

Description: Lets you configure remote desktop Turns on or turns off the Windows Firewall

Configure Windows Firewall

All Windows Server builds since Windows NT have been using NT Loader (NTLDR) & boot.ini to control the boot process as well as manage multi-boot environments. With Windows Server 2008 (as well as Windows Vista), the entire boot process has been re-engineered, resulting in the creation of the Boot Configuration Data (BCD). The BCD architecture is a hierarchy, which is exactly why it made sense to reuse the registry hive format for this data store. It is composed of three distinct components: stores, objects, and elements.

Component: BCD Store

Description:

Top-level component in the hierarchy. Think of this as the root of all components in the hierarchy; It serves as the starting namespace for the items it contains. You can also think of the store as the actual physical BCD file.

Component: BCD Object

Description:

In the abstract, this serves as a container for all BCD elements. In practical terms, information pertaining to the boot environment for each instance of the Windows boot loader is typically stored here.

Component: BCD Element

Description: Think of these as properties and parameters to the BCD object. Each element represents one property or parameterfor example, the name of the operating system or a debugger setting.