Windows Server 2003 { First Steps and Administration} Benedikt Riedel MCSE + Messaging

The Default Windows 2003 Server Desktop Benedikt Riedel - Windows Server 2003 First Steps and Administration

To generate the default Desktop icons right click the empty desktop press properties go to the Desktop tab select Customize Desktop and tick the boxes under General as per this picture Benedikt Riedel - Windows Server 2003 First Steps and Administration

Right click the new My Computer icon and select Properties Benedikt Riedel - Windows Server 2003 First Steps and Administration

Check the OS version, service pack level and physical equipment e.g. CPU and Memory to ensure the system requirements are met Benedikt Riedel - Windows Server 2003 First Steps and Administration

Change to the Remote tab and tick the Allow users to connect remotely to this computer check box. This will enable remote desktop Benedikt Riedel - Windows Server 2003 First Steps and Administration

Select the Advanced tab and press Settings in the Performance section Benedikt Riedel - Windows Server 2003 First Steps and Administration

Select the Data Execution Prevention and enable the top setting Turn on DEP for essential Windows… Benedikt Riedel - Windows Server 2003 First Steps and Administration

In the Advanced tab ensure background services and system cache is selected and press Change in the virtual memory section Benedikt Riedel - Windows Server 2003 First Steps and Administration

Select Custom size and enter twice the amount of your physical memory. Select a partition with enough empty space for the Paging File and press SET Benedikt Riedel - Windows Server 2003 First Steps and Administration

After pressing OK select the Error Reporting button and tick Disable error reporting and tick the notify me box Benedikt Riedel - Windows Server 2003 First Steps and Administration

Open the Web browser, press Tools and Windows Update. Follow the website to install every! available windows update by pressing the Customer button. DO NOT LEAVE A SERVER UNPATCHED Benedikt Riedel - Windows Server 2003 First Steps and Administration

Ensure all available High Priority and Software Updates are selected before you press Install Updates Benedikt Riedel - Windows Server 2003 First Steps and Administration

Wait until the update is complete and reboot the server Benedikt Riedel - Windows Server 2003 First Steps and Administration

Now remove some unnecessary pieces of software on the server. Press Start – Control Panel – Add or Remove Programs Benedikt Riedel - Windows Server 2003 First Steps and Administration

Remove every box except Microsoft.NET Framework and the General top box. Press Next and Finish to complete the removal Benedikt Riedel - Windows Server 2003 First Steps and Administration

Download and install the programs written below. It is BGInfo for some additional desktop info, TCP View a port analyzer, WinRAR a compression tool that supports.zip and.rar and a text editior Notepad++ us/sysinternals/bb aspx us/sysinternals/bb aspx us/sysinternals/bb aspx us/sysinternals/bb aspx plus/npp Installer.exe?modtime= &big_mirror=0 plus/npp Installer.exe?modtime= &big_mirror= Benedikt Riedel - Windows Server 2003 First Steps and Administration

Save them on the Desktop to have them for maybe future use or different servers Benedikt Riedel - Windows Server 2003 First Steps and Administration

Setup Bginfo with the settings you require. Below an example configuration Benedikt Riedel - Windows Server 2003 First Steps and Administration

To view and or disable programs that start on system start or as services press Start – Run – fill in msconfig and hit OK Benedikt Riedel - Windows Server 2003 First Steps and Administration

In the services tab check the Hide All Microsoft Services box to have a nice overview and disable the services you do not require on startup Benedikt Riedel - Windows Server 2003 First Steps and Administration

On the Start-up tab you find all programs starting as soon a user logins into the machine. E.g. Administrator Benedikt Riedel - Windows Server 2003 First Steps and Administration

To monitor the system performance press Start – Run – enter perfmon and hit OK Benedikt Riedel - Windows Server 2003 First Steps and Administration

For the HDD performance Add the Counters for the Phyiscal Disk and just enable Average Disk Read Queue Length and Current Disk Queue Length. Monitor the performance if the values are continuously above 80% you have an issue with the HDD speed and should consider changing same Benedikt Riedel - Windows Server 2003 First Steps and Administration

To monitor the Network performance select the Network Interface object and the Sent and Received Bytes information for all / a single adapter Benedikt Riedel - Windows Server 2003 First Steps and Administration

To monitor the default operating system events open the event viewer with pressing Start – Run – enter eventvwr and press OK Benedikt Riedel - Windows Server 2003 First Steps and Administration

The event log is split in four options. The most import one for the servers operation are Application and System. Just ensure you don’t see too many red messages Benedikt Riedel - Windows Server 2003 First Steps and Administration

To test the remote access setup earlier press Start – Run and enter mstsc and hit OK Benedikt Riedel - Windows Server 2003 First Steps and Administration

As computer select your localhost ( ) and hit Connect Benedikt Riedel - Windows Server 2003 First Steps and Administration

If you see the login prompt everything is OK Benedikt Riedel - Windows Server 2003 First Steps and Administration

Some useful DOS commands: systeminfo | find “System Up Time” will output the time the operating system is running Benedikt Riedel - Windows Server 2003 First Steps and Administration

Ipconfig /all outputs every detail about the network adapters e.g. IP, Subnet Mask, Gateway, DNS, DHCP Server and MAC Address Benedikt Riedel - Windows Server 2003 First Steps and Administration

Ipconfig /release will release the dynamically assigned IP address (Do not perform this while logged on remotely) Benedikt Riedel - Windows Server 2003 First Steps and Administration

Ipconfig /renew will request new IP configuration from a DHCP server Benedikt Riedel - Windows Server 2003 First Steps and Administration

Ipconfig /registerdns will register the PC with a DNS server that you can reach the machine using its hostname instead IP Benedikt Riedel - Windows Server 2003 First Steps and Administration

Ipconfig /flushdns will empty the local DNS cache of the server Benedikt Riedel - Windows Server 2003 First Steps and Administration

Ping will perform a ICMP network test to see if a destination device can be reached Benedikt Riedel - Windows Server 2003 First Steps and Administration

Nslookup will test the DNS settings and show you the DNS server answering your question and the IP address of the destination Benedikt Riedel - Windows Server 2003 First Steps and Administration

Tracert will display the route to a destination and show every router in between interesting for troubleshooting Benedikt Riedel - Windows Server 2003 First Steps and Administration

Tasklist displays every process running on the server and taskkill /pid will shut the process in question down Benedikt Riedel - Windows Server 2003 First Steps and Administration

Whoami displays the current logged on user and hostname the machines hostname Benedikt Riedel - Windows Server 2003 First Steps and Administration

The taskmanager is the graphical answer to tasklist and has some additional features to open press Start – Run – enter taskmgr and hit OK Benedikt Riedel - Windows Server 2003 First Steps and Administration

The Users tab shows the currently logged on users to the machine. By right clicking you can interact with the other users. The ID 0 is the console shell (directly on the server) and can be used remotely as well using the command mstsc /console (mstsc = 6.5) Benedikt Riedel - Windows Server 2003 First Steps and Administration

The performance tab shows the current CPU load and memory usage as well as the Page file consumption Benedikt Riedel - Windows Server 2003 First Steps and Administration