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Configuring Server 2008 R2 Core Series: Network Settings

Written by Sam McGeown
Published on 24/3/2010 - Read in about 5 min (957 words)
Published under Microsoft and Networking #Networking #Windows #Windows Server 2008

So, you’ve installed a new server with Server 2008 R2 Core – what next? Logging on, you’re presented with a shiny command prompt, you can run notepad or regedit…but aside from that, where do you go from there? In the next few series of posts I’ll hopefully point out the basics, and some not so basics!

Using the Server Configuration Tool

The server configuration tool (sconfig.cmd) is provided in R2 for some of the basic setup tasks, so you can run that by issuing the “sconfig” command. Out of the box, it looks something like this:

As you can see, this interactive tool will step you through configuring the network settings (Option 8), Computer Name (Option 2) or Domain/Workgroup (Option 1).

Enter number to select an option: 8



Network settings

Available Network Adapters
Index# IP address Description
0 192.168.8.117 Intel(R) PRO/1000 MT Network Connection
Select Network Adapter Index# (Blank=Cancel): 0
Network Adapter Settings

NIC Index 0
Description Intel(R) PRO/1000 MT Network Connection
IP Address 192.168.8.117
Subnet Mask 255.255.255.0
DHCP enabled True
Default Gateway 192.168.8.1
Preferred DNS Server 192.168.8.5
Alternate DNS Server 192.168.8.22
  1. Set Network Adapter IP Address
  2. Set DNS Servers
  3. Clear DNS Server Settings
  4. Return to Main Menu
Select option: 1
Select (D)HCP, (S)tatic IP (Blank=Cancel): S
Set Static IP
Enter static IP address: 192.168.8.220
Enter subnet mask (Blank = Default 255.255.255.0):
Enter default gateway: 192.168.8.1
Setting NIC to static IP…
Network Adapter Settings

NIC Index 0
Description Intel(R) PRO/1000 MT Network Connection
IP Address 192.168.8.220
Subnet Mask 255.255.255.0
DHCP enabled False
Default Gateway 192.168.8.1
Preferred DNS Server
Alternate DNS Server
  1. Set Network Adapter IP Address
  2. Set DNS Servers
  3. Clear DNS Server Settings
  4. Return to Main Menu
Select option: 2
DNS Servers
Enter new preferred DNS server (Blank=Cancel): 192.168.8.22
Enter alternate DNS server (Blank = none): 192.168.8.5
Alternate DNS server set.
Network Adapter Settings

NIC Index 0
Description Intel(R) PRO/1000 MT Network Connection
IP Address 192.168.8.220
Subnet Mask 255.255.255.0
DHCP enabled False
Default Gateway 192.168.8.1
Preferred DNS Server 192.168.8.22
Alternate DNS Server 192.168.8.5
  1. Set Network Adapter IP Address
  2. Set DNS Servers
  3. Clear DNS Server Settings
  4. Return to Main Menu
Select option: 4

Enter number to select an option: 2

Computer Name


Enter new computer name (Blank=Cancel): SERVERCORE2008
Changing Computer name…

Enter number to select an option: 1

Change Domain/Workgroup Membership


Join (D)omain or (W)orkgroup? (Blank=Cancel) D


Join Domain
Name of domain to join:  MCGEOWN.LOCAL
Specify an authorized domain\user:  MCGEOWN\sam.mcgeown


Joining MCGEOWN.LOCAL…


Enter the password of the authorized user:

 

Command Line Configuration with Netsh/Netdom

There’s also a manual method (e.g. for a scripted installation and config) using Netsh and Netdom commands that most Windows admins will be familiar with.

List the interfaces (network adaptors):

netsh interface ipv4 show interfaces

Identify the name of the interface you want to assign an IP for and configure:

netsh interface ipv4 set address name="<Interface Name>" source=static address=<IP Address> mask=<Subnet Mask> gateway=<Gateway>

 

Configure DNS servers:

netsh interface ipv4 add dnsservers "<Interface Name>" <DNS Server IP> index=<number>

 

If you want to add more than one IP address for your server, try:

netsh interface ipv4 add address name="<Interface Name>" address=<Additional IP> mask=<Subnet Mask>

 

To change your computer’s name, you can use (leave off the /reboot if you don’t want to yet):

netdom renamecomputer /newname:<New Name> /reboot

 

To join your computer to a domain, you can use (leave off the /reboot if you don’t want to yet):

netdom /join /domain:<domain> /UserO:<domain\user to join with> /PasswordO:<Password> /reboot

 

Not so different after all?

At the end of all that, you can see that configuring basic network settings with sconfig.cmd is pretty straight forward, and configuring basic network settings for scripts, or a more command-line based admin, is also quite do-able.

C:\Users\Administrator>ipconfig /all

Windows IP Configuration


Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : ServerCore2008
Primary Dns Suffix  . . . . . . . : MCGEOWN.LOCAL
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
DNS Suffix Search List. . . . . . : MCGEOWN.LOCAL


Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:


Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Intel(R) PRO/1000 MT Network Connection
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-50-56-AB-28-8B
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::3c4d:cdd1:5a4a:fbff%3(Preferred)
IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.8.220(Preferred)
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.8.221(Preferred)
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.8.222(Preferred)
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.8.223(Preferred)
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.8.1
DHCPv6 IAID . . . . . . . . . . . : 50352214
DHCPv6 Client DUID. . . . . . . . : 00-01-00-01-13-3B-B4-6C-00-50-56-AB-28-8B


DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.8.5
192.168.8.22
NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled


C:\Users\Administrator>

Netsh command reference | Netdom command reference

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