I found today that the terminology and processes were starting to become more familiar... finally! I thought it was extremely helpful to review my classmates' reflections from the previous few days to deepen my understanding of the concepts and for review.

The objective of our work today was to install the Windows 7 Enterprise Operating System on two computers. We found the following resources helpful to complete the install:

Finest Daily News. (2010). How to install windows 7. Retrieved July 8, 2011, from http://www.finestdaily.com/how-to/windows-how-to/how-to-install-windows-7.html

Microsoft. (2011). Installing and reinstalling windows 7. Retrieved July 8, 2011, from http://windows.microsoft.com/en-CA/windows7/Installing-and-reinstalling-Windows-7

Microsoft. (2011). Manual installation of windows 7 overview. Retrieved from http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/confirmation.aspx?id=22946

Strider. (2008, November 4). Re: Windows 7 installation guide / tutorial windows 7 [Online forum comment]. Retrieved from http://www.techtalkz.com/windows-7/514412-windows-7-installation-guide-tutorial.html

Prior to this work we needed to activate the server and confirm that the DHCP and DNS settings were working.

To activate the product ID: >Start>right click on computer>Properties>Activate>add product ID: 55041-394-5224555-76165. This was an important step; If we did not activate the product ID the computer/server would shut down.

Note:
Microsoft has different methods of activation (we used the MAK method):
MAK - multiple activation key
authenticates to the internet, only so many activations allowed
KMS - Key management server
The product talks with the a local server running KMS that allows it to authenticate. If the product does not communicate
with the server 180 days, the authentication fails.

To allow our server to look up domain names from other servers we changed the DNS on the network adapter:
DNS on network adapter and server entries point to 192.168.181.50. We added two forwarders to ensure connectivity if one server was down.

Next we changed the DHCP entries
Change DNS entries
Change DHCP entries

Initial Configuration Task (this opens on startup):

To begin – select Enable Remote Desktop

To allow remote access:

Click OK


Click OK

Select Configure networking

Click properties


Change the preferred DNS server:



Delete alternate DNS server

OK, close


Change DNS settings




Edit



Add the Ed 5769 network IP address



We added a second server address so if one server could resolve a name, we can request DNS services from another server.



OK
Installing Windows 7


DHCP





To change DNS settings on DHCP:

We followed the steps below to Install Windows 7 Enterprise Operating System:

Boot machine
- press F12 to bring up boot menu

Insert windows 7 DVD
- choose boot from CD Rom
- press any key to boot from CD

Set the following:

Language - english (Canada)
Time and currency English (Canada)
Keyboard or input method: US

Click install now

Accept license
Custom

Drive options (Advanced)

Delete all partitions

Create new partition the entire disk
Format the new partition

Click next

Name - admin
computer name - SCworkstation

password admin5769
hint - no

recommended settings for updates
mountain time zone
work network

To install drivers we went to the manufacturers website (Dell) and downloaded and installed the missing Chipset drivers.

Next we repeated the steps to install Windows 7 on another workstation. We assigned this station the name: SCworkstation2. We did have an issue on this computer so we started over and re-installed Windows 7.

Overall I think things ran quite smoothly today and I look forward to reviewing the documentation as we work on assignment 3 this weekend.