Windows 2012R2
Contents |
Setting up Windows Server for the lab environment
If you are going to be supporting a business computing environment you need a computer lab. Mainly because the business environment is fast paced and experimenting on the company’s production machines is very unwise.
The objective of this document is to help you create a functioning Exchange server set for a lab. There are many steps and prerequisites and this should have all of them so you can get a basic system up and running. Hopefully you will learn enough to make creating the production version of these systems go much easier and successfully.
Creating a Computer Lab
For this exercise you will need at least two computers: an Exchange Server and a Retain Server.
You don’t need to spend a lot of money to create a computer lab, and they don’t even need to be real.
I highly recommend Virtual Machines (VMs). The main reason is because you can take snapshots some once you have a working system, you can safely experiment. VMs are very useful in a production environment as well as they make backup and recovery much easier. But that is a different subject.
You can even use a couple of old laptops and an old switch.
Installing Windows Server 2012 R2
As long as your hardware is up to the job the basic install of Windows Server 2012 R2 is straightforward, you put in the disc/iso and let it rip. It's what comes afterwards that is the issue.
Once the server is up and running it will bring you to Server Manager.
Setting up Local Server
Clicking on Local Server is the machine you are on.
From here you can do a few things that are pretty important:
- Set the Computer name (once you start installing software it often does not like changing the computer name. Especially Exchange.)
- Turn off the firewall
- Setting the IP address
- Turning off IE Enhanced Security Configurations
- Setting the Timezone (very important)
- Install latest updates
Changing Password Policy
One of the first things to do is change the password policy so it isn't so onerous.
Search for Edit Group Policy or go to Local Computer Policy/Windows Settings/Security Settings/Account Policies/Password Policy
- Maximum Password age = 0
- Minimum password age = 0
- Minimum password length = 0
- Password must meet complexity requirement = disabled
This is a good place to take a snapshot and a template to use for the Retain Server
