Tag: windows server

How to Backup Windows Server 2016 Step by Step?

Post author By Mehdi Karimi
Post date September 9, 2017
No Comments on How to Backup Windows Server 2016 Step by Step?

Searching for how to the backup server?

Everyone cares about the data he has and to save it from danger or accident, you need to have a backup of it otherwise even it is not granted a minute. What the benefits of backup are insufficiently you know or might have experienced, and here are they: convenience, safety, ease of recovery, ease of access, affordability etc for e.g: it protects operating system, system state, files, folders, application data, etc and if you lose all of them, you are comfortable because you’re able to restore them again from the backup.

Also, you can perform one-time full backup or schedule backup and you can store backup files in the internal hard drive, external hard drive, USB flash drive, DVD. If you use a USB flash as a backup storage, be sure it is NTFS format and a USB flash drive is suitable for one-time backup, for scheduled backup storage use the hard drive or portable/external hard drive but I recommend backing on external hard disk and its the best way because if you lost your data from internal drive then you can recover it back from external hard drive. If the backup plan is scheduled, the server will automatically backup the server in a specified time and specified the place. While last time server takes a backup, as a result the previous backup files will be replaced by the new one. In this article, I show you how to backup windows server 2016 step by step.

Backup Windows Server 2016 Step by Step

Before we start, you need to plan where and how the backup should perform for e.g: where to store the backup files, where to backup whether one drive or whole system and should the backup be scheduled or perform once now.

#1 Install Windows Server Backup Feature

1. At the first step, what we need to do is install the Windows Server Backup feature in order to backup the server. Open Server Manager, click on Manage and select Add roles and features, skip the welcome page by hitting Next then hit Next>Next>Next until the Features page appears. On the Select Features page, scroll down and choose Windows Server Backup feature then hit Next button. The Windows Server Backup is not a role, it is a feature, so don’t get confused.

2. No reboot is needed for this feature installation, hit the Install button, it takes a while, be patient!

#2 Create a Backup Plan/Backup system

1. Once the Windows Server Backup feature installation finished, you’re ready to create a backup plan means you can backup now, before doing that put a glance down on backup plans and decide which one to do.

Backup Plans

Full Server (All volumes): If you choose the option, you backup all files and it is the best option.

Critical Volume: choose this option to backup some critical files and folders.

System State: Choose this option to backup files that are needed for system state recovery.

Individual Volumes: You can backup one volume by choosing this option.

Folders and files: You can backup single folders and files choosing this option.

2. Now that you’ve selected a backup plan you’re prompted to do a backup, to do that;

open Server Manager and click on Tools then click on the Windows Server Backup option from drop-down list to open backup server.

3. When the Windows Server Backup opened, on the Action side bar three option are available, Backup schedule, backup once and recover and schedule backup: it creates a time-based backup upon the schedule means the server automatically takes backup in the specified time and the Backup once option is for one-time backup so, select Backup once option because here we’ll backup once to show you on.

4. On the Backup options page, two options are available, choose the Different options. This option is used when you haven’t created schedule yet. then, hit Next.

5. As mentioned before, the Full server backup does a full server backup, by choosing this, you backup everything on the server. If you don’t like to do that, a Custom option is available to let you specify some of the folders, files, etc to backup.

6. Specify the Destination drive you want to save backup files, so, I select the Local drives in order to select the hard drive I want in the next step.

7. Here try to save the files to a separate hard drive, you can’t save backup files in C:\ drive, there for save it in another place. If you choose a local drive, certainly backup server give you warning that the drive is in the backup list. I don’t pay attention to because I have created a separate drive for the backup files, you do so.

9. Finally, we are done, begin the backup process by clicking on Backup button and take a rest. Certainly, it takes a while but it depends on your files, folders…

Conclusion

So, we did windows server backup successfully and you learned how to backup windows server fully. Don’t worry if you don’t know how to use the backup files means to restore them, We are here to show you. I show how to use them in next articles. For any question about taking a backup, feel free and leave a comment.

See next: How to Backup Active Directory Fully in Windows Server 2016?

Tags backup, server, step by step, windows server, Windows Server 2016

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How to Backup Active Directory Fully in Windows Server 2016?

