Install Windows Server 2012

I recently had the pleasure of setting up a SharePoint Server 2013 RTM farm for a customer, this blog post provides an overview of installing Windows Server 2012, the starting point for installing SQL Server 2012, Office Web Apps 2013 and SharePoint Server 2013. The servers I am setting up are Virtual Machines.
Here's the high level process:

1. Download install media
2. Create a VM
3. Insert media as a drive via VM settings.
4. Boot it up and install Windows Server 2012.
5. Assign a static IP Address
6. Change Regional Settings/Locale/Timezone to Perth (or wherever you may reside)
7. Change the Machine name and add it to the domain
8. Enable Remote Desktop, add users to remote desktop users
9. Add local administrators to the server
10. Done – now install SQL Server 2012, SharePoint Server 2013 or Office Web Apps 2013.

 
So let's get cracking – firstly you need to download the installation media from either MSDN, TechNet or the organisations Microsoft Volume Licensing website.
Create a new VM and insert the media image as a disk, then boot it up.

 


English (United States) is the only Language to install available initialled, being based in Perth, Western Australia I'll need to remember to change time and currency format to English (Australia)

Click Next

 Click Install now

Select Windows Server 2012 Standard Evaluation (Server with a GUI), the best option to use for SQL, SharePoint and Office Web Apps.

Tick the license terms acceptance box then click next.

 Select Custom: Install Windows only (advanced)

We’ve got an 80GB drive to start with, add further drives later on depending on your requirements, it’s always good to add multiple drives for either SQL or SharePoint so you can store SQL data files and log files on different drives.

Click Next

 Wait until install is completed, this step took roughly 10mins to complete.

Specify the local administrator password.

Send a Ctrl+Alt+Delete to the console.

Sign in as local admin

Now Windows Server 2012 is setup and ready to use, lets assign a static IP and add it to the domain.

There are many ways to launch apps, the easiest is to hit the Windows key and start typing, the Start Screen will suggest apps for you.

Another option is to right click the popup start menu.

 Right click start menu and select control panel.

 Network and Internet > Network and Sharing Center

Change Adapter Settings

 Right click the network connection and select Properties

Edit properties of IPv4, alternatively you can go down the IPv6 configuration if that’s what your network uses.

Then specify IP Address, Subnet mask and Default gateway as well as Preferred DNS server.

Now navigate to the Server Manager, click Local Server, then the computer name and then click the Change button.

Now enter Computer name and Domain and click OK,

You will be prompted to enter a domain account that will allow you to add machines to the domain.

Click OK.

Now restart the VM.

Windows Server 2012 reboots are DAMN FAST! Noticeably faster than Windows Server 2008 R2.

After the machine has rebooted, login again with local admin, then launch Control Panel.

 Select Clock, Language, and Region

Select “Change the time zone”

Then “Change time zone…”

Select Perth, then OK and OK again

Now in Server Manager, click on Local Server and then the Disabled link next to Remote Desktop.

Add domain users you want to allow remote desktop ability too. Once remote desktop is available I like to stop using the VM console as it’s typically less responsive as an RDP session.

Next we will add some local administrators.

Select Computer Management from the Tools menu in Server Manager

Add local administrator domain accounts as required.

Next I like to crank down user account control settings.

And that's it, you now have a Windows Server 2012 VM, with a machine name and static IP, added to your domain, timezone configured, remote desktop enabled and local admins added.
This is a good starting point to start installing other server products.