Installing the SMTP feature

1. Click on the Windows button and click on the Server Manager icon in the menu to load the Server Manager Dashboard:

Alternatively, open it via Powershell by entering servermanager.exe at the prompt to load the Server Manager Dashboard:
PS C:\> servermanager.exe

2. When the Server Manager Dashboard loads, click on Add roles and features in the center pane as highlighted below:

The Add Roles and Features Wizard will load, click Next to go past the initial Before You Begin Page:

3. In the Select installation type section, select Role-based or feature-based installation and click Next:

4. In the Select destination server section, select your server, in my example below, my server is called vs11app003, then click Next to proceed:

5. In the Select Server Roles section do not select anything and click Next to proceed:

6. In the Select features check SMTP Server:

Doing so will initiate a prompt to install the required roles services and features. Ensure you check the Include management tools (if applicable) box per the below and click Add Features to proceed:

7. Back at the Select features section, with SMTP Server selected click Next to proceed:

8. In the Web Server Role (IIS) section click Next to proceed:

9. Check Web Server then click Next to proceed:

10. The Confirm installation selections section will show all the role and feature configuration options you previously selected:

Checking Restart the destination server automatically if required is not necessary, if you do you will see the following warning:

Click Yes and the installation will begin:

11. Once the installation completes click Close:

The installation should complete shortly. You nay need to reboot your server to fully complete the installation.
Configuring the SMTP Server

The next step is to configure SMTP. To do so we will need to open Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager 6.

12. Click on the Windows button per step 1 to load the Server Manager Dashboard. Then click Tools and then click on Internet Information Services (IIS) 6.0 Manager to load IIS Manager 6:

13. In IIS 6 Manager, expand the server name, in my example below it is VS11APP003, then right-click on [SMTP Virtual Server #1] and select Properties:

14. In the General tab, unless you want the SMTP Server to use a specific IP address, leave the settings as they are so that the IP address is set to (All Unassigned):

15. To proceed, click on the Access tab:

16. Click on the Authentication button and ensure Anonymous access is checked and then click OK:

17. Once back in the Access tab, click on the Connection button. Select Only the list below and then click Add. Enter 127.0.0.1 as the IP address and then click OK:

The Connection setting controls which computers can connect to the SMTP server and send mail. By granting only localhost (127.0.0.1) access, limits only the server itself the ability to connect to the SMTP server. This is a requirement for security. Click OK to return to the Access tab and then click on the Relay button. Enter 127.0.0.1 as the IP address and then click OK:

The Relay section determines which computers can relay mail through this SMTP server. By only allowing the localhost IP address (127.0.0.1) relay permissions it means that only the server itself can relay mail. Conversely, it prevents the SMTP server from being an open relay and being used to send unsolicited spam email by other computers on the internet, which could lead to the SMTP server being blacklisted.

18. Next, go to the Messages tab. Here you can enter an email address where copies of non-delivery reports are sent to. You can also configure the location of the Badmail director, however, the default setting should suffice:

19. Next, go to the Delivery tab:

20. Click on the Outbound Security button and ensure Anonymous access is selected. As the only server that can connect and relay mail through the SMTP server is localhost this security settings is fine:

21. Click OK to return to the Delivery tab and then click on Outbound Connections. Leave the defaults as they are:

22. Click OK to return to the Delivery tab and then click on the Advanced button:

Here you will need to enter the fully-qualified domain name of the SMTP server. This will be the host name or A record that has been created in your DNS zone file. This is straight-forward to do but you will have to confirm how you do this with the party that manages DNS for your domain. I have entered mail.vsysad.com as this is fully-qualified. If you click on the Check DNS button you can confirm whether your chosen name resolves successfully. In my case it does as I see the following:

23. Click OK and then OK again to exit the SMTP Virtual Server #1 Properties. You can also perform this test by running nslookup to confirm the existence of the host name as well as confirming the IP address it resolves to – which should the IP address of your server:

Please note that DNS is crucial to successful email delivery. If your SMTP server cannot resolve the domains it is trying to send messages to then it will fail. Ensure that the DNS servers you have configured are able to resolve DNS queries successfully. From the above screenshot you can see that the DNS server I have configured, google-public-dns-a.google.com, was able to successfully resolve my SMTP server’s hostname, mail.vsysad.com.

