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Managing a VDS server under Windows: what are the options?

Managing a VDS server under Windows: what are the options?
During early development, the Windows Admin Center toolkit was called Project Honolulu.

As part of the VDS (Virtual Dedicated Server) service, the client receives a virtual dedicated server with maximum privileges. You can put any OS on it from your image or use the ready-made image in the control panel.

Let's say the user chooses a full Windows Server or an image of a stripped-down version of Windows Server Core that uses about 500 MB less RAM than a full version of Windows Server. Let's see what tools are needed to manage such a server.

Theoretically, we have several ways to manage VDS under Windows Server:

  • PowerShell;
  • Sconfig;
  • Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT);
  • Windows Admin Center.

In practice, the last two options are most often used: RSAT remote administration tools with Server Manager, as well as Windows Admin Center (WAC).

Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT)

Installation on Windows 10

For remote server management from under Windows 10, remote server administration tools are used, which include:

  • server manager;
  • snap-in management console (MMC);
  • consoles;
  • Windows PowerShell cmdlets and providers;
  • command-line tools for managing roles and features in Windows Server.

The documentation says that Remote Server Administration Tools includes Windows PowerShell cmdlet modules that can be used to manage the roles and features that run on remote servers. Although Windows PowerShell remote control is enabled by default in Windows Server, it is not enabled by default in Windows 10. To run the cmdlets that are part of Remote Server Administration Tools against a remote server, run Enable-PSremoting in an elevated Windows PowerShell session (that is, with the Run as administrator option) on a Windows client computer after installing the Remote Server Administration Tools.

Starting with the Windows 10 October 2018 Update, Remote Administration Tools is included as part of the On-Demand Features Kit directly in Windows 10. Now, instead of downloading the package, you can go to the Manage Optional Features page under Settings and click Add component" to view a list of available tools.

Managing a VDS server under Windows: what are the options?

Remote Server Administration Tools can only be installed on Professional or Enterprise editions of the operating system. These tools are not available in the Home or Standard editions. Here is a complete list of RSAT components in Windows 10:

  • RSAT: Storage Replica Module for PowerShell
  • RSAT: Active Directory Certificate Services Tools
  • RSAT: Volume License Activation Tools
  • RSAT: Remote Desktop Services Tools
  • RSAT: Group Policy Management Tools
  • Remote Server Administration Tools: Server Manager
  • Remote Server Administration Tools: System Analysis Engine for Windows PowerShell
  • Remote Server Administration Tools: IP Address Management (IPAM) Client
  • Remote Server Administration Tools: Utilities for administering BitLocker Drive Encryption
  • Remote Server Administration Tools: DHCP Server Tools
  • Remote Server Administration Tools: DNS Server Tools
  • Remote Server Administration Tools: LLDP Tools for Using Datacenter Bridge
  • Remote Server Administration Tools: Network Load Handling Tools
  • Remote Server Administration Tools: Active Directory Domain Services and Lightweight Directory Services Tools
  • Remote Server Administration Tools: Failover Clustering Tools
  • Remote Server Administration Tools: Windows Server Update Services Tools
  • Remote Server Administration Tools: Network Controller Management Tools
  • Remote Server Administration Tools: Remote Access Control Tools
  • Remote Server Administration Tools: File Services Tools
  • Remote Server Administration Tools: Shielded Virtual Machine Tools

After installing Remote Server Administration Tools for Windows 10, the Administrative Tools folder appears in the Start menu.

Managing a VDS server under Windows: what are the options?

In Remote Server Administration Tools for Windows 10, all graphical server administration tools, such as MMC snap-ins and dialog boxes, are available from the Tools menu in the Server Manager console.

Most of the tools are integrated with the Server Manager, so remote servers must first be added to the Manager's server pool in the "Tools" menu.

Installation on Windows Server

Remote servers must have Windows PowerShell and Server Manager remote management enabled to be managed using Remote Server Administration Tools for Windows 10. Remote management is enabled by default on servers running Windows Server 2019, Windows Server 2016, Windows Server 2012 R2 and Windows Server 2012.

Managing a VDS server under Windows: what are the options?

To allow remote control of a computer using Server Manager or Windows PowerShell, select the Enable remote access to this server from other computers check box. On the Windows taskbar, click Server Manager, on the Start screen, click Server Manager, in the Properties area of ​​the Local Servers page, click the hyperlink value for the Remote Management property, and there will be a check box.

Another option to enable remote management on a Windows Server computer is the following command:

Configure-SMremoting.exe-Enable

View the current remote control setting:

Configure-SMremoting.exe-Get

Although the Windows PowerShell cmdlets and command line administration tools are not listed in the Server Manager console, they are also installed as part of the remote administration tools. For example, open a Windows PowerShell session and run the cmdlet:

Get-Command -Module RDManagement

And we see a list of remote desktop services cmdlets. They are now available to run on the local machine.

