As we all know,the Windows Server Essentials Experience role is available in Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard and Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter. We can add the Windows Server Essentials Experience role in Server Manager or via Windows PowerShell.
In this article, we introduce the steps to install and configure Windows Server Essentials Experience role on Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard via PowerShell locally and remotely. For better analyze, we divide this article into two parts.
Before installing the Windows Server Essentials Experience Role, please useGet-WindowsFeature PowerShell cmdlet to ensure the Windows Server Essentials Experience (ServerEssentialsRole) is available. (Figure 1)
Figure 1.
Part 1: Install Windows Server Essentials Experience role locally
- Add Windows Server Essentials Experience role
Run Windows PowerShell as administrator, then typeAdd-WindowsFeature ServerEssentialsRole cmdlet to install Windows Server Essentials Experience role. (Figure 2)
Figure 2.
Note: It is necessary to configure Windows Server Essentials Experience (Post-deployment Configuration). Otherwise, you will encounter following issue when opening Dashboard. (Figure 3)
Figure 3.
2. Configure Windows Server Essentials Experience role
(1) In an existing domain environment
Firstly, please join the Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard computer to the existing domain through the path:Control Panel\System\Change Settings\”Change…”\Member of. (Figure 4)
Figure 4.
After that, please install Windows Server Essentials Experience role as original description. After installation completed, please use the following command to configure Windows Server Essentials:
Start-WssConfigurationService –Credential <Your Credential>
Note: The type ofYour Credential should be as: Domain-Name\Domain-User-Account.You must be a member of the Enterprise Admin group and Domain Admin group in Active Directory when using the command above to configure Windows Server Essentials. (Figure 5)
Figure 5.
Next, you can type the password for the domain account. (Figure 6)
Figure 6.
After setting the credential, please type “Y” to continue to configure Windows Server Essentials. (Figure 7)
Figure 7.
By the way, you can useGet-WssConfigurationStatus PowerShell cmdlet toget the status of the configuration of Windows Server Essentials. Specify theShowProgress parameter to view a progress indicator. (Figure 8)
Figure 8.
(2) In a non-domain environment
Open PowerShell (Run as Administrator) on the Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard and type following PowerShell cmdlets: (Figure 9)
Start-WssConfigurationService -CompanyName "xxx" -DNSName "xxx" -NetBiosName "xxx" -ComputerName "xxx” –NewAdminCredential $cred
Figure 9.
After you type the commands above and click Enter, you can create a new administrator credential. (Figure 10)
After creating the new administrator credential, please type “Y” to continue to configure Windows Server Essentials. (Figure 11)
After a reboot, all the configurations will be completed and you can open the Windows Server Essentials Dashboard without any errors. (Figure 12)
Figure 12.
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