Microsoft Press Training Guide Installing and Configuring Windows Server 2012

Introduction

This training guide is intended for information technology (IT) professionals who need to upgrade their skills to support Windows Server 2012 in their workplace. The primary focus of the book is on job-role training for system administrators and IT support staff in midsize to large environments. The book contains detailed technical information and hands-on practice exercises to help you prepare for deploying, managing, and maintaining servers running Windows Server 2012.The book assumes that you have at least three years of experience administering previous versions of Windows Server, including experience with operating systems deployment, Active Directory administration, server virtualization using Hyper-V, network and storage management, file and print services, and Group Policy.

Because automation is such an essential skill for administrators who manage the modern, virtualized datacenter, much of this book focuses on learning how to administer server roles and features using Windows PowerShell. While it will be helpful if you have at least rudimentary knowledge of using Windows PowerShell to manage earlier versions of Windows Server, readers who have no prior familiarity with Windows PowerShell should still be able to learn and perform most of the exercises in this book.

This book covers some of the topics and skills that are the subject of the Microsoft certification exam 70-410. If you are using this book to complement your study materials, you might find this information useful. Note that this book is designed to help you in the job role; it might not cover all exam topics. If you are preparing for the exam, you should use additional study materials to help bolster your real-world experience. For your reference, a mapping of the topics in this book to the exam objectives is included in the back of the book.

By using this training guide, you will learn how to do the following:

1. Assess the hardware and software in your current environment to plan for a migration to Windows Server 2012.

2. Build customized reference images of Windows Server 2012, and deploy them using the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit.

3. Perform remote server management and role installation using Server Manager and Windows PowerShell.

4. Deploy domain controllers using Server Manager and Windows PowerShell.

5. Administer Active Directory and enable advanced Active Directory features using the Active Directory Administrative Center and Windows PowerShell.

6. Ensure DHCP availability, implement DNSSEC, configure IPv4/IPv6 interoperability, and perform network administration tasks using Windows PowerShell.

7. Deploy, configure, and manage Hyper-V hosts and virtual machines using Hyper-V Manager and Windows PowerShell.

8. Deploy Storage Spaces and provision and manage shared storage, including iSCSI storage, using Server Manager and Windows PowerShell.

9. Deploy and manage print servers using the Print Management console and Windows PowerShell.

10. Plan, configure, and manage Group Policy policies and preferences using the Group Policy Management console and Windows PowerShell.

11. Configure Windows Firewall with Advanced Security and implement IPsec connection security.