A Quick view on Dynamic Access Control in Server 8

Hi Guys,

This is a great video which gets Dynamic Access Control in a nutshell. Pretty impressive feature which gets file classification to the next level where the files gets classified depending on the contents!! and isolating the location of the file from classification equation making the life easier for users as well as administrators leveraging centralized management capabilities of the AD!!!

Check the video!

Windows Server 2012 installation Options

Hello mates,  in this post, we will be looking into the installation options of windows server 2012. Server core and full scale installation was available to us since server 2008. But with Sever 2012, the ability to change between the core and full installation and vice-versa without a reinstallation was made available.

Why to and fro?
As we all know, installing the server core reduces attack surface and increase the performance of the box. But with the command prompt available as the only interface for the server, sometimes it can be a cumbersome process to make configurations and so on. With the options available to switch between the core and full installation, GUI becomes a complete toolkit to be used only when needed. 

All right! we start with a Full installation.

Open up a PowerShell console and  type the following command.

uninstall-windowsfeature Server-gui-mgmt-infra –restart

the uninstallation of the GUI will then begin..

Upon the reboot, you may notice the avatar has gone!

When you log in, a command prompt window will greet you. you may use command prompt, windows PowerShell and Remote Server Administration Toolkit to manage and make further configurations.

To revert back to the GUI fire up powershell and enter the following command.

INstall-windowsfeature server-gui-mgmt-infra,server-gui-shell –restart

GUI installation will then start and upon completion the server will reboot. Note the the avatar back in the log in screen. Full version of the server will be available without any issue.

Apart form this, “Minimal Server interface” is also available, which is similar to the full installation but without Internet Explorer, Windows Explorer, Desktop and start screen. Microsoft Management Console (MMC), Server Manager, and a subset of Control Panel are still present.

Starting with a Server with a GUI installation, you can convert to the Minimal Server Interface at any time using Server Manager.

Go to server manager> manage> remove roles and features and untick server graphical shell.

 

Apart from this check this technet article to find details on features on demand and converting an installation to Full version which was installed initially as Server Core.