Configuring Your Server

The “Configure Your Server Wizard” has been provided by Microsoft as a quick and easy way to set up a server for a particular function.  This wizard has been improved greatly in Whistler.   

In Windows 2000 the Configure Your Server wizard explained how to set up a server for a particular role.   If you wanted to make a server a Domain Controller, then the wizard would tell you to execute dcpromo from the command prompt.  Whistler’s implementation takes that step out.  In the above image, you see the second step of the Wizard; the first is just the Welcome screen.  This step allows you to choose whether you want the Server to be a Network server, or a domain controller.  In Windows NT 4, servers that weren’t domain controllers were called “Stand-alone Servers.”  Windows 2000 labeled them “Member Servers.”  Whistler seems to take the “Network Server” brand, go figure.  If you forgot to set up DNS, the Domain controller option will do that for you, you’ll still have to set up your reverse lookup zones however.  If you decide that you want your Server to become a web server, or an application server after the promotion to a domain controller, you have the option to re-run the wizard and select those options.  The wizard cannot be used to remove Active Directory, only to install it.  As a matter of fact, if you make a server a Domain Controller and decide to run the Configure Your Server wizard, the Server Role page does not even appear.

The Network Server page displays all of the different roles that you can apply to a Server in a pull down menu.  Below the pull down menu, you will find a set of four boxes that show your what Services are installed on the Server and which ones aren’t.  The only option that you may not be familiar with is the SharePoint option.  This will be discussed later in the article.