Post author By Mehdi Karimi
Post date July 1, 2016
1 Comment on How to Backup Active Directory Fully in Windows Server 2016?

Managing network is a critical task in the networking world but not much tough with active directory. The Active Directory was first time introduced in Windows Server 2000 for centralized domain management. Before the active directory, Microsoft had added tools to manage users, computers but they were not as efficient as active directory. The Active Directory Services (AD DS) or directly Active Directory (AD) is the repository of management and information. You can manage and have information of every type of information about users, computers, services. Also, it offers excellent services like load balancing, failover cluster. As much as it’s affected that much, you need just to make it relevant and take care of it means you need to take backup of the active directory if someone accidentally delete something or being hacked. Therefore, if the domain controller stops working, you should be able to restore the data back. Don’t worry, because we have the every solution of your problem, let’s move on and do it now.

Backup Active Directory in Windows Server 2016

The Active directory backup is not much involved. Indeed, you can learn and do it easily.

First of all, you need to install the Windows Backup Server, using Server Manager.

1. Open Server Manager, click on Add roles and features, skip the Welcome page clicking on Next button, then select the server you want to install the backup server on, click on Next button. It is not the role; it is a feature, skip the select Server Roles page. In the feature page, scroll down and check the Windows Server Backup, hit Next!

2. In the Confirm installation selections page, click on Install button. Take a rest, because it takes a while, no reboot is needed.

3. Now on the Server Manager, click on Tools, then click on Windows Server Backup at the end of the list to open the server.

4. Now the server backup is opened, click on backup once. If you like to make a schedule for active directory backup, so click on Backup schedule.

5. Select Different options, click on Next button because Different options are used while we don’t have any schedule for backup.

6. On the Select backup configuration page, two options are available, Full Server and Custom. We just want to take backup of the active directory, so we choose the second option.

7. In the Select items for the backup page, click on Add items button, select system state option and click on Ok button. so you are done here, hit next!

8. It is the time to decide where to restore the backup files, Local drives or shared folder; I choose the local drive.

9. In the Select backup destination page, the place for backup files restoration is specified.

10. We are done, so click on the Backup button, take a rest. Let the server do its work.

Backup Active Directory Fully on Windows Server 2016

Conclusion

Ok, hope it was informative and helpful, to restore the Active Directory backup, follow our next article covering restoring active directory’s backup.

Tags active direcotory, active directory, backup, Backup Active Directory, restore, server, server 2016, windows server

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Configure DNS Server Zones Fully on Windows Server 2016?

Post author By Mehdi Karimi
Post date May 4, 2016
7 Comments on Configure DNS Server Zones Fully on Windows Server 2016?

Configure DNS Server Fully on Windows Server

After installing DNS, of course, you need to configure DNS because it is an important task to make DNS work correctly. DNS stands for Domain Naming System and the goal of DNS is to change name to IP address and and IP address to name like when you open a server or a web page, you enter a name like www.tactig.com, here the DNS server changes the name to the IP and you can visit the web page or get access to server sources. In this article, I show you how to come along to configure DNS Server fully on Windows Server.

Configure DNS Server Fully Step by Step

The DNS configuration is somehow like installing it, means you don’t need to worry or call any administrator to do it because you can do it along by this article, let’s move towards it.

1. When the DNS Server role installed, open the Server Manager window, click on tools tab that the dropdown menu appears and click on the DNS icon to open the DNS. Here I have named my server tactig-dc01.

2. At the first, what we need to do is creating a zone, it is a part of a DNS that the records are restored, for that purpose right click on your computer DNS server name and click on the New zone.

3. Skip the welcome page and on the next page, you’ll see three kinds of zone available.

Primary zone: is rewritten zone that is not copied from somewhere.
Secondary zone: is the copy of another zone, when you create a secondary zone you should copy the records from another source.
Stub zone: is providing information whatever server holds a special zone. We want to create a primary zone, then click on that then hit Next.

4. In the next page, you will be asked about replication method.

The first option, (To all DNS servers running on domain controller in this forest: <domain name> is used when you want to replicate with the domains and subdomains in the forest but that increases the network traffic.
The second option, (To all DNS servers running on domain controllers in the domain: <domain name> is used when you want you DNS server replicate with all DNS servers in in your own domain.
The third option, (To all domain controllers in this domain (for Windows 2000 compatibility): <domain name> is used when you want your server replicate with only domain controllers in your own domain. Select the 2nd option. Hit Next.

