WSA M01: Windows Server Fundamentals

Windows Server Fundamentals

Your journey into Windows Server administration begins here.

What You'll Learn

Windows Server Editions - Standard, Datacenter, and licensing models
Installation Options - Desktop Experience vs Server Core
Server Manager - Your command center for Windows Server
PowerShell Basics - Cmdlets, the pipeline, and filtering with Where-Object
Initial Configuration - Post-installation setup tasks

                    Certification Alignment: This module covers objectives from the AZ-800 exam domain "Manage Windows Servers and workloads in a hybrid environment" (10-15% of exam).
                

Windows Server Editions

Windows Server 2022 comes in several editions, each designed for different workloads and environments.

Edition	Use Case	Licensing
Standard	Physical or lightly virtualized environments	Per-core + CALs, 2 VMs included
Datacenter	Highly virtualized datacenters	Per-core + CALs, Unlimited VMs
Essentials	Small business (≤25 users)	Per-server, no CALs needed
Azure Edition	Azure hybrid cloud integration	Azure-only features (Hotpatch)

                    Key Insight: The main difference between Standard and Datacenter is virtualization rights. Choose Datacenter when you need more than 2 VMs per host.
                

Installation Options

Windows Server can be installed in two modes. This decision is made during installation and affects how you manage the server.

Desktop Experience

Full GUI with familiar Windows interface
Server Manager dashboard
Larger disk footprint (~10GB more)
More attack surface
Best for: Learning, legacy apps

Server Core

Command-line only (no GUI)
Managed via PowerShell or remote tools
Smaller footprint, fewer updates
Reduced attack surface
Best for: Production, security-focused

                    Important: You can switch from Desktop Experience to Server Core, but not the other way around without reinstallation. Choose carefully!
                

Server Manager

Server Manager is the central management console for Windows Server with Desktop Experience. It launches automatically at logon.

Server Manager Dashboard

Welcome Tile - Quick actions (Add roles, Add servers, Create groups)
Roles & Server Groups - Monitor installed roles across multiple servers
Events - Aggregated event log entries with filtering
Services - Quick view of running/stopped services
Performance - CPU, memory counters at a glance
BPA Results - Best Practices Analyzer findings

                    Pro Tip: Server Manager can manage multiple remote servers. Add them via "Manage > Add Servers" to create a single pane of glass for your infrastructure.
                

Roles and Features

Windows Server functionality is divided into Roles (major services) and Features (supporting capabilities).

Common Server Roles

Role	Purpose
Active Directory Domain Services	Identity management, domain authentication
DNS Server	Name resolution for the domain
DHCP Server	Automatic IP address assignment
File and Storage Services	File sharing, storage management
Hyper-V	Virtualization platform
Web Server (IIS)	Host websites and web applications

Installation: Server Manager → Manage → Add Roles and Features Wizard

PowerShell: Verb-Noun Pattern

PowerShell is the backbone of modern Windows Server administration, every GUI action has a PowerShell equivalent and PowerShell can do much more.

PowerShell commands (called cmdlets) follow a consistent Verb-Noun pattern that tells you exactly what each command does:

Get-Service, Get-Process, Get-EventLog (retrieve info)
Set-ExecutionPolicy, Set-Service (modify settings)
New-Item, New-ADUser (create objects)
Remove-Item, Remove-WindowsFeature (delete objects)

Checking PowerShell Version

PowerShell has built-in variables that hold system data, they always start with $. First check on any server: which PowerShell version is running. PS 5.1 (built into Windows Server) and PS 7+ (installed separately) support different cmdlets.

# Query the built-in $PSVersionTable variable
PS C:\> $PSVersionTable
                

# Output:
Name                  Value
PSVersion             5.1.20348.2849
PSEdition             Desktop
CLRVersion            4.0.30319.42000
                

Discovering Cmdlets & Help

Search for cmdlets by verb to discover what's available, then pull up built-in help for any command.

# List every cmdlet that starts with "Get-"
PS C:\> Get-Command -Verb Get
                

# Output (truncated):
Cmdlet  Get-Acl           Microsoft.PowerShell.Security
Cmdlet  Get-Service       Microsoft.PowerShell.Management
Cmdlet  Get-Process       Microsoft.PowerShell.Management
                

# Show help for Get-Service with working examples
PS C:\> Get-Help Get-Service -Examples
                

The PowerShell Pipeline

The pipeline operator | sends the output of one command directly into another for filtering, sorting, or formatting, all in a single line.

The pipe is a conveyor belt: the left command produces objects, the right command processes each one. Unlike Linux pipes that pass raw text, PowerShell pipes pass full objects with inspectable, filterable properties.

