Installing Windows Server 2003 (Part 2 – GUI install and initial settings)

At this point you might be installing the operating system to later configure the server as a domain controller or you might be installing it to be used for your first OCS 2007 Server. It does not matter at this point, as this part still only covers the basic Windows Server 2003 installation. Later posts will cover the configuration of Windows Server 2003 as a DHCP server, as a domain controller and the installation of OCS 2007. This is the second post covering one of the prerequisites of an OCS 2007 deployment. The second/GUI-part of the installation of a Windows Server 2003.

The computer on which you planned to install Windows Server 2003 has now been booted from a Windows Server 2003 CD and you have gone through the steps descriped in Installing Windows Server 2003 (Part 1 – booting from CD). After rebooting automatically, the computer has continued installing and the first dialog box has now appeared:

GUI install:

1. The first box to appear is the Regional and Language Options dialog box. As I would like to change the default from English (United States) I make a few changes here. Obviously if you are happy with the default settings just click Next here.
   • Changing the default setting I first click the Standards and formats ”Customize…”-button, which opens a new box
   • I start at the tab Regional Options. Here I change the Standards and formats
   • I then change the Location below and click Apply
   • Moving on to the Languages tab, click Details… under Text services and input languages. In the new box that pops up change the Default input language, make sure that it is then marked under Installed services and click Apply and OK.
   • Next I click the Advanced tab, change the Language for non-Unicode programs and check Apply all settings to the currect user account and to the default user profile.
   • I then click Apply and OK, which gets me back to the Regional and Language options dialog box with the “Customize…”-, and the “details…”-buttons.
   • Because we alreade changed the details… in a previous step the language setting shown next to the “Details…”-button should already be OK (if not, make the necessary changes) and we can therefore just move on now by clicking Next.
2. In the Personalize your Software dialog box type a name and an organization relevant for this installation. Then click Next.
3. You will then be asked for the Product Key. (It can be found on the back of your Windows Server 2003 CD case, online, or somewhere else, depending on where and how you bought your software).  Type the Product Key and click Next.
4. In the Licensing Modes dialog box, select the appropriate licensing mode for your organization, and then click Next.
5. In the Computer Name and Administrator Password dialog box, type the 
   • Computer name (MS recommends a server naming convention such as Location-Organization-Role-Number e.g. HQ-CON-DC-01 or HQ-CON-OCS-01. It is a good idea, but of course you can choose whatever convention you want. For my small test setup the most important thing is the Role, to be aware of it when different roles are added and the number, if I want to add more servers of the same role)
   • and an administrator password (can be left blank for testing, but should of course be complex for production)
   • Confirm the administrative password and click Next.
6. In the Date and Time Settings dialog box I would like to change the default, so I correct it and click Next. Obviously if you are happy with the default settings just click Next here.
7. In the Networking Settings dialog box, choose Typical Settings and click Next. (Do not worry, this will be changed in later configuration)
8. In the Workgroups or Computer Domain dialog box choose the default No, this computer is not on a network and leave the default workgroup. Click Next. (As before: Do not worry, this will be changed in later configuration)
9. You should not have to do anything else for the rest of the installation. When the install is complete the computer will restart and load the server to the login box.

Initial settings:

The computer on which you have installed Windows Server 2003 has now been restarted and is ready for you to log in. No changes have been made to the server yet.

1. Log in to the server by pressing Ctrl+Alt+Del and use the administrator account that you created during the set up process.
2. If this is the first time you ever log into the server the first thing you will see is the Windows Server Post-setup Security updates and the Activate windows popup in the lower right corner of the screen. For now close the Windows Server Post-setup Security updates by clicking Finish and Yes to close the page. Ignore or close the Activate Windows popup by clicking the X.
3. We will now prepare the secondary partition or secondary disk drive you created in Part 1 of this series of posts. First click the Start button
4. Point to Administrative Tools
5. Click Computer Management
6. Click Disk Management
7. Right-click Unallocated
8. Click New Partition and click Next
9. Select Primary Partition (default) and click Next
10. Leave Partition size in MB set to default and click Next
11. Select a drive letter that you can remember for Assign the following drive letter and click Next
12. Click Perform a quick format under Format this partition with the following settings and click Next
13. Click Finish and wait for the format to finish
14. Close the Computer Management console

You now have a fresh installation of a Windows Server 2003 ready for further configuration into different roles in your network. At this point, to ease additional Windows Server 2003 installations, I would create an image of the server if installed on an actual computer or make a copy of the files if installed as a Virtual PC. A new Windows Server 2003 installation could then be ready within a very short time when adding more roles to the network. I expect future posts to cover this.

This finishes the series of posts about installing Windows Server 2003. The next post will cover the configuration of the first Windows Server 2003 server role in the network as a DHCP server and a domain controller.

Tags: Active Directory, DHCP, DNS, Domain Controller, Windows Server 2003