Dear
Readers,
I am pleased to write and share with you my experiences over
the past month working on site and practicing in lab, here at NATC.
Diagnosing Printers
As part of my daily routine, I was sent to an organization by
the name of PSI to assist an end-user with a printing issue. When I arrived on
site, the client explained that the printer is a multi-purpose printer with
various useful office capabilities.
Unfortunately, with the exception of photocopy, none of the
other functions were actually functioning.
Clearly, this machine was out of
order and needed the NATC touch!
The first thing I did was check the printer network status.
Next I observed the network cable to see if there was a loss of connection, but
cable was good and the IP address was visible.
So, I connected my PC to the network, found the printer on
the network with its IP address. I then installed the printer on my machine and
all features were fully functional on my laptop.
Then I began to wonder if there were multiple networks within
the office? So I conducted a scan to locate available networks.
In doing so I found that the user was connected to a
different network.
Eureka!!! That’s it,
the user was connected to the wrong network and therefore his access to the printer
capabilities were limited.
The printer was fine. It was the user who had a malfunction. I
asked him to kindly disconnect from the external network and reconnect to the
PSI office network. After reconnecting to the PSI network, he became a
satisfied user of the HP 500 color LaserJet printer. Once again, NATC saves the day!
Install and configure Windows Server core using command line
I am attending one of the world’s leading vocational IT
Institutions; NIIT. They founded a
satellite school in 10th Street, Sinkor, Monrovia under the name
“BLUECREST UNIVERSITY COLLEGE”. It has long been my dream to become one of
Liberia’s top IT professionals. The management of New Africa Technology Company
(NATC) has given me the opportunity to make my dream come to true. Currently, I
am Studying Microsoft Windows Operating Systems and thus far, it has been a
very interesting learning experience.
Very often, I make use of screen shots when trying to explain
my work. Some of my colleagues laugh and
poke fun, but I find it very helpful to utilize visual aids along with our
lecturer’s guidance during our practice sessions.
I think it is very important that each student find the tools
and practices which work best for their effective learning. Everyone is
different but I have found something that works well for me.
Using Microsoft Command line or Command Prompt
You
are provided with a kernel and a command line to manage the server. It is slim
and bare bones and allows you to configure Windows concisely or smoothly.
When
you first run through the installation of Windows Server 2008, you have two
options for installation but our practice on Server Core. They are:
- Windows Server 2008 Enterprise
(Full Installation)
- Windows Server 2008 Enterprise
(Server Core Installation)
These screen shots walk you through
the installation of Windows Server Core.
After the installation, the main window for your new
installation appears and you are ready to login as shown. The initial login is
Administrator and blank password. You are required to change the password and
set an Administrator password on initial login.
Now that you are logged in, you are ready to configure the
date and time. In the command line type the following: controltimedate.cpl and
set the options accordingly.
If you need to configure and change the keyboard layout and
settings, type the following in the command window: control intl.cpl.
Here
is where you can change the server name. The default name is a bunch of random
letters and numbers so it would be advantageous to change the name to a local
standard. You can view the current hostname by typing the following:
For now, let's use the name
ssw-svr15. We will perform this option in the command line (Figure O) by
typing the following:
Figure N
After
choosing to proceed with the task completed successfully. You now need to
reboot or restart the server using the shutdown command. For the proper syntax,
type:
shutdown
/?
After reviewing the syntax, I will
type the following: shutdown /r (switch for shutting down and restarting
the computer) /t 10 (wait 10 seconds to shut down and restart) /c
"Change Sever Name". The total syntax will look as follows:
shutdown /r /T 10 /C "Changed Server Name"
GREAT! Now let’s configure our networking so we can
join this server to a domain. In order to see what interface you have to
configure, (Figure P) type
The Local Area Connection that we
are going to configure has an index value of two. Let proceed and configure
TCP/IP for this connection. Type the following command to set the TCP/IP
information:
netsh
interface ipv4 set address name="2" source=static
address=192.168.1.199 mask=255.255.255.0 gateway=192.168.1.1
Follow the same example to configure DNS (Figure R):
netsh
interface ipv4 add dnsserver name="2" address=192.168.1.1 index=1
Figure
R
Let's link it to a domain! In order to perform this
function, we will take advantage of the netdom.exe.
The syntax is as follows:
netdom
join ssw-svr15 /domain:watchtower /userd:Administrator /passwordD:Password01
Shutdown
/r /T 10 /C "Added to domain"
As a final step, do not forget to activate the server by
typing the following:
slmgr.vbs
-ato
Using this tool doesn't even scratch
the surface or installation of Windows Server Core installation but it begins
to show you how powerful command line is with a small Windows kernel.
I can’t
wait to be certified as a Microsoft Server Administrator.
by Daniel Collins
Nice Blog with having good information. Thanks and keep posting.
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