Forefront TMG on Windows Server 2008 Core R2

To continue the unsupported series I decided to try to install Forefront TMG on Windows Server 2008 R2 over the holidays after a discussion with Kent Nordström from XP Services and Martin Lidholm from Lidholm&Co. This proved to be an impossible mission though since prerequisites are impossible to install on a Core-installation.

Failures

First failure: Installing SQL Server 2008 Express Edition.
Did this manually, came a little further.

Second failure: Prerequisite check doesn’t work due to usage of legacy technology on the TMG part.
Error message:
15:36:57 ISA setup CA INFO : Running command line: C:Windowssystem32servermanagercmd.exe -inputpath “D:FPC\PreRequisiteInstallerFilesWinRolesInstallSA_Win7.xml”…

Well, servermanagercmd isn’t around anymore and is replaced with PowerShell. So even if all the roles were to be installed, it’d still fail. Probably possible to copy servermanagercmd.exe from a 2008 Core just to fool the installer.

Prerequisites

The prerequisites for TMG states that the following roles/features need to be installed:

Network Policy Server (not possible on Core)
Routing and Remote Access Services (not possible on Core)
Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services Tools
Network Load Balancing Tools
Windows PowerShell
Microsoft .NET 3.5 Framework SP1
Microsoft Windows Installer 4.5
Windows Update
Windows Web Services API

Conclusion:

Server Core would be a perfect platform for TMG considering the attack surface, less services, less patching and so on. The management of TMG / Server Core is done remotely anyway so the lack of a GUI wouldn’t be negative either. I’d like to see a special build from Microsoft where the prereqs are installed (like the Hyper-V SKU where clustering is included).

5 thoughts on “Forefront TMG on Windows Server 2008 Core R2”

  1. Hello,
    Thank you for your page but I am still not able to install TMG on 2008 R2 server Core
    I tried to copy servermanagercmd from a 2008 but there are still missing file
    Is there a way to skip prerequisit check ? Or manually instal them
    Thank you for your help
    Romain

  2. I disabled the verification inside the msi but I have a error at the end of the install
    “setup failed while creating the services configuration”
    I don’t know what can I do
    Thank you for your help
    Romain

  3. Hi!

    Well, according to the article you’re missing out on two prereqs that won’t install on Core.

    Network Policy Server (not possible on Core)
    Routing and Remote Access Services (not possible on Core)

    So unless Microsoft comes up with a special SKU for TMG/UAG based on Core, we’re out of luck…

    /J

  4. Lucky I saw your last comment within all the spam, must find another solution for that…

    To answer your question on if there’s a hack to get it installed, the answer is unfortunately no since the prereqs for RRAS among other things aren’t in Core at all (and are required on a far deeper level than just copying them into the filesystem…)

  5. Thank you for all your response

    I finally decided to install 2008 standard and all is working properly

    I will wait for the next version/patch on core