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Windows Server 2008 Base Server Class Installation Reference

Versions of CA AppLogic® later than 2.9.1 include support for Windows Server 2008 appliances and applications. If you are using such a grid you may follow the instructions in this topic to create Windows Server 2008 base classes. More information about these appliances can be found in the Appliance Catalog Reference Guide.

This example installation is based on a DVD install of Windows Server 2008 Standard Edition without Hyper-V SP2 32-bit. The instructions are general to other editions of Windows Server 2008 and have been tested with:

• This install size may change as Microsoft releases new updates to the operating system.
• The contents of the X:\WINDOWS\SoftwareDistribution\Download folder can be removed if you need to save disk space.

For the example, the ISO image used for the installation has been downloaded from the Microsoft MSDN site and copied to the impex volume of the grid as en_windows_server_2008_datacenter_enterprise_standard_without_hyper-v_sp2_x86_dvd_342334.iso. See the iso2class reference for other ways to specify an ISO image for the installation.

Notes:

• The TurboGate PV drivers version 2.0 can be used with 32-bit versions of Windows Server 2008, but do not work with 64-bit versions of Windows Server 2008. Version 3.0.1 of these drivers work with both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows Server 2008.
• In the following text in this topic, the y placeholder in WIN08y corresponds to the Windows edition that the appliance is based upon (S for Standard, E for Enterprise, DC for DataCenter, W for Web, and so on.)

1. Execute the following command in a 3T shell to begin the installation:

   util iso2class app_name=win08_install install_size=12G console_type=graphic iso_volume1=en_windows_server_2008_datacenter_enterprise_standard_without_hyper-v_sp2_x86_dvd_342334.iso virt_options=acpi=1 cpu=1 mem=1G
   

   This command creates and starts the win08_install application, booting the singleton iso2class from the specified ISO image.

   • Note: The volume size of 12 GB provides enough space for the OS installation and subsequent Windows updates, resulting in an appliance with approximately 1GB of free space when the process is complete. This size requirement may change as Microsoft introduces more updates to the OS. On CA AppLogic® the boot volume of a Windows Server 2008 appliance is of type ntfs08, and ntfs08 volumes may be resized upwards only (enlarged but not shrunk).
2. Access the graphic console of the singleton with one of the following methods:
   1. Select the application within the application list in the CA AppLogic® GUI and click the icon for Login (graphic).
   2. Open the application in the CA AppLogic® editor and select the singleton iso2class. Use the pull-down Appliance menu to select Login (graphic).
3. After the graphic console appears, the Windows 2008 Server installation interface should be visible. Proceed to install the OS.
   • The singleton will reboot during installation, rendering the console inoperative. When this happens, simply close and reopen the console.
   • On rare occasion, when using Firefox to access the console, it will give a repeatable error of Application is not started or console misconfigured. If this should happen simply close and reopen Firefox.
   • The following instructions assume a full Installation of Windows with its more complete graphical interface. If you are installing a Server Core installation you will need to adjust your keyboard and mouse actions to accomplish these same steps.
   • During Windows installation on a VMware grid, due to absence of VMware tools, the mouse may not function as expected. The following keyboard shortcuts are useful:
     • To navigate between buttons use Tab key and / or arrow keys
     • To select use space bar or enter
     • To access the file menu of the selected window use Alt+f key