The reason I am highlighting this is because if your SMTP Server sits within a corporate network it will likely use an internal DNS server. Often these are only configured to resolve internal namespaces therefore resolving external hostnames may fail. Also, firewall rules may block your SMTP Server from querying any DNS servers so please check and ensure DNS queries are resolved successfully and if not make sure it get fixed before going onto the testing phase below.

Another very important point about DNS is that you must ensure that you have a PTR record for reverse DNS lookups configured. The PTR record allows your SMTP Server’s public IP address to be resolved back to your hostname. Some of the major email providers perform revers DNS lookups of mail servers connecting to them as a security measure to check their credibility or reputation. Your web host should have a control panel that allows you to configure reverse DNS if you have a dedicated public IP address. Not having a PTR record will not guarantee email delivery failure but it will very likely delay email delivery and at worst may result in your messages being blocked and your host being blacklisted. I highly recommend you you configure a PTR record for your server.

Follow the instructions in this post which shows you how to verify correct DNS configuration using the SMTPDIAG tool.

24. The last configuration step will be to set the SMTP Service to Automatic so that it automatically starts when the server boots up. Open up the Powershell console and run the command below to enable this setting:
PS C:\> set-service smtpsvc -StartupType Automatic

Then run the command below to confirm that the service is actually running:
PS C:\> get-service smtpsvc

Status       Name          DisplayName
——             —-              ———–
Running  smtpsvc      Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP)
If the SMTP Service is not running the command will return a status of Stopped. If that is the case then run the command below to start it:
PS C:\> start-service smtpsvc

We are now ready to test the configuration.
Testing the SMTP Server

The next step is to verify that the SMTP server is able to send email successfully. To do this follow the steps below:

25. Open a PowerShell console and simply run the command below, ensuring that you complete the sending and receiving email addresses plus the subject and body text:
PS C:\> Send-MailMessage -SMTPServer localhost -To xxxxx@gmail.com -From blog@vsysad.com -Subject “This is a test email” -Body “Hi Japinator, this is a test email sent via PowerShell”

The above command sent an email to my Gmail account, a screenshot of the email generated is below:

You can save the above command in a file with a .ps1 (PowerShell) file extension and run it whenever you need to test sending/routing of mail.

That’s all there is to it! Now you have a fully functioning STMP server that can successfully send emails. Many of the companies that I have worked with use this method to send emails generated by their web applications.

If emails are not being successfully delivered you may notice that messages are building up in specific SMTP folders. Visit this post to understand the purpose of each SMTP folder and how to approach issues when messages are queuing up in those folders.

 

DHCP is used to dynamically assign IP addresses to client machines. This tutorial is written to help you to install and configure DHCP on Windows Server 2016.

Configure DHCP on Windows Server 2016

Step 1. Open Server Manager and click Add roles and features.

Step 2. Click Next to start the Role and Feature Wizard.

Step 3. Choose Role-based or feature-based installation and click Next.

Step 4. Choose the server on which you want to configure DHCP and click Next.

Step 5. Choose DHCP from server roles. As soon as you choose DHCP, a new window and click add features.

Step 6. Click Next. The DHCP Server Feature is enabled.

Step 7. Click Next. The .NET Frameworks that are required for the DHCP server are already pre-selected.

Step 8. Read the explanation about the DHCP function, then click Next.

Step 9. Click Install.

Step 10. Click “Complete DHCP configuration”.

Step 11. Click Next to continue with the DHCP Post-Install Wizard.

Step 12. Click Commit (Choose Skip AD authorization if your machine is on workgroup).

Step 13. Click Close and you are done with configuring DHCP.

Open the Server Manager and click Add Roles and Features:

On the “Before you begin” window, simply click the Next button.

On the “Select installation type” window, leave “Role-based or feature-based installation” selected and click Next.

