When you create a new Windows machine it defaults to using DHCP to get an IP address. While that is fine for client machines most people apply a static address to their servers. Up until Windows 2012 you had 2 choices – use the GUI or use PowerShell and WMI.
Server 2012 introduced a host of cmdlets for administering your network settings. Setting an IP address is simple as this:
New-NetIPAddress -InterfaceIndex 12 -IPAddress ‘10.10.55.101’ -AddressFamily IPv4 -PrefixLength 24
I haven’t used it but you can also set the default gateway which would make the command
New-NetIPAddress -InterfaceIndex 12 -IPAddress ‘10.10.55.101’ -AddressFamily IPv4 -PrefixLength 24 -DefaultGateway ‘10.10.55.01’
The DNS server addresses can be set like this
Set-DnsClientServerAddress -InterfaceIndex 12 -ServerAddresses ‘10.10.55.100’
The cmdlets are from the NetTCPIP and DnsClient modules respectively.
THESE MODULES ARE ONLY AVAILABLE ON WINDOWS 8/2012 AND LATER.