5. In the forward or reverse lookup zone page, select Forward lookup zone. The Forward lookup zone translates DNS name to IP address and the 2nd option, Reverse lookup zone translates IP to DNS name, just select Forward lookup zone then hit Next, we will configure the Reverse lookup zone later.

6. Specify a name for the zone then click on the Next button.

7. How do you want your zone contents update mode? The recommended option is Allow only secure updates. This option helps you DNS server not to be affected by spywares and viruses, select the first option and hit Next.

8. After continuing, your primary zone is created, just click on the Finish button to start working it.

Now the zone has created successfully but the DNS configuration is not done fully yet and the secondary zone as mentioned before is copy of another zone. It means you should copy the contents from somewhere else. Now I want to show you how to create a secondary zone. You need one another server, DNS server installed on. I name the new DNS server: tactig-dns02. The new server that we try to use as a second DNS server should be member of the Active Directory Directory Services. You can do that. If not read the articles about in this website.

1. Now we’ll work on tactig-dns02 server, open the DNS Manager tool and right-click on the Forward lookup zone, click on the New zone then skip the welcome page by hitting Next. In the Zone Type page, select the Secondary zone.

2. In the forward or reverse lookup zone page, select the Forward lookup zone option. It changes the DNS names to IP address. Then click on Next button.

3. Specify a name for the zone. Enter name of a zone that you’ve created before as a primary zone. Here you will have copy of the primary zone as a secondary zone.

4. In the Master DNS Servers page, you need to specify the master server. The Master server is the server that you’ve a zone out there and you want to copy its contents in your new secondary zone. Enter the master server’s IP address and the IP will be resolved. If the IP is correct, a green check mark will appear next to the IP address box then click on Next button.

5. When the Secondary zone is created, just click on the Finish button.

6. Now click on the new zone you just created, you’ll see the Red x means no content is present and not working properly as mentioned before you should copy the contents from somewhere else.

7. Go back to tactig-dns01 server, expand the Forward lookup zone mode and right-click on the zone that you want to get a copy from then select Properties.

8. Here select the Name Servers tab and add the server that you’ve installed the secondary zone on, here. When you add the name in the list you can copy the contents. For the purpose click on the Add button.

9. Type the server’s fully qualified domain name (FQDN) in the box as shown and below that box, enter the server’s IP address. When you resolve the server a message appears, don’t be worried because the message tells you that your server is not authoritative for the zone that’s what we know that. We just we want to make a copy of the zone and click on OK button.

10. Now come back to tactig-dns02 server, right-click on the zone you created and select Transfer from Master.

11. Refresh the page clicking on the Refresh button and you’ll see all the records you could see in tactig-dns01 server zone, now the secondary zone is created and configured properly.

Another next important point for the DNS configuration is that you should learn what is Reverse Lookup Zone. The Reverse Lookup Zone do opposite to what Forward Lookup Zone does means It change IP address to DNS name, when you’ve or give an IP address, it gives you the DNS name. For doing this, we need just one DNS server and I’ll use my root DNS server (tactig-dns01).

1. It is created the same as primary and secondary zones so expand the server name and right-click on the Forward Lookup Zone then select New Zone. When the page appears, skip the welcome page and select Primary zone then hit Next, leave the next step as default and hit Next. Here Select IPv4 Reverse Lookup Zone or IPv6 reverse lookup zone then hit Next, we use IPv4 version in our networks so you can choose the one you want to use.

2. At this point, the Network ID is needed for the zone, specify the Network ID then hit Next ( The Network ID is your network’s IP address.

3. Select the Allow only secure dynamic update option and click on Next button then finish the wizard to completely finish the configuration.

4. Run PowerShell as administrator. Type this command: ipconfig /registerdns. Press Enter button.

5. Refresh the Forward Reverse Zone node, you will see that an IP address is added there and you are done!

Conclusion: The DNS configuration is completely done. Yes, this was the basic configuration of DNS and the Advanced configuration of the DNS is more complicated, Practice till the time you feel you’ve already learned the configuration. For any further question leave a comment below.