As we’re installing to our local machine, leave “Select a server from the server pool” with the current machine selected and click Next. Alternatively you can select another server that you are managing from here, or a VHD.

From the “Select server roles” window, check the box next to “Web Server (IIS)”. Doing this may open up a new window advising that additional features are required, simply click the “Add Features” button to install these as well. Click Next back on the Select server roles menu once this is complete.

Click Add Features:

We will not be installing any additional features at this stage, so simply click Next on the “Select features” window.

Click Next on the “Web Server Role (IIS)” window after reading the information provided.

At this point on the “Select role services” window you can install additional services for IIS if required. You don’t have to worry about this now as you can always come back and add more later, so just click Next for now to install the defaults.

Finally on the “Confirm installation selections” window , review the items that are to be installed and click Install when you’re ready to proceed with installing the IIS web server.
Once the installation has succeeded, click the close button. At this point IIS should be running on port 80 by default with the firewall rule “World Wide Web Services (HTTP Traffic-In)” enabled in Windows firewall automatically.

We can perform a simple test by opening up a web browser and browsing to the server that we have installed IIS on. You should see the default IIS page.
Configure IIS:

Go back to the Server Manager. Select Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager from the Tools menu:

Click Add Website:

Specify at least the site name and path. Click Ok:

Your first site is ready to be accessed.

To run DNS server management tools, click on Tools in the upper right corner of Server Manager and click on DNS in the drop-down list.
Right-click on Forward Lookup Zones and click on New Zone from context menu to bring up the New Zone Wizard.

In this window click Next.

In this step you can select the type of DNS you want to use. The primary zone will be located on your server, the secondary zone will be located on another server. The secondary zone is used in large networks for load balancing. Choose Primary zone and click on Next to continue.

Enter any name for new zone file and click on Next button.

Specify the name of the zone file.

Dynamic updates allow DNS clients register their resource records in DNS database automatically, but if the network is small we can make updates of DNS database manually. It is recommended to allow dynamic updates, but only if DNS will be used exclusively on your local network. Otherwise, this item may entail security risks, as the “New Zone Wizard” will warn you about.

On the next window just click on Finish.
That’s all, forward zone created. Setting the zone is done by adding DNS records to the zone. There are several types of DNS records. Consider the main types of DNS records:

A-record (AAAA-record)—matches the hostname and IP address;
CNAME-record—used to forward to another name;
MX—mail entry, points to mail servers;
NS—points to DNS server.
If earlier you have chosen Do not to allow dynamic updates, you should add records to zone manually. To do this right click on zone name and click on New Host (A or AAAA).

Here enter name and IP-address of your DNS Server in appropriate fields and then click Add Host.

A message appears stating that the node has been created.

As you can see on the right side of the DNS Manager window, the new host is now created. You can create records for client computers in exactly the same way.

Now you should add Reverse Lookup Zone. To do this right click on Reverse Lookup Zone and click on New Zone from the action menu to bring up the New Zone Wizard.

Next steps will be the same as for Forward Lookup Zone, click Next.

Choose Primary zone and click on Next to continue.

Here you need to select the type of IP-address, check on IPv4 and click on Next to continue.

In Network ID field enter the first three octets of your DNS Server IP-address.

Just click on Next.

Check Do not allow dynamic updates and press Next.

Click on Finish button and your DNS server is now configured and ready for use.

As you can see on the right side of DNS Manager window, Reverse Lookup Zone is now created.

Tip. Don’t forget to check which DNS server is specified in the settings of the network interface (it should be, respectively, the IP address of the current server).

In order for a DNS server to resolve addresses in other zones, you need to configure DNS Forwarders. To do this, in the DNS Manager console, open the properties of your server.

Go to the Forwarders tab, click the Edit button and add the address of the external DNS server to which you want to forward requests (for example, 8.8.8.8).

There are two methods for configuring DNS on Windows Server 2016. One is using PowerShell and the other method is using GUI.
Install the DNS role using the GUI:

Step 1: Open Server Manager and from the Manage menu, click Add Roles and Features.

In the new window that opens also in the Before You Begin section, click Next to continue.

In the Installation Type section, select Role-based or feature-based installation and click Next to continue.

In the Server Selection section, make sure you select the server that you want to install the role and click Next to continue.

In the Server Roles section, click on the DNS Server option and then in the window that opens click on the Add Features button to add the prerequisites. Click Next to continue.

In the Features section, you do not have to choose something, just click Next to continue.

In the DNS Server section, some basic information about role function in Windows Server 2016 along with Active Directory is displayed. Click Next to continue.

Finally, in the Confirmation section, click on the Install button to begin the process of installing the DNS role in Windows Server 2016. You can enable Restart the destination server automatically if required, but it’s not necessary if you installing only the DNS Server role.

After finishing Installation, click [Close] button.

 

 

 

 

 

Here we’ll show you how to install the Windows Server Backup feature in Windows Server 2016.

• Open Server Manager –> Manage –> Add Roles and Features

• Click Next in the first Screen of Setup Wizard (Before you Begin)

• Select Role-based or feature-based installation.

• Leave the default settings and click Next.

 

• In Server Roles Click Next without add any Role

• Go down , check the Windows Server Backup and click Next.

• Click Install and Wait to finish the Installation.

Backup the Server with Windows Server Backup:

• After finish the installation go back in Server Manager and click Tools – – > Windows Server Backup.

• Click Local Backup and from the right side select Backup Once or Backup Schedule if you want to Schedule your Backup.

• This will open up a Getting Started window advising that we can use this wizard to configure a regular backup schedule for the full server, system state, selected files, folders or entire volumes – click Next to proceed.

• On the next Select Backup Configuration window we can select if we want to perform a full server backup which is the recommended and default action, or we can optionally select custom to pick specific volumes or files that we want to backup rather than the full server. In this example we will be configuring a full server backup, however you can change this to suit your requirements.

• The next window allows us to specify the time the backup should run. We can set the backup to run once daily at a specified time, or we can optionally have it run multiple times per day by selecting the more than once a day option and adding the times the backup should run to the right side.

• Next we will be asked to specify the destination of our backup data. The recommended option is to store the data on a separate disk that is attached to the server, however we can also change this to backup to another volume, or a network share. In this example I’ll be using a network share as I have one available, however note that there is a limitation of this, we will only be able to store one backup point at a time as new backups will overwrite the existing one. This limitation does not exist when you backup to another disk or volume.

We will now specify the network location, here I pick a file share that is available on the local network and click Next to continue. If you selected a disk or volume destination rather than network, you would instead be asked to pick that disk or volume here.
Specify the Location of your Remote Share Folder and in Access Control select Inherit to has access in backup everybody which can access in Remote Folder. For this scenario i choose this option.

• Click Backup.Wait to finish. The time that need is base on the Windows Server storage size.
• That’s it, the backup should automatically start at the time specified. We can manually initiate it by going back to the Windows Server Backup window and selecting “Backup Once”. From here we are given the option to create a once off backup based off of our scheduled backup, so all of the same settings will be used but we will be running the backup now rather than at the scheduled time.

 

Before, you start a clean installation of Windows Server 2016, we have to review the minimum system requirements for Windows Server 2016. If system requirement is not meet, you will not able to install Windows Server 2016
Install Windows Server 2016 Step by Step Guide
Minimum System Requirements:

CPU: Minimum 1.4 GHz 64-bit processor
RAM: Minimum 512 MB
Disk: Minimum 32 GB
Network: Gigabit (10/100/1000 Ethernet adapter)
Microsoft Recommended Requirements:

CPU : 2 GHz or faster
RAM : 2 GB RAM or greater
Disk : 40 GB or greater
Network: Gigabit (10/100/1000 Ethernet adapter)
Prepare the installation media (DVD, USB flash, etc) and start the installation process. If you don’t have the Windows Server 2016 installation software, click here and download the software from Microsoft website.

1. Plug the Windows Server 2016 boot drive (DVD, USB) to the computer and boot your computer. When the Windows Setup page appears, select your language, time format and keyboard then click on Next button.

