Life after Setup

After the Setup program completes its duty, you still have several tasks to complete before your server is ready to use. The following sections describe these post-installation chores.

Logging on

After the Setup program restarts your computer for the last time, you must log on to the server by using the Administrator account:

1. Press Ctrl+Alt+Delete to open the Log On to Windows dialog box.

2. Type the password you created for the Administrator account during setup.

3. Click OK to log on.

   Windows grinds and whirs for a moment while it starts up and then displays the familiar Windows desktop.

Activating Windows

The Microsoft Product Activation feature is designed to prevent you from installing an illegal copy of Windows or other Microsoft software products.

After you install a product, you have 30 days to activate it. If you don't activate the product within 30 days, it stops working. To prevent that from happening, activate the software immediately after installing it.

Fortunately, activating a Windows server operating system is easy to do if you have a working Internet connection. Windows displays a pop-up reminder in the notification area (in the right corner of the taskbar). Just click this bubble to start the Activation Wizard, as shown in Figure 7-3.

Figure 7-3: Activating Windows.

When you activate a Microsoft software product, a unique code is assigned to your system and sent to Microsoft, where the code is stored in a Product Activation database. The code includes information about the configuration of your computer, so Microsoft can tell whether someone tries to install the same copy of the software on a different computer.

The activation code is based on ten hardware characteristics and allows for you to make certain changes to your computer without having to reactivate. The Product Activation feature has a certain amount of built-in tolerance to hardware changes. As a result, you can add another hard drive or more memory to your server without having to reactivate. But, if you change the computer too much, Product Activation thinks you've stolen the software or are trying to install it on a second computer. In that case, you'll have to contact Microsoft and convince them that you've just done a major overhaul of the server computer and should be allowed to reactivate your software. Good luck. For the details about how Product Activation determines when you need to reactivate, see the nearby sidebar "How much change is too much?"

How much change is too much?

Microsoft's Product Activation feature uses an activation code that's based in part on your computer's hardware configuration. In particular, the code includes information about the following ten hardware components of your system:

• The display adapter

• The SCSI disk adapter

• The IDE disk adapter

• The network adapter's MAC address

• The amount of RAM

• The processor type

• The processor's serial number

• The hard drive device type

• The hard drive's volume serial number

• The CD-ROM, CD-RW, or DVD-ROM drive

To determine whether your computer's hardware has changed, Product Activation uses a voting system that compares the hardware that was present when the product was first installed with the current hardware. For each component that's the same, one vote is tallied-except for the network card's MAC address, which counts for three votes. If you get at least seven votes, you don't have to reactivate the product. However, if you get fewer than seven votes, you have to reactivate.

Suppose that you upgrade the computer's hard drive and add 128MB of memory. Because the network card is the same, it counts for three votes. The SCSI disk adapter, IDE disk adapter, processor type, serial number, and CD-ROM drive score an additional five votes, for a total of nine votes. Because you exceeded seven votes, you don't have to reactivate.

However, suppose also that you then replace the network interface card. Now you don't get the three votes for the network card, so you have only six votes and will need to reactivate the product. (You may be able to thwart this process by making sure that the new hard drive uses the same volume serial number as the old drive.)

You can activate your software in two ways:

• The easiest way is automatically over the Internet.

• If you don't have a working Internet connection, you can do it over the phone. However, you'll probably be put on hold for a while until a customer service representative can answer. Then you have to read a 50- digit number over the phone and write down the long confirmation number that you're given to type into the Activation dialog box. Product Activation over the Internet is a lot easier.

Tip 

If your company has a volume licensing agreement with Microsoft, you don't have to bother with Product Activation; it doesn't apply to products purchased under a volume licensing agreement.

Downloading service packs

Service packs are maintenance updates to an operating system that contain minor enhancements and bug fixes. Most of the fixes in a service pack address security problems that have been discovered since the operating system was first released. The usual way to get service packs is by downloading them from the operating system vendor's Web site.

Depending on the operating system version you installed, you may or may not need to apply a service pack immediately after installing the operating system. The Windows Server 2003 Setup program automatically checks for updates before it installs the operating system, so you shouldn't normally have to install a service pack after running Setup. However, you may need to do so with other operating systems.

Unfortunately, applying service packs is something you have to do throughout the life of the server. Microsoft and other operating system vendors periodically release new service packs to correct problems as they arise.

Testing the installation

After Setup finishes, check to make sure that your server is up and running. Here are some simple checks you can perform to make sure that your server has been properly installed:

• Check the Event Viewer to see whether it contains any error messages related to installation or startup. Depending on the Windows server version you're using, you can open the Event Viewer by choosing Start Administrative Tools Event Viewer or Start Program Files Administrative Tools Event Viewer. (Non-Windows server operating systems have similar features that allow you to view event logs.)

• Check your TCP/IP settings by running the command ipconfig /all from a command prompt. This command tells you whether TCP/IP is running and shows you the host name, IP address, and other useful TCP/IP information.

• To make sure that you can reach the server over the network, open a command prompt at a client computer and attempt to ping the server by entering the command ping hostname where hostname is the name displayed by the ipconfig command for the server.