# Send all services to Select-Object to show only the first 5
PS C:\> Get-Service | Select-Object -First 5
                    

Filtering with Where-Object

Where-Object passes through only the objects matching your condition. The condition lives inside a script block { }.

Inside the script block, $_ is the current object. Access its properties with a dot ($_.PropertyName). The operator -eq means "equals."

# Keep only services where Status equals 'Running'
PS C:\> Get-Service | Where-Object { $_.Status -eq 'Running' }
                

# Output:
Status   Name          DisplayName
Running  BFE           Base Filtering Engine
Running  CryptSvc      Cryptographic Services
                

Where-Object: Anatomy + Operators

Anatomy of the Command

`Get-Service`	Retrieve all services
`\|`	Pipe to next command
`Where-Object`	Filter the pipeline
`{ }`	Script block
`$_`	Current object
`.Status`	Access property
`-eq 'Running'`	Equals comparison

Comparison Operators

`-eq`	Equals
`-ne`	Not equals
`-gt / -lt`	Greater / Less than
`-like`	Wildcard match (`Win*`)

Booleans are $true and $false.

Chaining Multiple Pipes

Chain as many pipes as you need. Each | passes the result to the next command, building a data-processing assembly line.

# Get processes → sort by CPU usage → take the top 5
PS C:\> Get-Process | Sort-Object CPU -Descending | Select-Object -First 5
                

# Output:
Handles  NPM(K)  PM(K)    WS(K)   CPU(s)     Id  ProcessName
   1842      98  245612  301244   184.33   4012  svchost
    623      31   87204   93180    72.08   2548  ServerManager
    412      22   51020   58432    31.55    876  lsass
                

                    Lab Preview: In Lab 2, you'll use Get-WindowsFeature | Where-Object { $_.Installed -eq $true } to filter installed server roles, same pattern.
                

Essential Commands: System Info

First on any new server: get its identity and hardware details. Two commands, one for the full picture, one for the quick answer.

# Pull detailed hardware, OS, and domain info
PS C:\> Get-ComputerInfo
                

# Output:
WindowsProductName              WindowsVersion    CsDomain
Windows Server 2022 Standard    21H2              corp.local
                

# Quick identity check, just the hostname
PS C:\> hostname
DC01
                

Essential Commands: Services

Services are the backbone of Windows Server. Check which ones are running, start stopped services, restart misbehaving ones.

# Show only services currently running
PS C:\> Get-Service | Where-Object {$_.Status -eq 'Running'}
                

# Start the Print Spooler service
PS C:\> Start-Service -Name Spooler
                

# Restart the Windows Time service to force a time resync
PS C:\> Restart-Service -Name W32Time
                

Essential Commands: Processes

When a server is slow, find which processes are consuming the most CPU.

# Sort processes by CPU usage, top 10 consumers
PS C:\> Get-Process | Sort-Object CPU -Descending | Select-Object -First 10
                

# Output:
Handles  NPM(K)  PM(K)    WS(K)   CPU(s)     Id  ProcessName
   1842      98  245612  301244   184.33   4012  svchost
    623      31   87204   93180    72.08   2548  ServerManager
    412      22   51020   58432    31.55    876  lsass
                

Essential Commands: Event Logs

Event logs are your server's diary. Check recent entries or filter by error level when troubleshooting.

# 20 most recent entries from the System event log
PS C:\> Get-EventLog -LogName System -Newest 20
                

# Filter the System log to show only Error-level entries
PS C:\> Get-EventLog -LogName System -EntryType Error
                

# Output (errors only):
Index  Time          EntryType   Source       EventID  Message
 8839  Feb 08 08:30  Error       NETLOGON    5719  No domain control...
                

                    Pro Tip: Use Get-Help cmdlet -Online to open Microsoft docs in your browser for any command.
                

Initial Configuration: Checklist

After installing Windows Server, complete these essential configuration tasks:

Set Computer Name, rename from default (WIN-XXXXX)
Configure Network, static IP for servers, DNS settings
Windows Update, apply latest security patches
Time Zone, critical for AD and logging
Remote Desktop, enable for remote management
Windows Firewall, configure for required services
Join Domain, connect to Active Directory

Rename Server & Assign Static IP

Every server starts with a random default name and DHCP. Rename it, then pin it to a static IP so other machines can always find it.

# Rename this server and reboot to apply
PS C:\> Rename-Computer -NewName "DC01" -Restart
                

# Assign a static IP, subnet, and gateway to the Ethernet adapter
PS C:\> New-NetIPAddress -InterfaceAlias "Ethernet" -IPAddress 192.168.1.10 -PrefixLength 24 -DefaultGateway 192.168.1.1
                

# Output:
IPAddress         InterfaceAlias  PrefixLength  DefaultGateway
192.168.1.10      Ethernet        24            192.168.1.1
                

Configure DNS

Without correct DNS, the server cannot resolve domain names or find domain controllers for authentication. Point it at your local DC plus a public fallback.