4. After the installation completes, the singleton reboots itself and Windows prompts you to set a new password. Type in your new password and press Enter. Windows sets a new password for Administrator and displays a message indicating that the Administrator password iset successfully. Press OK and Windows will login into the administrator desktop automatically. Now perform the following operations:
   • If you are creating Windows appliance on ESX grid, install VMware tools as follows:
     • Stop the application
     • In grid shell execute 3t vol copy _GLOBAL_RO:vmware_tools_windows APPNAME:vmware_tools_windows
     • Open infrastructure editor in browser
     • Right-click the singleton appliance ‘iso2class’ and select ‘user volumes’
     • Select volume ‘vmware_tools_windows’ for placeholder iso_volume1
     • Save and start the application
     • Login through the graphical console
     • Press “Ctrl+Alt+Del” button on center top of the graphical console window
     • Click inside the graphical console window anywhere
     • Using ‘tab’ and ‘arrow keys’ navigate to “start task manager”
     • Using ‘tab’ navigate to “new task” and hit ‘spacebar’
     • Type “D:\setup.exe /S /v /qn” to execute VMware tools installation silently.
     • The installation will reboot the appliance automatically. Wait patiently. After reboot you have to reopen the graphical console and login to the appliance.
   • Set the screen resolution and screen saver timeout: Right-click an empty area of the desktop and select Personalize. From this interface set the screen resolution to 1024x768 and the screen saver timeout to 1000 minutes (or disable it). On 64-bit versions of Windows Server 2008 R2, the screen saver configuration may be accessed with Start, Control Panel, Appearance, Change screen saver while the screen resolution may be accessed with either Start, Control Panel, Adjust screen resolution or right-click an empty area of desktop and click Screen resolution.
   • Disable the page file:
     1. Open Control Panel, System, Advanced system settings, Advanced, Performance Settings, Advanced, Change Virtual Memory.
     2. Clear the check box marked Automatically manage paging file size for all drives and select No paging file.
     3. Select Set.
     4. Click Restart Later. On 64-bit versions of Windows, the page file setting may be accessed with Control Panel, System and Security, System, Advanced system settings, Advanced, Performance Settings, Advanced, Change Virtual Memory.
     • Disable power management hibernation support: Open Start, Command Prompt and execute powercfg -h off.
     • Disable IE enhanced security: Open Server Manager, Configure IE ESC and turn IE enhanced security off for both Administrators and Users.
     • Change the computer name: Open Server Manager, Change System Properties and set the computer name to WIN08y. Restart when requested and close the graphical console.
5. After a minute reopen the graphical console and login to the Windows desktop. Perform the following operations:
   1. Clean up the leftover pagefile if it is present:
   2. Select Start and type windows explorer in the input box followed by Enter to open Windows Explorer.
   3. Open Organize, Folder and search options, View and select Show hidden files and folders. Unselect Hide protected operating system files.
   4. Delete the file C:\pagefile.sys if it is present.
   5. Restore the default settings under Organize, Folder and search options, View.
6. The singleton has two network interfaces: Local Area Connection and Local Area Connection 2. The first of these is the external interface while the second is the internal interface. Configure the external interface of the singleton to provide access to the World Wide Web:
   • Access Server Manager, View Network Connections, Local Area Connection, Properties, TCP/IPv4, Properties. Click Use the following IP address and enter usable values for your grid (IP Address, netmask, gateway, DNS server).
   • Or, execute the following commands in the command shell:

     netsh interface ip set address name="Local Area Connection" static [ip-address] [netmask] [gateway] 1 
     netsh interface ip set dns name="Local Area Connection" static [dns-ip] 
     

7. Install high priority and optional Windows updates:
   1. Open IE and select Tools, Windows Update, Turn on Now and install updates. On 64-bit versions of Windows, Windows Update may be access with Start, Control Panel, System and Security, Windows Update, Change settings, Download updates but let me choose to install them then OK and Check for updates.
   2. Reboot when prompted. Close the graphical console, and, after a minute, reopen the graphical console.
   3. Repeat the above procedure until there are no more updates to install. The option in IE to select Windows Update may become available under Security, Windows Update.
8. Activate Windows: Access Control Panel, System, Change Product Key and enter a valid product key. On 64-bit versions of Windows: Access Control Panel, System and Security, System, Change Product Key.
9. Disable external network access: Open Server Manager, View Network Connections, Local Area Connection, Properties, TCP/IPv4, Properties and select Obtain an IP address automatically and Obtain DNS server address automatically.
10. Disable Windows Firewall: Open Server Manager, Go to Windows Firewall, Windows Firewall Properties. Set the firewall to Off for Domain Profile, Private Profile and Public Profile.
11. Disable automatic updates: Open Server Manager, Configure Updates, Change Settings. Select Never check for updates.
12. Disable password complexity requirements if set: open Start, Administrative Tools, Local Security Policy, Account Policies, Password Policy. Disable password complexity requirements.
13. Set the Administrator password to never expire: open Server Manager, Configuration, Local Users and Groups, Users, Administrator, Properties. Select Password Never Expires.
14. Disable the shutdown event tracker:
    • Select Start and type gpedit.msc in the input box.
    • Open Computer Configuration, Administrative Templates, System.
    • Scroll down on the right pane and right-click Display Shutdown Event Tracker, Properties or, on 64-bit versions, Display Shutdown Event Tracker, Edit.
    • Select Disabled and click OK.
15. Set the default Windows disk device timeout value to 60 seconds and tell the system how the realtime clock is set. Note that these settings require a reboot to take effect.
    • Select Start and type regedit.exe in the input box to open the registry editor.
    • Navigate to the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/System/CurrentControlSet/Services/Disk.
    • Create a DWORD value named TimeOutValue. (If this value exists, skip this step.)
    • Set TimeOutValue to 60.
    • Navigate to the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/CurrentControlSet/Control/TimeZoneInformation.
    • Create a DWORD value named RealTimeIsUniversal (if this value exists, skip this step).
    • Set RealTimeIsUniversal to 1.
16. If you intend to install the TurboGate PV drivers, then disable TCP checksum offload:
    • In the registry editor navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/System/CurrentControlSet/Services/Tcpip/Parameters. Right-click Parameters in the left pane and select New, DWORD. Type DisableTaskOffload. Right-click DisableTaskOffload and select modify.
    • Enter 1 for the value.
    • Close the registry editor.
17. Shutdown the OS and continue the iso2class install as follows:
    • In the command shell type shutdown -s -t 0.
    • Wait 5 seconds and then, within the 3t shell running the iso2class utility: Press Enter and then the Y key followed by Enter to continue such that the second volume becomes available to the singleton.
18. After a minute reopen the graphical console and login to the Windows desktop.
    • If the graphical console starts up in the System Recovery Options dialog select Next, login as Administrator, then Restart. After a minute reopen the graphical console and login to the Windows desktop.
19. (Optional) Install windows components that you want available on this appliance and which require access to the installation ISO images. Navigate to Server Manager->Add Role. Add the IIS Web Server Role and install optional components such as IIS.
20. To transform the singleton into a fully managed CA AppLogic® appliance, install the current version of the Windows Server msi. The installer can now be located on the E drive of the singleton.
    • In the command shell type E: to navigate to the E drive.
    • Execute Server_Windows-1.1.6-1.msi (use the current version on the E drive) to install the Windows Server MSI.
21. Delete junction points to prevent failures when you try to resize Windows appliance volumes. The following are examples of junction points that you may find on a Windows boot volume but note that actual names may vary:
    • WINDOWS\assembly\GAC_32\System.EnterpriseServices\2.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a\
    • WINDOWS\assembly\GAC_MSIL\IEExecRemote\2.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a\

    You can search for junction points using the Command Prompt. The output of the following command reports the path for any junction points that it finds:

    dir /S/A:L
    

22. If this appliance is 64-bit, use Windows Explorer to copy shutdown.exe from C:\WINDOWS\system32 to C:\WINDOWS\SYSWOW64 (if it is not already present). If Windows Explorer refuses to copy but instead moves the executable:
    • Move shutdown.exe to C:\WINDOWS using Windows Explorer.
    • Open a bash shell and:
      • cp -p /cygdrive/c/WINDOWS/shutdown.exe /cygdrive/c/WINDOWS/system32/shutdown.exe (this command actually copies the file into C:\WINDOWS\SYSWOW64).
      • Use Windows Explorer to move C:\WINDOWS\shutdown.exe to C:\WINDOWS\system32\shutdown.exe.
23. If you intend to install the current TurboGate PV drivers copy D:\TurboGate_Tools-Setup-V3.0.1.exe C:\. Do not execute the installer yet.
24. Complete the basic installation:
    • Enter the following command In the command shell:

      shutdown -s -t 0 
      

    • Wait 5 seconds and then, within the 3t shell running the iso2class utility: Press the <enter> key and then the Y key followed by the <enter> key to continue.
    • When prompted in the 3t shell, select The appliance is fully managed. After this, iso2class stops the application, changes the singleton boundary to that of a generic server appliance, and restarts the application (the appliance will enter maintenance mode during the restart).
25. Change the resulting singleton into a WIN08y catalog appliance class. (See the table at the bottom of this page for the resource settings for the correct edition.)
    • Stop the application.
    • Open the application in the CA AppLogic® editor.
    • Right-click the singleton and select Attributes. Change the instance name to WIN08y.
    • Right-click the singleton and select Modify Boundary:
      • Change the class name to WIN08y.
      • Enter the description: Windows Server Appliance - based on Windows Server 2008 Standard Edition without Hyper-V SP2 32-bit (be sure to use the correct edition name).
      • Please refer to the below resource table at the bottom of the document and change the resource settings based on the windows edition.
      • Select the OS icon as windows.
      • Set the documentation URL to: http://doc.3tera.com/AppLogic35/en/CatGenericWindows.html
      • Save the application when prompted.
26. If you are not installing the TurboGate PV drivers, complete the appliance creation as follows:
    • Start the application and SSH into the appliance.
    • Execute the following command:

      rm -f /appliance/passwd.stamp ~/.bash_history 
      

    • Exit and stop the application.
    • Move the singleton into the /system_ms catalog where you have the required privileges. You must assign yourself full access rights to the catalog before you can move the singleton.
27. If you are installing the TurboGate PV Drivers, complete the appliance creation as follows:
    • In the modify boundary dialog for the singleton:
      • Add terminals to the appliance until there is a total of 7 listed interfaces. (With the default interface this will provides the maximum 8 interfaces.) This step is required to avoid manual user intervention when adding terminals to future Windows appliances that are based off of this Windows server appliance.
      • Add three placeholder volumes to the appliance; do not assign mount points for these volumes. This step, and the following related steps, are required to help ensure that new volumes added to an appliance are properly recognized and brought online.
    • Create three raw volumes of size 50 MB and configure the singleton instance to use these volumes for the placeholder volumes.
    • Start the application. SSH into the appliance and set the Administrator password (net user administrator new_password).
      • Note: You must change the administrator password because the windows server MSI sets a new random password on initial boot and you must know the administrator password before installing the Turbogate PV drivers.
    • Login through the graphical console.
    • Format and mount the 3 raw volumes:
      • Execute diskpart in a cmd.exe shell in the graphical console. Within the diskpart command line interface execute list disk. For each disk (except the boot disk):
      • Select disk # (use the appropriate number)
      • Online disk # (if the disk is already online this can be skipped)
      • Create partition primary
      • Assign letter d (use a different letter for each disk, for example, d, e, f)
      • Exit from the diskpart interface and format each volume in the cmd.exe shell, for example: format /fs:ntfs d: and so on.
    • Execute the PV driver installer (for example, C:\TurboGate-Tools-Setup-V3.0.exe). Select Install Anyway as required. Do not reboot after the install.
    • Open a 3T shell and execute the following command:

      app restart win08_install --debug
      

    • A minute after the application begins to start, log in using the graphical console and wait for a minute or so until the driver installation completes (this is indicated by the pop-up requesting a restart). Restart the appliance as indicated. At this point:
      • If the application start has not timed out, it may complete normally; otherwise shutdown the OS from within the graphical console; this will cause the app start --debug to fail. Execute app stop win08_install in the 3T shell.
      • If the application start has timed out, execute app stop win08_install in the 3T shell followed by shutdown within the graphical console.
    • Within the 3Tshell execute app start win08_install and verify the appliance starts without error.
    • Login through the graphical console:
      • Verify all of the disks are online using diskpart in a cmd.exe shell: diskpart, followed by list disk, followed by exit.
      • If you have installed version 3.0.1 of the TurboGate PV drivers, disable the service named gkservice. This service is installed with the PV drivers and fails to start if there is more than one virtual network interface associated to the appliance. Disabling this service does not affect the performance of the PV drivers.
    • In a bash shell on the appliance:
      • Set a new complex password (for example, net user administrator pq398hpaowht0293j^LWOIFH9htfw9jfe).
      • Exit the SSH session.
      • SSH into the appliance and execute the following command

        rm -f ~/.bash_history /cygdrive/c/TurboGate* /appliance/passwd.stamp. 
        

    • Stop the application.
    • Modify the boundary of the appliance again and remove the extra terminals and placeholder volumes that were added in the previous steps.
    • Move the singleton into the /system_ms catalog. You must assign yourself full access rights to the catalog before you can move the singleton.

    The WIN08y appliance is now ready for use.

Review the Appliance Catalog Reference Guide for details on the behavior of the Windows APK which is installed by all of the Windows MSIs.

The resource settings for the Windows Server 2008 base classes are: