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What Are the Best Practices to Set up Windows Server 2012 after Installation? Part 02

This Tutorial addresses:
  • Windows Server
  • Computers
After considering the points discussed in the first part (Part 01) of this tutorial series, you can now follow the steps given below to configure the Windows Server 2012 accordingly.

Assuming that the Windows Server 2012 is successfully installed on the computer, and you are logged on with the default Administrator account for the first time:

  1. On the opened Server Manager window, from the left pane, click to select the Local Server category.

  2. From the right pane, under the Properties section, click the name of the computer displayed next to the Computer name field.



  3. On the opened System Properties box, ensure that you are on the Computer Name tab.

  4. Click the Change button.



  5. On the opened Computer Name/Domain Changes box, under the Computer name field, type the new computer name as per the planned naming convention.



  6. Click OK when done, and then click OK again on the prompted information box.

  7. Back on the System Properties box, go to the Remote tab.

  8. On the displayed interface, under the Remote Desktop section, click to select the Allow remote connections to this computer radio button.

  9. On the displayed warning box, click OK.

  10. Optionally you can also leave the Allow connections from computers running Remote Desktop with Network Level Authentication (recommended) checkbox checked in case you are sure that all the computers in your network would have Windows Vista or above operating systems. If you plan to have Windows XP or earlier versions of operating systems in the organization as well, and you want to use them to access this server via Remote Desktop, you must uncheck the checkbox in order to allow the Windows Server 2012 to accept the Remote Desktop connections from those operating systems too.



  11. Once this is done, click Close to save the changes.

  12. On the displayed confirmation box, click Restart Later. (You can restart the computer at this point but it is a good idea to restart it after all basic configurations are done.).

  13. From the Server Manager window, under the Properties section, click the IPv4 address assigned by DHCP, IPv6 enabled option.

  14. On the opened Network Connections window, right-click the network interface card (NIC) icon that is connected to the network.

  15. From the displayed list, go to the Properties option.



  16. On the opened properties box, from the displayed list, double-click the Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) option.



  17. On the opened Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) Properties box, click to select the
    Use the following IP address radio button.

  18. Populate the enabled IP address and Subnet mask, and optionally the Default gateway fields with the appropriate information as per the planned IP addressing scheme.

  19. If you already have a DNS server in the network, populate the Primary DNS server field with its IP address. (In most cases, or if you are installing the very first domain controller in your network, it is likely that no DNS server would be available. If you plan to install the DNS server: on the Active Directory domain controller (this server) itself, you can populate this field with the same IP address that you have assigned to the server.).



  20. Click OK when done.

  21. Back on the NIC properties box, click OK again to save the changes. (Optionally, you can also uncheck the Internet Protocol Version 6 (TCP/IPv6) checkbox in order to avoid additional processing and memory consumption before clicking OK.).

  22. Finally close the Network Connections window as well.

  23. Back on the Server Manager window, verify if the time zone is correct, and if it is not, click the time zone.

  24. On the opened Date and Time box, ensure that you are on the Date and Time tab.

  25. Under the Time zone section, click the Change time zone button.



  26. On the opened Time Zone Settings box, choose the appropriate time zone as per your region from the Time zone drop-down list.



  27. Click OK on all the opened boxes to get back to the Server Manager window.

  28. Once everything is done, close the Server Manager window as well and restart the computer in order to allow the changes to take effect.

  29. Wait till the system restarts, and once it does, your copy of Windows Server 2012 it is ready for further configurations and server role installations.

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