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COMP1321 Session 19 Practical:

Servers & Virtualisation

There are two essential modes for Windows servers: “servers” or “domain controllers”. The latter have active directory structures, and can share their contents.

Windows Servers have evolved from NT v4 to Windows 2000, 2003, 2008, 2012 and 2016. More features were included with each iteration, and Active Directory in the Windows 2016 version is massive. However, we’ll only be using it in “server” mode. For example, here were the changes between 2003 and 2008:

User account control

Protection against accidental or malicious tampering because user doesn’t have enough privileges. e.g. shell (ie command prompt) commands that don’t, by default, run in administrator mode

PowerShell

Powerful command line scripting interface for the administrator

Server Core

Option with less graphics, enhanced security…

Hyper-V

One completely new featurein 2008 that proved to be very useful wasHyper-V(iser). This is Microsoft’s “Virtual Server” Platform.Using Hyper-V, it is possible to run a number of different operating systems simultaneously on the same basic platform. It can also be used on top of the Windows 10 Desktop platform.

Prac 19(a): Downloading Windows 2016 Server

  1. Access Software Store (university website, student home page)
  1. Purchase a (free) copy of Windows Server 2016 Standardedition.
  • You will need to keep a record of the product key for installation and activation. This is provided in a confirmation web page, which you should copy and save (right-click, ‘save page as’).
  • Note that Server 2016 is just under 5.5 GB andthe download is called an ISO file (extension .iso). This effectively means the contents of a DVD.
  • Don’t save on the hard drive of a student machine, because you will lose the files when you log off.
  • Saving somewhere in the cloud (e.g. OneDrive) might be your best option. Download time depends on the speed of your connection, but will probably take 10 -15 minutes for each one on the University’s hard-wired network.

Where are you going to store your .iso files?
Where are you going to store your confirmation e-mails with the product keys?
  1. Think about your options for storing your virtual machines once you have created them. It might be the same place as your ISO files, but the files for the virtual machines are even larger than the ISO files (allow 50 GB each to start with!).
  • If you use a cloud provider… make sure the file size is allowed…
  • If using an external drive (USB stick not large enough!), the running speed of the virtual machines from the drive isn’t affected too much by the USB connection unless you are doing massive data-intensive operations.
  • Transferring the virtual machine files between an external drive and the desktop to enhance performance isn’t worth the bother – it takes ~15 minutes (usb2) or 5 minutes (usb3).But it may be useful for backup at the end. Think about it… all of it.

Where are you going to store your virtual machines?

Prac 19(b): InstallingWindows 2016 Server on a Hyper-V Virtual Platform

Phase 1: Setting up Hyper-V and a Virtual Machine

Hyper-V allows you to run a virtual machine within a Windows computer. In this case, we are using Windows 10 as the host operating system, to run a virtual instance of Windows Server 2016. This should behave in exactly the same way as a real Windows Server 2016 machine.

  1. Open Hyper-V by going to ‘Windows Administrative Tools’, ‘Hyper-V Manager’.(Note: Hyper-V is NOT available in Windows Home)
  1. Start Hyper-V Manager, and click on the available computer name (CH1001-xx).
  1. Click on ‘Import Virtual machine’.
  1. Now, having planned what you are going to do with it, download Windows 2016 Server from the university’s Softwarestore and follow instructions to complete the installation.
  1. Navigate to your virtual machine, and import it.
  1. Start your virtual machine: select your machine in the ‘Virtual Machines’ window; go to ‘Action’, ‘Start’.
  1. Log on (remember you are in a Hyper-V virtual machine, so you need to use ctrl-alt-end when it asks you for ctrl-alt-delete). You should get a setup screen (it may take a few moments to appear).
  1. It may ask for updates. If it does, have a look at them, but close the window without installing. We’ll do this later!
  1. If you lose the Server Manager, (or if it doesn’t appear), you can retrieve it by going to the start menu, and selecting ‘Server Manager’.
  1. Click on ‘Configure this local server’.
  1. In the ‘Properties’ window, note that your computer has a name – replace it with something with a more meaningful description. As with the name of the virtual machine, choose something that tells you about the machine. This won’t change what appears in the ‘Properties’ window, but when you come to look for it on a network, it will be more easily identifiable.
  1. Look at the update settings (click on the current update settings). Try to check for updates. Why won’t it work? (Hint: Look at the Ethernet (network) setting.)

Why won’t the update work? (Hint: Look at the Ethernet (network) setting.) / Write your answer here

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  1. As you scroll down the ‘local server’ window, look at the ‘Services’. Several are available and some are already running. Ditto with ‘Roles and Features’
  1. Go to Start → Settings (the cogwheel icon) → Time & language.
  1. Are the time settings accurate? Change the display if you don’t like it.
  2. Are you in the correct time zone? Correct it if necessary.

Why is it important that servers (and clients) have an accurate clock? / Write your answer here

Scroll down to ‘Related Settings’, and click on ‘Additional date, time and regional settings’. Under ‘Date and Time’, select ‘set the time and date’, and then select the ‘Internet Time’ tab.