Language, Time, Keyboard

2. Now click on Install now button to start the installation process.

Install now

3. Select the appropriate version of the windows server that meets your organization’s needs then click Next. Make sure that you’ve chosen an appropriate edition of Windows server.

Select the operating system you want to install

4. Put a check mark in the box next to the I accept license terms and click on the Next button. License term is about the way you want to buy license for your server from Microsoft.

I accept the license term

5. Select the Custom: Install Windows only (advanced) option for clean installation. Clean installation is the term used against upgrade. When you upgrade a Windows server you can have your settings, apps, etc from previous version of Windows. When you do the clean installation you can’t have the settings, apps, etc.

Custom installation

6. Select the hard drive that you want to install the windows server on, then click on the New button to do the partitions.

partition

7. After clicking on the New button, some options appear. Specify the amount of the drive based on MB and click on the Apply button. A warning appears which wants you to give the permission to system to create a drive for system files. Click on OK button, if you want to add more drives do this process again. When finished hit Next.

Drive size

8. After clicking Next the System starts coping all the files from the external drive to internal hard drive. It will take a while so be patient. Be aware that your system will be restarted several times.

Copying files on machine’s hard drive

9. When the system copied all the files and restarted, finalize your task by entering the required details. Type complex password (composed of uppercase, lowercase, symbol and numbers) twice in the boxes and click on the Finish button. User name is Administrator by default.

Enter password

10. Press Ctrl+Alt+Del buttons to jump start the screen to a login page and inside the box below the administrator user name, enter the password and press Enter button from the keyboard to sign in the Windows.

Press Ctrl+Alt+Del buttons

11. After you logged in the Windows you see the some thing like the picture below. Welcome to Windows Server 2016.

Windows Server 2016 Evaluation

Conclusion

Finally, we’ve installed the Windows Server 2016 successfully and is ready to work. When Windows installed you can’t go back and for example change the edition. If so, do the clean installation again.

 

Step-By-Step: Setting up Active Directory in Windows Server 2016

• Install windows server operating system
• Recommended to set static IP address and DNS
• Login to the server, and click on the Start button, and then click on Server Manager (or) Go to PowerShell (as administrator) and type ServerManager.exe and press enter.

• On the Server Manager Dashboard, click on Add roles and features:
• The Add role and features wizard will come up:
• Click on Next. On the following Installation type screen, choose the first option “Role-based or feature-based installation:
• Click on Next. On the following screen select a server from the server pool. your local server should be listed:
• On the following screen click on Active Directory Domain Services and the Add features window will pop-up:
  https://wpcomwidgets.com/render/

• Click on Add Features and then click on Next. Make sure .NET 4.6 Features are checked on the following screen:
• Then click on Next. On the following screen you will get a short overview of what a domain controller does, and the services that get installed. if this is your first domain controller you will be prompted to install the DNS service which is required on a domain controller:
• Click on Next. click on Install on the confirmation window:
• 
  The Installation will begin:

• Setup Domain Controller

  Once the AD role has been installed. click on Promote this server to a domain controller:

  

• And the deployment configuration wizard will come up. Select Add new forest and choose your Root domain name:
• click on Next. on the next screen choose your Forest functional level and enter the Directory Service Restore Mode password: If this is your first domain controller choose “Windows Server 2016” as the Forest and Domain functional level. make sure the DNS option is checked, and because this is my first server, the Global Catalog ( GC) is already checked. click on Next:
• For the DNS options, this going to be the first DNS server in new forest. So no need any modifications. Click next to proceed.
• Choose the NetBIOS domain name  (already selected ) and click Next choose the paths for the the AD database, normally the defaults are OK
• Next page is to define the NTDS, SYSVOL and LOG file folders. You can keep default or define different path for these. In demo I will be keeping default. Once changes are done, click next to continue
• Review Options:
• In next windows it will do prerequisite check. If it’s all good it will enable option to install. Click on install to begin installation process.
• The Installation should begin. the server will reboot automatically when the installation finishes:
• This message will pop-up on your screen when Windows Server 2016 is about reboot:

• After your server reboots, you will have the option to login to your newly created network:

The installation of Active Directory Domain Services on your server is complete.