Microsoft Defender For Endpoint Article Series: Manual Onboarding Windows Server 2012 R2 or Windows Server 2016

This tutorial can be implemented on Windows 2012 R2, but this method can be used on Windows Server 2016. For the installation method, use the manual mode using script and agent installation (because agentless mode only available in Windows Server 2019 and above).

Pre-Requisites

The pre-requisites is available at here.

How to Onboard Windows Server 2012 R2 or Windows Server 2016 as follows:

1. Open security.microsoft.com then scroll the menu bar to the bottom left corner until find Settings Button.

2. Settings > Endpoint > Onboarding > Windows Server 2012 R2 and 2016 > Download Installation package and Download Onboarding Package

Agent Download Preparation

3. Move the file to the server that will be onboard with your server.

4. [Optional] If you have a proxy, you should do this. But if you don’t have a proxy, you can skip this. How to setting Setting Proxy :

netsh winhttp set proxy <proxy>:<port>

5. Install md4ws software and run the onboarding script via administrator (.cmd)

Extract and Install Both of them

6. Wait 5–10 Minutes

7. Check at security.microsoft.com > Device Inventory.

Onboarded. It’s okay the blank Name is Censored with White Colour.

Troubleshooting

If you got a problem and the device is not onboarded you could check with the possibility:

• Check via MDE Analyzer
• You can check the previous article here [Bahasa]: Microsoft Defender For Endpoint Article Series: Troubleshooting Koneksi Internet Pada Endpoint Menggunakan Client Analyzer
• Check Your Internet Connection / Proxy.
• Update your KB Windows from the official.
• Trigger Manual update Antivirus Version via CMD

Just run this script via cmd :

cd %ProgramFiles%\Windows Defender
MpCmdRun.exe -removedefinitions -dynamicsignatures
MpCmdRun.exe -SignatureUpdate

Trigger Update KB if needed

Link References :

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/security/defender-endpoint/configure-server-endpoints?view=o365-worldwide#windows-server-2012-r2-and-windows-server-2016

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/wdsi/defenderupdates#manual