Preparing for Windows Server 2012 R2

Practice exercises

The goal of this section is to provide you with hands-on practice with the following:

• Performing a manual installation of Windows Server 2012 R2 onto a bare-metal server system and familiarizing yourself with the Start screen and desktop
• Using MAP 9.0 to perform a readiness assessment of your server

To perform the following exercises, you need the Windows Server 2012 R2 evaluation .iso file that you downloaded from the TechNet Evaluation Center. You should burn the .iso file to recordable DVD media or copy it to a bootable USB device for installation purposes. You also need a physical server system available for testing purposes that meets the minimum hardware requirements for installing Windows Server 2012 R2, as described earlier in this chapter. The server should also meet the following additional requirements:

• The server should be a bare-metal system; that is, there should be no operating system installed on it. If the server already has an operating system installed, you should remove it by booting using installation media for any version of Microsoft Windows until you reach the Setup Wizard page that allows you to delete all existing partitions on the hard drives of the server.
• The server hardware should meet the minimum requirements for installing MAP 9.0. See the readme.htm file included in the MAP download for more information on these requirements.

You also need a client computer that has Microsoft Excel 2013 or Microsoft Excel 2010 installed for viewing the reports generated by MAP. If you have an Office 365 subscription, you can also use the Excel Web App for this purpose.

Exercise 1: Performing a manual installation

In this exercise, you perform a manual installation of Windows Server 2012 R2 onto a bare-metal system. You then use your Windows Server 2012 R2 installation to familiarize yourself with the Start screen (modern UI) and desktop.

1. Start the server and insert the DVD media onto which you burned the Windows Server 2012 R2 evaluation .iso file that you downloaded from the TechNet Evaluation Center.
2. If necessary, press the appropriate keystroke combination to display the boot menu and enable you to boot the system from its optical drive or from the bootable device containing Windows Server 2012 R2 installation media.
3. When the Windows Setup Wizard appears, select the appropriate language to install, the time and currency format, and the keyboard or input method.
4. Click Next and then click Install Now.
5. On the Select The Operating System You Want To Install page, select Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter Evaluation (Server With A GUI) and click Next.
6. On the License Terms page, select I Accept The License Terms and click Next.
7. On the Which Type Of Installation Do You Want page, select Custom: Install Windows Only (Advanced).
8. On the Where Do You Want To Install Windows page, click Drive 0 Unallocated Space and click Next.
9. Once the installation has finished and the Settings screen is displayed, type a password for the default Administrator account and then click Finish.
10. Once settings have been finalized and the logon screen is displayed, press Ctrl+Alt+Del and log on using the built-in Administrator account.
11. When Server Manager opens, click Local Server in the Navigation pane and view the properties of your server. Write down the name of your server because you’ll need this information for the next exercise.
12. Move the pointer to the lower-left corner of your screen and click the Start icon to display the modern UI.
13. Click the tile named Desktop to display the Windows desktop.
14. Press the Windows key to display the Start screen.
15. Press the Windows key again to display the desktop.
16. Click the Server Manager icon on the taskbar to maximize Server Manager.
17. Move the pointer to the upper-right corner of the screen until the Search, Start, and Settings charms are displayed and then swipe the pointer downward to display the Charms Bar.
18. Press Esc to make the Charms Bar disappear.
19. Press the Windows key+C to make the Charms Bar appear again.
20. Click the Settings charm to open Settings and then click Server Info. The System Control Panel item opens while the Charms Bar disappears. View the information about your computer and then close it.
21. Press the Windows key+I to open Settings again and then click Help. Take a moment to explore how Help works and then close it.
22. Press the Windows key+Q to open the Search pane with the focus set to Everywhere. Type paint and press Enter to open Microsoft Paint. Close the program.
23. Move the pointer to the lower-left corner of your screen, click Start, type paint, and press Enter to open Microsoft Paint. Close the program.
24. Press the Windows key+Q, type background, press the Down Arrow key until Change Desktop Background is highlighted, then press Enter and change the background of your desktop to the solid color white.
25. Right-click the Start icon and examine the menu options available.
26. Click the Windows PowerShell icon on the taskbar to open a new Windows PowerShell session.
27. Type shutdown –s –t 0 and press Enter to shut down your server.

Exercise 2: Using MAP

In this exercise, you install MAP 9.0 on the server used in Exercise 1 and run MAP to perform an assessment and generate a report.

1. Start your server and log on using your Administrator credentials.
2. Copy the MAP installation files to the Documents folder on your test server and then double-click the MAPSetup.exe file to launch the Setup Wizard.
3. Follow the prompts of the wizard, accepting all the defaults, until installation of MAP is completed.
4. Right-click the taskbar and select Properties.
5. Select the Navigation tab.
6. Select the check box labeled Show The Apps View Automatically When I Go To Start.
7. Select the check box labeled List Desktop Apps First In The Apps View When It’s Sorted By Category.
8. Click OK and then press the Windows key to display the Start screen.
9. Scroll horizontally if needed until you can right-click Microsoft Assessment And Planning Toolkit and then select Pin To Taskbar at the bottom of the screen.
10. Press the Escape key to return to the desktop.
11. Click the MAP icon on the taskbar to launch MAP.
12. In the Microsoft Assessment And Planning Toolkit dialog box, type TESTDB in the Name field and click OK to create an inventory database for MAP.
13. After the inventory database is created, you are returned to the Overview page of the MAP user interface.
14. Click Perform An Inventory under Where To Start on the Overview page to launch the Inventory And Assessment Wizard.
15. On the Inventory Scenarios page, select Windows Computers and click Next.
16. On the Discovery Methods page, clear the Use Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) check box, select the Scan An IP Address Range check box, and click Next.
17. On the Scan An IP Address Range page, in both the Starting Address and Ending Address fields, enter the IP address you previously assigned to your test server and then click Next.
18. On the All Computers credentials page, click Create, type <servername>\Administrator in the Account Name field, where <servername> is the name of your server.
19. Type the password for the Administrator account in the Password and Confirm Password fields and then click Save.
20. Click Next twice and then click Finish.
21. Watch the progress in the Inventory and Assessment dialog box as it occurs and then click Close when the assessment has completed.
22. Select the Server scenario in the left pane and view whether your server has met the system requirements for installing Windows Server 2012 R2.
23. Click Generate Windows Server 2012 Report on the right side of the page. When the report has been generated, click Close.
24. Open My Documents in Windows Explorer and navigate to the TESTDB folder inside the MAP folder.
25. When My Documents opens in Windows Explorer, copy the report (.xlsx file) that MAP generated to a client computer that has Microsoft Excel installed.
26. Open the report in Microsoft Excel and view its contents.