Microsoft Assessment And Planning Toolkit

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

In my earlier article I have addressed many basic concepts that provide the basics of Windows Server 2012. In this article I will focus the upgrading server and related topics. Now move to the upgrading server.

Upgrading Servers:

As far as upgrading is concerned it is the most complicated, time consuming, lengthy and full of errors job while it is in execution. It is always recommended by the Microsoft that if possible performs a neat and clean installation, or migrated required roles, application and settings only.

Caution: In case you are going with the Upgrade Server option, then I will suggest that back up each and every thing on your server and then move forward.

Upgrade Paths:

Windows server 2012 came with very little upgrade path space. In case if you are running 64-bit computer running Windows Server 2008 or Window Server 2008 R2, then the up gradation to Windows Server 2012 is possible only (the same operating system edition is required).

And cases where an upgrade path is not available are:

Cross-edition upgrade (Enterprise edition to Datacenter edition), cross-platform upgrades (i.e. 32-bit to 64-bit) and cross-language upgrade (i.e. U.S English to Japanese language).

If you have any operating system prior to the Windows Server 2008, or workstation operating systems, you cannot upgrade to Windows Server 2012.

In any of above case Windows setup will not proceed with the upgrade option.

Things to Consider Prior to Upgrade:

Things to consider prior to upgrading process to Windows Server 2012 are as follows.

Check that the available hardware meets the minimum hardware required by the Windows Server 2012 (1.4 GHz of Processor and 512 MB of RAM).

Check that the at least minimum required disk space is available. Although minimum disk space is 32 GB, but in case of an upgrade additional space to hold file of both operating systems is required. And you can remove old files after completing the upgrade process.

Check and digitally signed the Kernel-mode software (device drivers etc.). In case if you fail to achieve the up to date software then uninstall the software prior to upgrading process.

Prior to the upgrade check the availability of upgrades for the installed applications. Create a complete inventory of installed applications. And check the manufacturer’s website for the availability of supported application for Windows Server 2012.

Make an in-place upgrade, means from the Windows Server 2008 or Window Server 2008 R2. So that any errors present in the host operating system can be identified.

And I will suggest that you should create a backup with all your data and configuration information. And such type of backup is called the full backup. And try to backup all of your data on physical separate storage medium.

Antivirus software makes a big mess, while upgrading the server try to disable antivirus program.

In case you have an Uninterruptible power supply (UPS) disconnect the cable before the upgrade.

Here is the screen shot of the Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit. I will describe its usefulness in my next article.

Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit and Migrating Roles of Windows Server 2012

After discussing the basics of Upgrading Servers in my previous article now I would like to share a very useful toolkit named as Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit. This toolkit is a very powerful tool for pre-assessment and planning of a server upgrade.

Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit:

Here is the screen shot of the Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit (MAP). You can download this toolkit form the Microsoft’s website.

(Link: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=7826)

Currently version 8 of MAP is available. This toolkit helps you to identify whether your desktop or the server is upgradeable to Windows Server 2012 or not. After installing and running this toolkit you can see the above image. You can perform various tasks like, Inventory and Assessment, Surveys etc. And the most important test you can do is performing an inventory test.

The results of this test will be saved in your user's document directory under the MAP sub directory. Here is the snapshot of various MAP related files.

You can open these files using any word processing software like Notepad or WordPad. In this file you can see the various reports and results. And most important of them are Windows Server 2012 Readiness and Next Steps (As shown in the image below).

Note: The above table suggests that my system does not meet the requirements for Windows Server 2012 upgrade. So I have to change my system accordingly to fulfill the system requirements.

Next Steps are doing list of tasks that should be performed while doing an upgrade.

I think the information given above about MAP is enough for details you can consult the documentation provided at following link.

Migrating Roles:

As I have discussed in my earlier article that it is better to avoid up gradation if possible and instead of upgrade try to migrate roles to the new server. And this migration copies only the most vital data or information from the old server to a newly deployed Windows Server 2012.

In Windows Server 2012 a tool named as Window Server Migration is used to fulfill this purpose. And in the upgrading phase we have seen many restrictions and in this migration phase almost all of those restrictions do not apply.

And you can easily migrate data under considering following conditions.

Data from any server can easily be migrated to the new Windows Server 2012 (i.e. From Windows Server 2003 SP2 etc).

Data migration from 32-bit server can be migrated to a 64-bit server (i.e. Windows Server 2012).

Data from different edition of Window Serve can be migrated.

Data can be migrated from virtual server to the physical server or the other way.

And can migrate data even if both the older and the newer installations are using different installation options (i.e. First is using Server Core and other is using GUI installation option).

And I think detail about migration is enough. Now I will move to the neat and clean installation phase into my next article.

System Specification, Downloading, Installation Notes and Installation of Windows Server 2012

I have discussed server up gradation and server migration in my previous articles and I think detail given in those articles is enough to perform each of the task. Now in this article I will teach you the steps involve in neat and clean Windows Server 2012 installation.

System Specifications:

I am using hardware which supports 64-bit operating system, having 4GB of RAM along with 40 GB of disk space.

Downloading Windows Server 2012 Image:

I have downloaded and installed Windows Server 2012 evaluation ISO image from the link stated below.

You can register at Microsoft and further download your evaluation copy. You can use this installation for 180 days after day of installation.

And after downloading the copy you can use any software that can read .ISO image files to install Windows Server 2012.

Installation Notes:

Here I would like to briefly describe my installation procedure. So that you can read and understand this article and the next couple of them easily.

