WindowsServer

Server 2012 – Enable DHCP Failover Cluster

Windows Server 2012 introduced a new feature with the DHCP Service: the built-in DHCP Failover Cluster. This function was requested for a long time.

Before Server 2012, if you want to failover your DHCP, two possibilities:

  • Create a real cluster, and add the DHCP role.
  • Split the scope between two servers. With Server 2008, a Wizard simplifies this task.

In Windows Server 2012, it is really simple to add High Availability for DHCP Service. Each server can release lease to client and the information is synchronised between all failover members.

Let’s see how to implement the Failover Configuration:

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SCCM

SCCM 2012 R2 SP1 – How to do a fresh install

As you know, Microsoft released System Center 2012 R2 Configuration Manager SP1 and System Center 2012 Configuration Manager SP2  (SCCM 2012) in the same time. You can read more here.

This release can be confusing for some people because 2012 SP2 and 2012 R2 SP1 binaries are the same. The same .exe or .iso file.

For exemple, when you want to download and install System Center 2012 R2 Configuration Manager SP1 (SCCM 2012 R2 SP1) from scratch, there is no more 2012 R2 SP1 iso. Only 2 files can be downloaded:

  • SC2012_SP2_Configmgr_SCEP.exe (762 MB)
  • SC2012_R2_SP1_Configmgr.exe (1,10 MB)
SCCM 2012 R2 SP1 Download

SCCM 2012 R2 SP1 Download

For migrating or for fresh install, the file to mandatory execute is SC2012_SP2_Configmgr_SCEP.exe. We only use SC2012_R2_SP1_Configmgr.exe when we want to activate R2 features.

Let’s see how to do a fresh installation of System Center 2012 R2 Configuration Manager SP1 (SCCM 2012 R2 SP1)

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WindowsServer

Windows Server – Not display Server Manager

Since Windows Server 2012, Server Manager is displayed when you log in. This can be annoying to close it each time. Hopefully, you can disable this behavior using two solutions:

  • Locally on the server.
  • With GPO.

Local Server Manager

If you want to prevent Server Manager to start automatically:

  • Go to Server Manager, click on Manage and click on Server Manager Properties:
Server Manager Properties

Server Manager Properties

  • Check Do not start Server Manager automatically at logon.
Server Manager not start automatically

Server Manager not start automatically

Group Policy Object

You can also set this option by GPO:

  • Path: Computer/ Administrative Templates / System / Server Manager
  • Setting: Do not display Server Manager automatically at logon
  • Value: Enabled
GPO Server Manager Disabled

GPO Server Manager Disabled

More

You could get more information about Server Manager here.

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Active Directory 2012

Active Directory – Create Fine-grained password

Before Windows Server 2008, there was a limitation about password management: only one password policy and lockout policy could be applied to all users in the domain. Therefore, some organizations created several domains to manage different set of user / password policy.

With Windows Server 2008, Microsoft integrated Fine-Grained password policy. With this object, you can now create multiple password policy in the same domain and assign it to a specific user group. However, there was no built-in GUI to create Fine-Grained policy. We had to use ADSIEdit and Attribute Editor to assign a policy to a user group.

Windows Server 2012 uses Active Directory Administrative Center to give us the possibility to create Fine-Grained policy with a wizard. Let’s see how to do that easier.

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SCCM

SCCM 2012 – Installation with SQL Server 2014

System Center Configuration Manager 2012 R2 now supports SQL Server 2014. But you will have an error during the wizard if you try install SCCM 2012 SP1 /R2 on SQL Server 2014.

Issue

SCCM Installation Wizard checks the version of SQL Server. However, it treats SQL Server 2014 like a version not supported:

The SQL Server srvsql.lab.local is not accessible or its version not supported.

Fix

Microsoft released a patch to correct this problem. KB3020755
The description of the KB is “Restore fails when the site database” but we will copy dll into the Wizard folder.

We need to do 4 steps:

  • Download and extract the KB into a temporary folder.
  • Execute CM12-R2-QFE-KB3020755-X64-ENU-OOB.exe. It will extract 2 files : prereqcore.dll and setupcore.dll
  • Copy these files into the SMSSETUP\BIN\X64\ folder.
  • Exit and restart the installation Wizard.

More

SCCM Team wrote a post on this topic here

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