Recently I’ve had a need to setup a Windows Server 2012 and wanted to document the process for future attempts.

I won’t document every single screen, only those that include decisions to be made and considerations to be considered.

 

I’ll be using this server as a root server for my new IBM Endpoint Manager v9, so a GUI would be very handy during install and general maintenance of that application.

At first I wanted to go with a regular install… not Custom… so I chose the top option.

Turns out this is for upgrading an existing OS installation.  Since this is a brand new hard drive with no pre-existing OS, I should have chosen the “Custom” option.  After hitting Close, I was sent back to the very beginning of the installation.

Once I arrived at the start up screen… it hung there for nearly 30 minutes.  Turns out since I was setting this up on a VMWare ESXi v5.0 server it doesn’t support Windows Server 2012.  So after some research I came across this article: http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=2006859 

I learned that I had to upgrade my VMWare ESXi server to a patch or v5.1… I opted for v5.1 and was able to get past this sticky part.

The server manager has been redesigned for the new GUI.  Interesting choices…

I don’t want this application to come up every time I log in… so choosing the Manager –> Server Manager Properties, I was able to check the “Do not start Server Manager automatically at logon”.

Now I need to add my new server to my LDAP domain.  Choosing “Local Server” from the left menu…

Click on “WORKGROUP” and the familiar computer properties dialog opens where you can change these settings.

One restart later I was able to log in and I’m done.