With Windows Server 2008 R2 being the first x64 only version of Microsoft’s popular server operating system the maximum memory configurations are much simpler to remember.  It will likely be a while yet before the x32 version of Windows Server 2008 is stopped being deployed fully in production environments meaning that you’ll have to keep tabs on how much memory each version and build type can take.

Although it being relatively straight forward to remember here’s a table outlining the maximum memory limits of the various editions and versions of Windows Server 2008.

I’ve been doing some work around creating an HP Rapid Deployment Pack Windows Server 2008 automated install.  In my travels I came across this well documented and informative blog posting by Elan Shudnow that takes you through step by step, the process of creating a unattended Windows Server 2008 base build.

As the unattended build process differs from that of previous versions of Windows Server it’s well worth checking out.

Also, here’s another useful Microsoft link:

Windows Vista/W2K8 Deployment Step-by-Step Guide (although it says Vista – it also applies to W2K8)

After imaging a server and then trying to add it to a Windows Server 2003 Network Load Balancing (NLB) configuration with the original machine you will get this error message: “no interfaces are available for installing a new cluster”.

This is due to the network GUID’s in the registry being the same. Even re-SID’ing the server using a product such as SysInternals ‘newsid’ does not resolve this issue. Do not fear – it is infact easy to resolve. What you want to do is give the network adapter that you’re trying to add to the network load balanced configuration a new GUID.

Follow these steps:

1. On the server from the image enter into ‘Device Manager’.
2.Expand out ‘Network Adapters’ and right mouse click on the Network adapter that you are trying to add to the network load balanced (NLB) configuration.
3. Select ‘Uninstall’. The network card (NIC) has now been uninstalled.
4. Next you want to re-add the network card which in turn will create a new GUID for it. Do this by right mouse clicking your servers name at the top of the ‘Device Manager’ list and select ‘Scan for hardware changes’. This will now re-detect the network card (NIC) and give it a new GUID.
5. Now exit out of ‘Device Manager’ and try re-adding that server into the NLB configuration. You should find this now works all ok.

Good Luck

Here are a handful of useful Microsoft links that could help get you out of that sticky situation:

How to disable the requirement that a global catalog server be available to validate user logons 

How To Remove Orphaned Domains from Active Directory

How to delete a failed Domain Controller (DC) object from Active Directory

The Sysvol and Netlogon Shares Are Missing After You Restore a Domain Controller from Backup

How can I transfer some or all of the FSMO Roles from one DC to another?

Check this easy fix out:

http://blogs.technet.com/fareedmk/archive/2007/07/12/windows-vista-compatibility-with-adminpak.aspx

This post is just for miscellaneous stuff that I may want to reference every 10 years:

Ports used in Windows Server 2003:

389 – LDAP read/write operations
3268 – Global Catalogue search operations (for more info see: http://www.computerperformance.co.uk/w2k3/w2k3_global_catalog.htm)