get dell serial number from cmd prompt

wmic bios get serialnumber

some settings are managed by your system administrator

I wanted to manually do windows updates on a test server. However after removing the server from group policy and doing a gpupdate /force and a reboot the server still wouldn't let me do windows updates as local or domain admin. After trying a bunch of stuff I finally got it working with these settings.

Start -> Run -> gpedit.msc

Computer configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> Windows Update
Configure Automatic updates
Choose enabled
Choose option 5 - Allow local admin to choose setting

User configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> Windows Update
Remove access to use all Windows Update features
Choose Disabled

Base software to install on windows servers

Latest version of powershell and powershell ISE
http://windirstat.info/ - Disk usage report
http://www.7-zip.org/ - Opens lots of archives
http://www.wireshark.org/ - Network traffic capture
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb842062 - Sysinternals Suite lots of very useful tools
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc771275(v=ws.10).aspx - Telnet client
Your backup or monitoring agent if required
Your AV solution
Configure NTP
Configure Logging
Right click -> Computer -> Properties -> Advanced -> Startup and Recovery -> Settings -> Kernel memory dump

http://getgreenshot.org/ - screenshots

http://www.nirsoft.net/ - suite of tools bluescreen view being popular

RSAT - remote admin tools for windows server etc (install and then appwiz to add them)
ASDM - for Cisco
filezilla - transfering files
foxit reader - PDF
google chrome - web browser
java - required for asdm and maybe other aps
mRemoteNG - saving connections, ssh rdp, vnc, webpage external app
remote desktop connection manager (might not be needed if you have above)
keepass - password store
zenmap - gui for nmap

portqueryui - good for checking open ports and a nice screenshot

openssl (sclient) W32openssl

openssl s_client -connect www.google.com:443

openssl can convert certs too

sublime text or notepad++
sublimetext editor
winscp
grep for windows
dig for windows
my traceroute (https://winmtr.en.uptodown.com/windows)

sysinternals suite 

maybe microsoft powertoys for admins

psexec can be replaced by powershell PSSessions or Invoke-command. Psexec is still great because it runs locally on the target system. Can run as local system account.

NTRadping - Radius testing
https://community.microfocus.com/t5/OES-Tips-Information/NTRadPing-1-5-RADIUS-Test-Utility/ta-p/1777768

How much RAM should I give my domain controller ?

I recommend installing physical and virtual DC’s. The virtual DC’s should have the same resources as the physical DC’s. This is in case your physical DC’s fail and your virtual DC’s have to take over. Remember if you use virtual DC's time sync is really important so make sure you have NTP setup.

This documentation from Microsoft states that calculating the RAM requirements for a domain controller is complex because it will automatically adjust if it doesn’t have the required resources. However they recommend a basic plan to calculate the required RAM for domain controllers based on the following variables:

Base OS RAM requirement + NTDS.dit size + SYSVOL size + Windows applications + 3^rd Party applications

NTDS.dit file is in C:\windows\system32
SYSVOL can be found by going to start -> run \\domain.local\SYSVOL

Have a look at the appwiz.cpl (installed applications), services.msc (that are started), the scheduled tasks and the process currently running on the system. Also look at users logged in by RDP do they leave MMC's open often ? You can visit 3rd party vendor sites or contact the support for the RAM requirements.

Once you have done your calculation round up to allow for some wiggle room. If your calculation comes out as 3.5 GB, round that up to 4 or 6 GB.

Sample calculation:
Base OS requirment - Windows Sever 2008 R2: 2 GB
NTDS.dit: 1 GB
SYSVOL: 1GB
Windows apps: 1 GB
3rd party aps: 1 GB

Total: 6GB

Turing off internet explorer "enhanced" security on a test server 2008

http://4sysops.com/archives/how-to-disable-internet-explorer-enhanced-security-configuration-ie-esc-in-windows-server-2008/

issues installing from ISO in hyper v or vmware

I was setting up a test enviornment on a laptop using Windows Server 2008 R2 with Hyper-v. I started up hyper v and attempted to install server 2008 R2 from an ISO that I had downloaded from the microsoft partner site. I got the following error during windows setup:

"A required CD/DVD drive device driver is missing.  If you have a driver floppy disk, CD, DVD, or USB flash drive, please insert it now."

A lot of people on forums are getting this issue and there are a few causes and solutions. I first assumed I was missing some disk controller drivers so I downloaded the WinPE driver pack from the dell site which should have all the drivers required for my laptop. Guess what, that didn't work. I found this post on MS forums but that didn't help either. Some people online said they had success with downloading their ISO again, this didn't work for me in this case.


I also have experienced this issue with vmware as well and that time with vmware, the issue was with the ISO file. Some proxy servers store files in a cache so they don't have download them each time. Some times files get truncated or cut short. Download your ISO again and use an md5 checksum and file size to check that it is correct. Alternatively download the ISO with a direct internet connection (like a home connection) and a download manager do the m5d checksum if you can.

I solved my hyperv issue by burning the ISO to DVD, inserting it into my laptops DVD drive and then I installed my VM using the physical DVD drive. This isn't going to work for anyone who's virtual host is in a data centre 15 miles away.

I attempted to install a windows 7 client with another ISO from the partner site and I got the same issue. I found that for some reason in the hyper v settings of the VM that I had an IDE controller for the virtual hard disk and I also had a SCSI Controller. I removed the SCSI controller from the settings in hyper v and I was able to install the OS from the ISO file in hyper v.