This week, I have to give a demo about some new products such as Exchange 2007, Longhorn and Windows Server Virtualization. The demo will include Longhorn Server Core.

Longhorn Server Core is interesting because it is a minimal version of Longhorn that has been stripped of many features. That means: no Windows Explorer, no Internet Explorer or Outlook Express and no other management tools you are so familiar with. The advantage is clear: a smaller footprint in hard disk space and memory and less patching. According to Microsoft, if Windows 2000 would have been stripped of features just as Longhorn Server Core, that would have resulted in 60% less patches.

Installation is a breeze as always. Just select the Longhorn Server Core option during installation of Longhorn. When it's finished and you logon, you get a blue background and a command prompt. Now what?

To get things done, you will have to use the command prompt or use another server and use tools such as compmgmt.msc remotely.

Before you start, you might need to configure IP. You will need to use netsh.exe for that. Some examples:

  • Get the interface IDs: netsh interface ipv4 show interfaces
  • Change IP configuration: netsh interface ipv4 set address name=interfaceid source=ipaddr mask=netmask gateway=gw
  • Add DNS server(s): netsh interface ipv4 add dnsserver name=interfaceid address=ipofdnsserver index=x

Next, you might want to change the computer name. Use netdom.exe to do that.

If you need to register your copy of Longhorn, you will need to use the slmgr.vbs script. You can use slmgr with the -ato option to register. Other options are available to get information. Just run slmgr.vbs without parameters to get help. By the way, the slmgr.vbs tool is also available on Windows Vista.

To install extra server roles in Longhorn Server Core, use ocsetup.exe. Each role has a name. In Longhorn Beta 3, you will be able to use the oclist command to get an overview of roles that can be installed. For now, just use the info on the Longhorn Server Core blog for your experiments. Some of the available roles are DHCP, DNS, WINS, File Server, etc... IIS is not available. If you need to install a domain controller, you need to use dcpromo with an unattend file.

To give you an example of installing an extra role, I will use DHCP. To install the DHCP role, use ocsetup DHCPServerCore. After the installation finishes, you need to set the service startup to Automatic: sc config dhcpserver start= auto. Note that you need a space after start=. Now you can start the DHCP server with: net start dhcpserver. To actually manage the DHCP server, use the DHCP server management console from another machine.

Some other things you might want to do:

  • Setting pagefile properties: scregedit.wsf (/PF option)
  • Configuring automatic updates: scregedit.wsf (/AU option)
  • Configuring error reporting: scregedit.wsf (/ER option)
  • Allow terminal services remote admin connections: scregedit.wsf (with the /AR option)
  • Allow remote desktop clients from older versions of Windows: scregedit.wsf (with the /CS option)
  • Set time and date: use the Control Panel applet timedate.cpl (start it with control timedate.cpl)
  • Set language and keyboard: control intl.cpl
  • Change screen resolution: from another system, start regedit and modify HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Video\{GUID}\0000\DefaultSettings.Xresolution (and of course YResolution)
  • Logoff from the system: use the logoff command (also use the logoff command after setting the resolution in the registry)
  • Hardware: use pnputil to install PnP hardware for drivers that are not in the box

Most people will probably get a remote desktop connection to Longhorn Server Core to run the above commands but you can also use the new WS-Management (web services for management) features. Longhorn (and Vista!) contain the winrs command. That command is used to get a connection over port 80 or 443 (SSL) to another system and issue commands. Before you can use winrs, you need to configure something on the server side. On the server, you can issue the command winrm quickconfig to quickly configure the system to accept commands over port 80. Then, from another system, use something like winrs -r:servername command.

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