Tags DNS, MCSA, Servers, windows server, Windows Server 2016

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Install DNS Server on Windows Server 2016 fully step by step

Post author By Mehdi Karimi
Post date May 2, 2016
2 Comments on Install DNS Server on Windows Server 2016 fully step by step

Windows Server

When you install windows server it is just a box, nothing it there like services, if you want to use the services you should install and configure the services when you need them. The DNS stands for Domain Name System. When you create an account on a server or domain controller, your computer, and server communicates with each other by their IP addresses; you can’t remember a lot of IP addresses. Here the DNS comes to action. It means it changes the IP address to the name and name to the IP address. When you type a server name like tactig-dc01, it changes the name to IP:192.168.10.1 and vice versa. In this article, you’ll learn how to install DNS on Windows server 2016 server graphically and through PowerShell.

Topics covered in this article:

Install DNS server graphically
Install DNS server through PowerShell

Install DNS Server Graphically

1. In order to open Server Manager, press the Start Menu button; click on the Server Manager icon.

2. When the Server Manager opened, click on the Add roles and features option.

3. Skip the Before you begin page clicking on Next button. In the Select installation type page, just let Role-based or featured-based installation option selected. Click on Next button.

Role-based or feature-based installation

4. In the Select server destination server page, select the Select the server from server pool. Select the server from server pool which you want to install the DNS role on. Click on Next button.

5. Select the DNS from roles. A page will open that wants you to give permission to install management tools for DNS server. Click on Add features button. At the end click on Next button.

6. Here on the Select feature page, no feature is needed to be installed. So just hit Next. On the DNS Server page you can read some important information about the DNS server and hit Next button. Click on the Install button to install the role on the server. Be patient; it will take some time.

No reboot is needed after the role installation. So directly go toward configuring DNS server.

Install DNS server through PowerShell

You easily can install DNS server through PowerShell. If you’re preparing for MCSA or MCSE certifications, make sure that you learn this easy command line: Install-WindowsFeature DNS -IncludeManagementTools.

Install-WindowsFeature is PowerShell command which is used for installing Windows server roles and feature. After that type name of the role, in this case DNS. Install-WindowsFeature DNS command installs the core services for the DNS. You need to install the management tools. For the purpose type -IcludeManagementTools for adding management tools to the core services.

Maybe it looks scary to install DNS server through PowerShell, but is really easy. PowerShell makes your life easy.

Conclusion

The DNS server is now installed and ready for configuration, no reboot is needed. To configure it check out the below article and read it out. For any question, feel free and leave a comment. I would answer your questions as soon as possible. As well as, don’t forget to configure it to start and let it work otherwise you can’t.

We are done with the installation of DNS role. It is the time to move on and configure the DNS server and use the services.

Don’t Forget: Configure DNS Server Fully on Windows Server 2016?

The best way to learn is practice. Don’t forget to do it till the time that you feel you’ve completely learned.

Tags DNS, DNS Server, server 2016, Servers, windows server, Windows Server 2016

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Install Windows Server 2016 Step by Step

Post author By Mehdi Karimi
Post date April 27, 2016
7 Comments on Install Windows Server 2016 Step by Step

Install Windows Server 2016

Windows Windows Server 2016 installation is one of the key tasks in the network. As an administrator you should know how to install and configure Windows server. To start administrating your network, surely you first need to install Windows server and configure it. Before installing Windows server make a plan for the installation. Surely you can plug installation media (DVD, USB flash, etc) to the server and click on next button several times. Then you’re done and Windows server is installed. But that doesn’t work surely.

Make a plan

Choose an appropriate edition of the Windows server. An edition of Windows server supports specific role/roles that others doesn’t support. Think of your present needs and what you may need in the future. How many virtual machines (VM) do you need? How many VMs you may need in the future? Does your network need Web server now? What about the future? How many users work in your network? They are all the things that you should pay attention to while making a good plan for Windows server installation.

If you work on your personal lab, click on the link below to learn how to install Windows server 2016 on VMware Workstation.

Install Windows Server 2016 on VMware Step by Step

Install Windows Server 2016 Step by Step Guide

Prepare the installation media (DVD, USB flash, etc) and start the installation process. If you don’t have the Windows Server 2016 installation software, click here and download the software from Microsoft website.

