Windows Server 2012 : Installing roles and features (part 1) - Installing roles and features using Server Manager

To install a role or feature on a server running Windows Server 2012, the server must have access to the binaries for installing that role or feature. A new capability called Features On Demand allows administrators to completely remove the binaries for roles and features from a server running Windows Server 2012 to reduce the amount of disk space the operating system uses.

If the binaries for a particular role or feature you want to install on a server have previously been removed from the server’s system drive, Windows Server 2012 can obtain these binaries in several ways:

You can use Group Policy to control whether removed binaries are downloaded from Windows Update or not, and you can specify the path where the binaries can be found if their associated roles or features need to be installed. The policy setting for controlling this behavior is as follows:

Figure 1 shows the configuration options for this policy setting.

Figure 1. Group Policy setting for controlling installation of previously removed role and feature binaries.

In previous versions of Windows Server, you could use the Add Roles Wizard and Add Features Wizard to install roles and features, respectively, on the server. Windows 2012 now includes a single redesigned Add Roles And Features Wizard that provides greater flexibility and control for installing roles and features on servers. This wizard provides an easy way for administrators of small to midsized organizations to install roles and features on servers running Windows Server 2012 in their environment.

To use Server Manager to install a role or a feature on a server running Windows Server 2012, begin by clicking the Manage menu and selecting Add Roles And Features to open the Add Roles and Features Wizard. The Select Installation Type page of this wizard shown in Figure 2 offers two options for installing roles and features on the server:

Figure 2. Windows Server 2012 offers two options for installing roles and features.

Choosing the first option on the Select Installation Type page leads to the Select Destination Server page of the wizard (shown in Figure 3), which you use to choose a remote server from your server pool on which to install roles and features. Note that this page includes an option for selecting an offline virtual hard disk instead of an online server. In Windows Server 2012, you now can install roles and features on offline virtual hard disks, and this capability .

Figure 3. Select the server you want to install roles and features on.

On the Select Server Roles page, shown in Figure 4, you can choose one or more roles to install on the selected server. When you do this, the wizard might prompt you to install the remote Server Administration Tools for that role or feature plus any other management tools needed for managing the role or feature.

Figure 4. Selecting a role to install on the server.

The Select Features Page is next, and you use it to choose features to install on your server. Additional wizard pages might also be displayed to provide you with additional information or configuration options for the roles and features you decide to install on the server, or a list of role services to choose from for the particular roles you are installing.

When you reach the Confirm Installation Selections page, shown in Figure 5, you can select the check box if you want the remote server to be restarted if this is needed to complete installation of the selected roles and features.

Figure 5. The confirmation page of the wizard.

At the bottom of the Confirm Installation Selections page shown in Figure 5 is a Specify An Alternate Source Path link. Click this link if you previously removed any of the binaries for the roles or features you are installing on the server. Clicking this link displays a Specify Alternate Source Path dialog box for specifying the UNC path to the location where you can find the binaries needed to install the roles or features.

When a new role is installed on the server, a new page for this role is added to the Server Manager console. For example, Figure 6 shows the Print Services page, which appears once the Print And Document Services role has been installed on one or more servers in your server pool. A new tile named Print Services also appears on the Dashboard so that you can monitor events, services, and the performance of your print servers and confirm their manageability.

Figure 6. Each role on a managed server has its associated page in Server Manager.

The notification flag in the menu bar of Server Manager in Figure 6 indicates that one informational notification has been raised. Clicking this flag provides brief summary information concerning this notification, which indicates that installation of the selected feature has been successful.