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Install Windows Server on any VPS or Dedicated Server without KVM/iLO or IPMI
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Awesome @javimuse
Shared on LEB: https://lowendbox.com/blog/install-windows-server-on-any-vps-or-dedicated-server-without-kvm-ilo-or-ipmi/
Thanks for both @javimuse and LET.
Thanks guys for posting my tutorial in LEB, glad to help!
Running Windows Server 2022 OS on least possible resources on VPS
1 GB / 1 vCore EPYC / 16 GB storage
Sign of a good VPS -- in idle Windows RDP session, the cpu utilization should be below 3%
What do you tweak to get it working? Disable a lot of services and tasks / Removing functions / ..
This is standard windows server OS from Microsoft link. Nothing was removed.
Background on desktop was disabled to save resources while RDP at 2k screen , since there is only 1 GB.
Try running Linux desktop at 2k resolution with 1 GB VPS. That’s why , in my opinion, Windows RDP is better resource optimized.
Can you share the complete command in qemu to launch the vm? With this one i got super slow performances:
qemu-system-x86_64 \
-m 1G \
-cpu host \
-enable-kvm \
-boot order=d \
-drive file=win11ltsc.iso,media=cdrom \
-drive file=win11ltsc.img,format=raw,if=virtio \
-drive file=virtio-win.iso,media=cdrom \
-device usb-ehci,id=usb,bus=pci.0,addr=0x4 \
-device usb-tablet \
-vnc :0 \
if I get into opti> @gabemorgath said:
Do you have KVM VPS?
What is the configuration
For now i'm in the step to create a custom image and i'm using qemu on my local machine but as i said the performances are super slow. I tried in the vps too (just for curiosity) and i got bad perf too even about loading the first setup screen
You can experience low performance until reboot the server to "normal mode", just enable remote desktop and reboot.
Look at my questions again, just in case.
In my local setup i'm trying everything with a i7-6700hq with 16gb of ram. Virtualbox and vmware runs fine.
Check if your CPU support virtualization
if not, use the .gz alternative
Forget for now the VPS, i'm running it locally becouse i want to build a custom image before.
Always check that VPS computing power is strong enough to support Windows OS.
GB6 single core score > 900
and multicore score > 1600.
Running Windows Server 2025 OS
This is amazing. Much appreciated @javimuse
Better Performance
VPS with Virtual Drive
Dedicated Servers with Physical Drive:
Boot from C:
VPS with Virtual Drive
Dedicated Servers with Physical Drive:
Running Windows 11 Enterprise
@oplink VPS
2 vCore Ryzen 9 7950X / 4 GB memory
This is a really nice guide!
It is important to keep Windows RDP secured.
1. Use a custom id as account with admin privileges
2. Make default Administrator account as disabled
3. Use non standard port for connecting with Windows RDP
Allow only your IP address via the Windows Firewall to connect to RDP. Edit the 2 rules “ Remote Desktop - User Mode (TCP-In)” & “ Remote Desktop - User Mode (TCP-In)” go to the tab Scope and add your IP address(es) under Remote IP address. (You can do the same with the rule “ File and Printer Sharing (Echo Request - ICMPv4-In)” if you want to be able to ping your host frim your IP address or monitoring system).
Disable all incoming firewall rules, except for the 2 RDP rules. Note: With some providers you will lose connection to your host, after rebooting (due to not being able to obtain a network address). Please apply and test this only if you have VNC/IPMI access, or make a Powershell script to disable the firewall rules and enable them again after 5 minutes or so if you want to try some things out.
I'm wondering if it works on a Scaleway Stardust VM. I think I should give it a try.
I think you can use https://tinyinstaller.top/
Just only one command to install winserver on linux
Main point -
Only windows server 2012 so not usable for me
how about a qualified hwo-to?!
Windows Server 2012 is no longer supported (EOL last year) and should never be used due to security factors
Exactly