1. Plug the Windows Server 2016 boot drive (DVD, USB) to the computer and boot your computer. When the Windows Setup page appears, select your language, time format and keyboard then click on Next button.

2. Now click on Install now button to start the installation process.

3. Select the appropriate version of the windows server that meets your organization’s needs then click Next. Make sure that you’ve chosen an appropriate edition of Windows server.

Select the operating system you want to istall

4. Put a check mark in the box next to the I accept license terms and click on the Next button. License term is about the way you want to buy license for your server from Microsoft.

5. Select the Custom: Install Windows only (advanced) option for clean installation. Clean installation is the term used against upgrade. When you upgrade a Windows server you can have your settings, apps, etc from previous version of Windows. When you do the clean installation you can’t have the settings, apps, etc.

6. Select the hard drive that you want to install the windows server on, then click on the New button to do the partitions.

7. After clicking on the New button, some options appear. Specify the amount of the drive based on MB and click on the Apply button. A warning appears which wants you to give the permission to system to create a drive for system files. Click on ok button, if you want to add more drives do this process again. When finished hit Next.

8. After clicking Next the System starts coping all the files from the external drive to internal hard drive. It will take a while so be patient. Be aware that your system will be restarted several times.

Files copy — Copying files on machine’s hard drive

9. When the system copied all the files and restarted, finalize your task by entering the required details. Type complex password (composed of uppercase, lowercase, symbol and numbers) twice in the boxes and click on the Finish button. User name is Administrator by default.

10. Press Ctrl+Alt+Del buttons to jump start the screen to a login page and inside the box below the administrator user name, enter the password and press Enter button from the keyboard to sign in the Windows.

11. After you logged in the Windows you see the some thing like the picture below. Welcome to Windows Server 2016.

Conclusion

Finally, we’ve installed the Windows Server 2016 successfully and is ready to work. When Windows installed you can’t go back and for example change the edition. If so, do the clean installation again. For any question leave a comment below. I answer your questions as soon as possible.

Now you need to initially configure Windows Server. Click on the link below to learn how to do the initial configurations.

Install Active Directory on Windows Server 2016 step by step

Tags Install Server, Install Windows Server, windows server, Windows Server 2016, Windows Server installation

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Install Active Directory on Windows Server 2016 step by step

Post author By Mehdi Karimi
Post date April 11, 2016
3 Comments on Install Active Directory on Windows Server 2016 step by step

Install Active Directory on Windows Server

Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) is the center for management tasks (Users, Groups, Computers, Organizational Units, Schema) in Windows networks. You can manage the network by AD DS easily. Imagine if you were a network administrator. You could create user accounts and gave them access to special files manually. It was practical if you were engaged with less than 50 users and computers. If you were engaged with 12000 users and computers, what did you do? You can do the complete the task with AD DS easily. You create a group and add user accounts as members and define to which files the group access by installing Active Directory to manage the network easily. It is a simple task that you can do in Windows network using AD DS.

You can find every kind of information about the users, computers, hardware, software and etc in the Active Directory Domain Services. Windows Server 2016 is the latest version of Windows Server and in this article I show you how to install active directory.

Install AD DS Graphically

Follow the steps below to install Active Directory Domain Services on Windows Server 2016.

1. Press the Start Menu button and click on the Server Manager icon which is the management tool in Windows Server 2016.

2. Active Directory Domain Services is a Windows Server role. Click on Add Roles and features option to install the role.

3. In the Before you begin you have nothing to do. Click on Next button. In the Select Installation Type page, Select the Role-based or Feature-based Installation option. Click Next on button.

4. Let the Select a server from the server pool option selected. Specify the server that you want to install the role on, from the Server Pool. Click on Next button.

5. Select the Active Directory Domain Services role. A new windows opens and ask you to install management tools. Installing AD DS role, you just install the core services. Click on Add Features button to install management tools. then click on Next button.

6. In the Feature page, you got nothing to do. Just click on Next button. In the Active Directory Domain Services page you can read some information about AD DS. Click on Next button to move in the next page.