Which time server does your computer link to? Has it managed to do this? Why not? / Write your answer here
  1. Look at the ‘region and language’ settings.

What region are you in?
What language is your server using?
  1. Change them if you don’t like them.
  1. The setup can’t progress further at the moment due to the lack of an Internet connection. Our virtual machine is acting in total isolation. To connect it to the Internet we need an external switch.

Prac 19(c): Hyper-V Switches

  1. Start Hyper-V Manager.
  2. Go to ‘Action’, ‘Virtual Switch Manager’.
  3. There are three types of switch available: highlight each in turn to see their descriptions under the ‘type of virtual switch’ window.

Under what circumstances might each type of switch be useful?
  1. Select an external virtual switch, and click on ‘Create Virtual Switch’.
  2. Give your switch a name – Switch 1?
  3. Ensure that your switch connects to the local hard-wired network card, and click on ‘Apply’. If you get a ‘potential problem’ dialogue box, just continue with the operation…
  4. Click on ‘OK’ to exit the Virtual Switch Manager.
  5. Import one of your virtual machines (‘Action’, ‘Import Virtual Machine’, and follow the wizard). If all is well your virtual machine should appear in your Hyper-V Manager.
  6. Select your virtual machine (but DON’T start it just yet), then go to ‘Action’, ‘Settings’.
  1. Select the network adapter, and connect it to your switch. Click on ‘Apply’, then ‘OK’ to close the window.
  1. Now, start your virtual machine…
  1. In your virtual machine, start a browser (Microsoft Edge)…and check that your VM can now connect through the switch to the Internet. You may have to tell it to trust several of the pages you visit…
  1. If you don’t like Edge, download a different browser and install it.
  1. Download and install any updates that are available for your server. (It may have been doing this in the background…but updates will probably prompt you before it actually installs). The update process can take quite a lot of time. You shoiuld let it run, and come back, if necessary.

Why are the default security settings on a server even more important to protect than on a normal OS?
  1. Log off. Be aware that when you exit Hyper-V, switches are not always preserved – you may have to recreate them every session.

Prac 19(d): Features of Windows 2016 Server

  1. Log on again.
  1. Get your virtual Machine running.
  1. In your Server, start a command line interface (CLI).
  1. In the command line window, type ‘ipconfig’. This should give you something like this:

This gives you the IP addresses (version 4 and version 6) and the IPv4 address of the default gateway (the machine in the local LAN that also has a connection to the Internet).

  1. If you type ‘ipconfig/all’ into the command line interface, you get a whole lot more information. Record the data as follows (you can go back later to record data for the other guest):

Host / Server 2016 guest
IPv4 address
Subnet mask
Default gateway
DHCP server
DNS servers
IPv6 address
MAC (physical) address
Are your machines on the same subnet? / Insert your answers here
How do you know this?
  1. DNS is ‘Domain Name System’, a decentralised database used for translating domain names (e.g. worc.ac.uk) into IP addresses.

DHCP is ‘Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol’, which allocates IP addresses to machines connected to a network. If a computer can’t connect to a DHCP server, it won’t have an IP address.

Do your real and virtual machines use the same DNS servers?
Do your real and virtual machines use the same DHCP servers?
If there are differences, is this a problem?
  1. Use an IP geolocation service on the Internet to find the geographical location of the IP addresses of your machines. I recommend (which gives good results for both IPv4 and IPv6) and because it has a particularly useful article that pops up when you enter your address (even though it doesn’t handle IPv6 addresses very well).

Machine / Location of IP address
Host
Server 2016
  1. ‘Ping’ is a utility that sends a message to another computer, which then responds by echoing the message (sending a message with the same payload). It is used to test whether a host is available, and it also measures the round-trip time. It can be used with either IPv4 or IPv6 addresses. The format is

ping 192.168.72.5

where the IP address used is (in this case) 192.168.72.5

Use the command line window in your host machine to ping itself.

What is the average response time?

Use the command line window in your guest machine to ping itself.

What is the average response time?

Use the command line window in your host machine to ping the guest.

What is the average response time?

Use the command line window in your guest machine to ping the host.

What is the average response time?

Do you get the same sort of results when using IPv6?

Why have the server operating systems been set up to ignore ping requests? (Why is ‘ping’ disabled by default?)
  1. Use the Internet to find out how to enable ping on Server 2016. Enable ping for both IPv4 and IPv6 on your server machine. You should now be able to ping your server machine from the host. Try it.

Can you ping the host machines of other students?
Can you ping the virtual machines of other students?
If you can do this, what does this tell you about the local network, and the way that virtual machines link to it?
  1. When you finish, after you have closed down Hyper-V, but before you log off or switch off the hardware, make sure that the physical network adapter has been reset to its original state, i.e. in the network settings*, everything selected EXCEPT ‘Microsoft Network Adapter Multiplexor Protocol’ and ‘Hyper-V Extensible Virtual Switch’. This is particularly important if the networking icon (bottom right of the screen) shows a red cross, indicating that it has been disabled.

*Network settings can be accessed through Start – Settings (cogwheel icon) – Network and Internet – Status – change adapter options – right-click on icon and select ‘properties’.

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