# Set the Ethernet adapter's DNS to local DC + public fallback
PS C:\> Set-DnsClientServerAddress -InterfaceAlias "Ethernet" -ServerAddresses 192.168.1.10,8.8.8.8
                

                    Lab Preview: In Lab 1 you'll run these three commands (rename, static IP, DNS) to bring a freshly-installed server into the corp.local domain.
                

Remote Management Options

In production, you rarely sit at a server console. Four primary remote-management tools, each with a use case:

Tool	Use Case	Protocol
Remote Desktop (RDP)	Full GUI access	TCP 3389
PowerShell Remoting	Command-line administration	WinRM (5985/5986)
Server Manager	Multi-server GUI management	WinRM
Windows Admin Center	Modern web-based management	HTTPS

Enable PSRemoting & Connect

PowerShell Remoting must be enabled on the target first, then you can open an interactive session that gives you a live prompt on the remote server.

# Enable WinRM and configure the firewall
PS C:\> Enable-PSRemoting -Force
                

# Open an interactive PowerShell session on SERVER01
PS C:\> Enter-PSSession -ComputerName SERVER01
                

# Prompt changes to show you're remote:
[SERVER01]: PS C:\Users\Administrator\Documents>
                

Fan-Out with Invoke-Command

Invoke-Command runs the same script block on multiple servers in parallel, how admins manage fleets of machines efficiently.

# Run Get-Service on DC01 and DC02 simultaneously
PS C:\> Invoke-Command -ComputerName DC01,DC02 -ScriptBlock { Get-Service }
                

# Output (PSComputerName tags each result):
Status   Name         DisplayName         PSComputerName
Running  W32Time      Windows Time        DC01
Running  DNS          DNS Server          DC01
Running  W32Time      Windows Time        DC02
                

Windows Admin Center

Windows Admin Center (WAC) is Microsoft's modern, browser-based management tool that consolidates many administrative tasks.

Key Features

Single Pane of Glass - Manage servers, clusters, and hyper-converged infrastructure
Azure Integration - Connect on-premises servers to Azure services
Role-Based Access - Delegate admin tasks securely
Extensions - Add functionality through Microsoft and partner extensions
No Agent Required - Uses existing WinRM/PowerShell

                    AZ-800 Note: Windows Admin Center is heavily featured in the exam. Know how to deploy it (gateway mode vs desktop mode) and use it for common tasks.
                

Server Core: sconfig

Server Core has no GUI. When you log in, you get a bare command prompt. sconfig is the menu-driven Server Configuration tool for common setup tasks.

# Launch the menu-driven Server Configuration tool
C:\> sconfig
                

# Menu shown:
         Server Configuration
1) Domain/Workgroup:                    Workgroup: WORKGROUP
2) Computer Name:                       WIN-A83KD92MN4P
4) Configure Remote Management:         Enabled
7) Remote Desktop:                      Disabled
8) Network Settings
                

PowerShell on Server Core

PowerShell is your primary tool on Server Core. Switch from the basic prompt into PowerShell, then list available roles and features.

# Switch from the basic command prompt into PowerShell
C:\> powershell
                

# List all roles and features with their install status
PS C:\> Get-WindowsFeature
                

# Output (subset):
Display Name              Name                  State
[ ] AD Domain Services    AD-Domain-Services    Avail
[ ] DNS Server            DNS                   Avail
[X] File & Storage Svcs  FileAndStorage-Svcs  Inst
                

sconfig Menu Reference

The sconfig menu organizes common Server Core configuration into numbered options:

1) Domain/Workgroup membership
2) Computer name
4) Remote management settings
6) Windows Update settings
7) Remote Desktop
8) Network settings

                    Best Practice: Configure Server Core remotely with Windows Admin Center, PowerShell Remoting, or RSAT from another machine.
                

Module Summary

Key Takeaways

Editions: Standard vs Datacenter depends on VM licensing needs
Installation: Desktop Experience for learning, Server Core for production
Server Manager: Central dashboard for local and remote server management
PowerShell: Verb-Noun pattern, the pipeline |, and filtering with Where-Object
Initial Config: Name, IP, updates, time zone, domain join
Remote Tools: RDP, PowerShell Remoting, Windows Admin Center

                    Ready for Practice! Complete the GUI Lab to explore Server Manager, then tackle the PowerShell Lab to practice essential commands.
                

GUI Lab: Server Manager → PowerShell Lab → Take Quiz Back to Course

WSA Module 01: Windows Server Fundamentals