7. At the last step of the Active Directory installation is the confirmation of the selections. So confirm the selection by clicking on the install button. After the installation of the role, the server needs to be rebooted. You can restart it manually or let the system decide by putting the mark on Restart the destination server automatically if required option. Click on Install button to start the installation.

Install AD DS though PowerShell

You can install AD DS through PowerShell. You need to run Install-WindowsFeature cmdlet. This cmdlet helps you to install roles and featues on Windows Server. After that, you need to type name of the feature you want to install. Type AD-Domain-Services for installing AD DS role.

Complete cmdlet: Install-WindowsFeature AD-Domain-Services

After typing the cmdlet press the Enter button.

Conclusion

While server rebooted, log in to server with your domain account. Default user name is Administrator. After that you can do post-installation configurations to promote this server to domain controller.

For any kind of question feel free and leave a comment below.

Watch out: Promote Windows Server 2016 to Domain Controller step by step

Tags active directory, Active Directory Domain Services, AD DS, Servers, windows server, Windows Server 2016

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How to Add Multiple Servers in Windows Server 2016?

Post author By Karar
Post date February 21, 2016
No Comments on How to Add Multiple Servers in Windows Server 2016?

Add multiple Servers in Windows Server

While managing your server and configuring it, you can add multiple servers to Server Manager in Windows server 2008, 2012 or 2016. When added you can receive online or offline status and create group based on their functions, location or any other organizational paradigm. Therefore, you can configure them fully from Server Manager like: adding roles and features to them or do other configurations. No matter whether you’re using Windows Server 2008, 2012, 2016, this is the first step to In this article, we will discuss on add multiple servers to server manager in windows server and create groups on their functions. So let’s get started.

Add Multiple Servers to Server Manager

1. Open Server Manager, click on Manage then click Add Servers.

2. When the Add Servers page opened, now choose one of the following methods to add servers.
■ Active Directory: Enables you to search for computers running specific operating
systems in specific locations in an Active Directory Domain Services domain.
■ DNS: Enables you to search for servers in your currently configured Domain Name
System (DNS) server.
■ Import: Enables you to supply a text file containing the names of the servers you
want to add.

To add servers by active directory just click on Find Now and the computers will be found.

When the servers found, just select the server you want to add and click on right arrow button to add them to the list and click Ok.

Now click on All Servers and you will see the servers you’ve added like the shot.

Ok, now here you can manage servers or do any other configurations.

Create Server Group to Manage Servers

Once you’ve added servers to your server, exactly you need to configure or work with them so to avoid long scrolling list of servers you can create server group based on their functions, location or any other organization paradigm.
1. Open Server Manager, click on Manage and select Create Server Group.

2. Now select the servers you want to be in group, if you couldn’t find the server by server pool, select another method to find the servers) and click on right arrow key to add them to the list and click Ok.

After you click ok, the group will be created and shown in the left navigation pane like the shot below.

Add multiple Servers — Server Group Created

Finally, the servers have been successfully added with created group. If you have any questions, suggestion or idea we are ready to accept it.

Tags add multiple server, add server, add servers, How to, windows server

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Installing Roles and Features to VHD in Windows Server 2016

Post author By Karar
Post date January 16, 2016
No Comments on Installing Roles and Features to VHD in Windows Server 2016

Installing Roles and Features to VHD

In addition to installing roles and features to server on a network, Server Manager enables you to install roles and features to VHD without accessing to it in an offline state. By using Server Manager, while installing roles and features you can select a server or either Hyper-V virtual hard disk (VHD) that is already installed windows server 2012 or 2016 to install roles and features or remove roles and features without deploying the VM. As before installing roles and features to VHD, we discussed on what’s VHD and how to create and mount VHD/VHDX, here in this article we will discuss based on installing roles and features to Hyper-V VHD in windows server.

Installing Roles and Features to VHD in Windows Server

1. Open Server Manager, click on Manage then click Add Roles and Features.

2. Now read the information about it and make sure you have done the initial tasks then click Next.

3. At this point, let the installation type by default ( Role-based installation) just click Next.

4. On the server selection page, click Select a virtual hard disk and choose the server that should mount the VHD file then click browse and select the VHD that is already installed windows server 2012 or 2016. By selecting the VHD, the Server Manager will mount it and check which roles and features are installed already.