You can also manage remote servers from under Windows Server. In Windows Server 2012 and later releases of Windows Server, Server Manager can be used to manage up to 100 servers that are configured to run a typical workload. The number of servers that can be managed using the single Server Manager console depends on the amount of data requested from the managed servers and the hardware and network resources available on the computer running Server Manager.

Server Manager cannot be used to manage newer editions of the Windows Server operating system. For example, Server Manager running Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Server 2012, Windows 8.1, or Windows 8 cannot be used to manage servers running Windows Server 2016.

Server Manager allows you to add servers to manage in the Add Servers dialog box in three ways.

  • Active Directory Domain Services adds servers for managing Active Directory that are in the same domain as the local computer.
  • "Domain Name Service Record" (DNS) - search for servers for management by computer name or IP address.
  • "Import Multiple Servers". Specify multiple servers to import into a file containing servers listed by computer name or IP address.

When adding remote servers to Server Manager, some of them may require credentials from a different user account to access or manage them. To specify credentials other than those used to log on to the computer running Server Manager, use the command Manage As after adding the server to the manager. It is called by right-clicking on the entry for the managed server in the tile "Servers" the home page of the role or group. Clicking the Manage As command opens a dialog box "Windows Security", in which you can enter the name of a user who has access rights on the managed server, in one of the following formats.

User name
Имя ΠΏΠΎΠ»ΡŒΠ·ΠΎΠ²Π°Ρ‚Π΅Π»Ρ@example.domain.com
Π”ΠΎΠΌΠ΅Π½  Имя ΠΏΠΎΠ»ΡŒΠ·ΠΎΠ²Π°Ρ‚Π΅Π»Ρ

Windows Admin Center (WAC)

In addition to the standard tools, Microsoft also offers Windows Admin Center (WAC), a new server administration tool. It is installed locally in the infrastructure and allows you to administer Windows Server on-premises and cloud instances, Windows 10 PCs, clusters, and HCI.

To perform tasks, remote management technologies WinRM, WMI, and PowerShell scripts are used. Today, WAC complements rather than replaces existing administration tools. According to some experts, using a web application instead of remote desktop access for administration is also the right strategy for security.

One way or another, but Windows Admin Center is not included in the operating system, so it is installed separately. Need it download from Microsoft site.

Essentially, the Windows Admin Center combines familiar RSAT and Server Manager tools into a single web interface.

Managing a VDS server under Windows: what are the options?

Windows Admin Center runs in a browser and manages Windows Server 2019, Windows Server 2016, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Server 2012, Windows 10, Azure Stack HCI, and more through a Windows Admin Center gateway installed on a Windows Server or Windows 10 domain joined The gateway manages servers using remote PowerShell and WMI through WinRM. Here's what the whole scheme looks like:

Managing a VDS server under Windows: what are the options?

The Windows Admin Center Gateway allows you to securely connect to and manage servers from anywhere through a browser.

Server Management Manager in Windows Admin Center includes the following features:

  • display of resources and their use;
  • certificate management;
  • device management;
  • viewing events;
  • conductor;
  • firewall management;
  • management of installed applications;
  • setting up local users and groups;
  • network settings;
  • viewing and terminating processes, as well as creating process dumps;
  • registry change;
  • managing scheduled tasks;
  • Windows service management;
  • enable and disable roles and features;
  • managing Hyper-V virtual machines and virtual switches;
  • storage management;
  • storage replica management;
  • managing Windows updates;
  • PowerShell console
  • remote desktop connection.

That is, almost the full functionality of RSAT, but not all (see below).

Windows Admin Center can be installed on Windows Server or Windows 10 to manage remote servers.

WAC+RSAT and the future

WAC gives access to file, disk and device management, as well as registry editing - all these functions are not available in RSAT, and disk and device management in RSAT is possible only with a graphical interface.

On the other hand, RSAT remote access tools give us complete control over the roles on the server, while WAC is practically useless in this regard.

Thus, we can conclude that in order to fully manage a remote server, a WAC + RSAT bundle is now needed. But Microsoft continues to develop the Windows Admin Center as the only graphical management interface for Windows Server 2019 with the integration of the full functionality of the "Server Manager" and the Microsoft Management Console (MMC) snap-in.

Windows Admin Center is currently free as an add-on, but Microsoft looks to see it as its primary server management tool in the future. It is quite possible that in a couple of years WAC will be included in Windows Server, as RSAT tools are now included.

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Managing a VDS server under Windows: what are the options?

Source: habr.com