After downloading the .ISO image file I am using VMWARE software to create virtual machines and after that I am installing from .ISO image the Windows Server 2012 evaluation copy (you can find detailed about VMWARE from its website).

What I have done is that I have started the virtual machine and start installing the Windows Server 2012 onto that virtual machine.

Installation of Windows Sever 2012:

As you start the Virtual machine it will boot from the .ISO image file and you will see the first screen Windows Server 2012 as shown in the image below.

After the loading of some file you will see the first basic GUI interface as shown in the image below.

Here select as follows:

Language to install: English (United States)

Time and currency format: English (United States)

Keyboard or input method: US

And after selecting the above inputs, click on Next button given at the bottom right of this screen.

NOTE: The basic GUI shown in the above image is the same either you go to the Core Server installation or GUI based installation.

One thing that I would like to share with you is that the installation process of Windows Server 2012 and the Windows 8 is very easy as compared with the previous versions of windows operating systems.

Next screen that you will see is shown below.

Here in this screen you can see two options either install the new copy or repair the previously installed copy of Window Server 2012. As we know that we do not have any older copy so we can move to the new installation.

Just click on the Install now button.

And a screen showing setup is starting will be displayed (as shown in the image below).

And after some time we will see the new screen (shown in the image below) giving you the selected option of different Windows Server installation options either Core Server or GUI installation.

I will further proceed to the Windows Server 2012 installation in my next article.

Installation of Windows Server 2012

In my previous article I was performing the GUI installation of Windows Server. In this article we will further proceed the remaining installation steps.

Installation of Windows Server 2012:

And in screen labeled as Select the operating system you want to install (as shown in the image below) I will select the Windows Server 2012 Release Candidate Datacenter (Server with a GUI). As highlighted in the image below. And after that I will click on the Next button provided at the bottom right of this screen.

NOTE: One thing that you can notice here is that the only 64-bit options are available here. No 32-bit or x86 installation option is available here.

And after that you will see the screen labeled as License terms (as shown in the image below).

And after reading the License terms carefully mark the checkbox and click on the Next button provided at the bottom right of the screen as shown in the image below.

After selecting the License terms you will see the screen shown in the image below. The label on this screen is Which type of installation do you want? And further it contains two options, first is the Upgrade: Install windows and keep file, settings and applications and the second is Custom: Install window only (Advanced). Here we will select the second option. The first option is available only if you have an existed copy of Windows Sever installed on the server. And if we click on this option system will give us an error.

You can use Help me decide if you want help in this selection. And after selecting the appropriated option you will see the following screen (as shown in the image below). And labeled as Where do you want to install Windows?

Here in the above screen you have a local disk drive of size 40 GB for installation. You can update the current status by using Refresh or use Load drive option to load another storage medium (I am not using it in this article). Another selection labeled as Drive options (advanced) can be used for local disk drive related tasks. As we click on this option we will see the all available options as shown in the image below.

From this screen we can perform many tasks like we can Delete, Format, Extend or create a New partition. In our case we are I am not going to do any further task here, and I will click on the Next button. And this will give us Installing Windows screen (as shown in the image below).

This will start the installation tasks and will perform the following tasks:

Copying Windows files (progress in %)

Getting files ready for installation

Installing features

Installing updates

Finishing up

This step is the most time consuming and will take several minutes to complete. And after the completion of all above stated tasks system will be rebooted.

We will progress to the remaining steps of basic configuration after the rebooting phase in our next article.

Configuring the New Windows Server 2012 for the first time

In my previous article we have completed the Installing Windows process and its sub process including Copying Windows files, Getting files ready for installation, Installing features, Installing updates and Finishing up. And rebooted our system. And now in this article we will further configure our server after installation.

Configuring the New Windows Server 2012 Installation:

The very first GUI screen after the installation phase and first reboot will be as shown in the image below.

This is the very first GUI screen labeled as Settings, and will prompt you to create very first user account and its password. The fields are:

User name: Administrator

Password:

Reenter password:

Note: The Administrator account is the most powerful account, and has control over all activities of the server. Therefore choose a password as strong as possible.

Usable length of the password at least 7 characters or more. Use letters, numbers, alphanumeric characters and special characters in your password. One thing more and that is both the password must match to each other.

After selecting the desired password go to the bottom right of the screen and click on the Finish button. As shown in the image below.

And you will see the screen which is shown in the image below.

At this point our Window Server 2012 evaluation installation has been completed. And you will see the first logon screen.

Log on for the First Time:

After installation process and configuration steps we will be left with our first logon screen as shown in the image below.

And for sign in press (Ctrl+Alt+Delete) and provide the password just chosen for the Administrator account. As shown in the image below.

In the result of correct password and some basic configuration the following screen will be shown. With Sever Manger open, the Server Manager is by default selected to open at the start.

We will address the further details related to the Server Manage in our next articles.

In my next articles I will further progress towards the Windows Server 2012 interface and its basic information, various items, find the start menu for you. Further introduce you with the basic components and after that I will move to the step related to configuring your installation.

Summary:

Now at the last I will summarize all the discussion which we have done so far. In this and the last three or four articles we have focused on the Upgrade paths, thing to consider prior to upgrade, Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit (MAP), Migration of Sever roles, Server specification for installation, downloading an evaluation image of Windows Server 2012, installation process and the steps of configuration after the first reboot.

In my next couple or article I will show you that how to perform the configuration of Server Core, Active directory and related configurations, Group policies and its related configurations, Security, IPv6 and IPv4, DNS, DHCP, Share and NTFS permissions, Hyper V, configuring printers etc.