Note: If you’re selecting a VHD file from a network, you must have full control to the VHD.

5. Here, select the roles you want to install or just click Next to continue to features page.

6. Now mark the features you want to install then click Next.

7. The roles and features have added, just click Install to begin the installation.

8. When the installation completed, click Close to dismount the VHD and close the wizard.

The roles and features installation completed successfully on the VHD like the screenshot above, you can also remove roles and features on a VHD from Server Manger using this method, but just select Remove Roles and Features from first.

That’s all about installing roles and features to VHD in Windows Server 2012 or 2016.

Hope you wouldn’t face a problem, if you faced a problem ask through comment.

Installing Roles & Features to VHD – Video Tutorial

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqBIuduEObc

Tags adding roles, deploy roles, installing roles, roles to vhd, windows server

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How to Create and Mount VHD/VHDX in Windows Server 2016?

Post author By Karar
Post date January 12, 2016
No Comments on How to Create and Mount VHD/VHDX in Windows Server 2016?

VHD created

A VHD (Virtual Hard Disk) is a file format which represent a virtual disk drive. A VHD can be used to store virtual disk data in files that can be easily transferred from one computer to another. It contains what is found on a physical HDDs such as disk partition and file system. Once they are mounted, you can treat them like physical disks and use them to store data, if they’ll be dismounted the stored data is packaged in the VHD/VHDX so you can copy or move it when needed. When moved to another computer, you can mount VHD and copy or move data from it. So let’s get started.

Create VHD/VHDX in Windows Server

Note: You can create and mount VHD/VHDX using this method on Windows Server 2008, 2012, 2016 and Windows clients such as; Windows 8, 10

Before getting started, plan which drive to use for VHD and VHD size.

1. Open Run(win+r) and type Diskmgmt.msc then hit enter. When the Disk Management opened, click on Action and select Create VHD.

2. Now browse the location you want to locate the VHD and then select a VHD format. Wherever the VHD locates it will take drive space from that drive.

VHD:- The original and more compatible Supports virtual disks up to 2040 GB

VHDX: A new version of the format which supports up to 64 TB but can be read only by computers running windows server 2012 and 2012 R2.

When VHD format selected, select virtual hard disk type from the following and click Ok.

Fixed Size (Recommended): Allocates all the disk space for the VHD/VHDX file at once.

Dynamically Expanding: Allocates disk space to the VHD/VHDX file as you add data to the virtual hard disk.

Ok, when the settings finished click OK and wait some minutes to let the system create the VHD.

Create a Simple Volume to Mount VHD

When the VHD/VHDX created, now mount VHD to make useable store files in it.

1. After the VHD created, it will be uninitialized and offline in disk management console, to mount it: Open Disk Managment and the Initialize Disk window will automatically appear, select a partition style for the disk and click Ok.

Master boot record (MBR) disks use the standard BIOS partition table and can be booted for installing operating system also it can be recognized by previous versions of windows.

GUID partition table (GPT) disks use unified extensible firmware interface (UEFI). One advantage of GPT disks is that you can have more than four partitions on each disk. GPT is also required for disks larger than 2 terabytes. It can’t be recognized by all previous versions of windows.

2. At this point, right click on the disk and choose New Simple Volume, when the volume wizard opened just click Next to continue.

3. Choose a volume size for the virtual disk and click Next.

4. Now assign the folder drive letter and click Next.

5. Here you’ve to choose volume format settings like format file system, Allocation unit size, Volume Label/Name and click Next to complete the volume creating settings.

6. Review all the settings and click Finish to create a volume successfully and mount the VHD.

The volume has created successfully, now you can store data and copy or move it.

Create and mount VHD in Windows Server 2016 — VHD created

To copy or move the VHD first detach it in your computer from disk management then copy or move it to another place and attach it again to that computer, to detach; Open disk management and click on Action and select detach VHD.

When the Attach virtual hard disk opened, browse the VHD location from your computer and click ok. It will detach the VHD successfully with the data in it.

That’s it. If you’ve any question regarding this ask now through comment.

Create and Mount VHD/VHDX -Video Tutorial

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WldUl5_h7ak

Tags VHD, VHDX, windows server