New Server Manager Tool
A tool that has been completely redone for Windows Server 2012 is the Server Manager console, shown in Figure 1.
Server Manager consolidates all the server configuration tasks into a
single unified management tool. Administrators can now configure server
names and IP addresses (that used to be in Control Panel), add server
roles and features (was in Server Manager), and launch administrator
tools (was off the Start button) that are now all in the new Server
Manager console.
Figure 1. Server Manager.
Updated in
Windows Server 2012 is the ability for an administrator to use the
Server Manager tool to access not only the server resources on the
current server system, but also to remotely access server resources
through the Server Manager tool on remote server systems. This remote
capability of Server Manager minimizes the need of the administrator to
remotely log on to systems to manage them; it allows the administrator
to sit at a single Server Manager console and gain access to other
servers in the organization.
Improvements in Distributed Administration
For remote or branch offices that do have IT
personnel in the remote locations, administration and management tasks
have been challenging as related to the distribution of proper security
rights. Either remote IT personnel were given full domain administrator
rights when they should have only been given limited to rights specific
to their site or administrators were not given any administrative
rights because it was too difficult to apply a more limiting role.
Windows Server 2012 Active Directory
has now defined a set of rights specific to branch office and remote
site administrators. Very similar to site administrators back in the
old Exchange Server 5.5 days—when an administrator could add users,
contacts, and administer local Exchange servers—now network
administrators in Active Directory can be delegated rights based on a
branch or remote site role. This enables those administrators to make
changes specific to their branch location. This, along with all the
other tools in Windows Server 2012 specific to branch office and remote
office locations, now provides better IT services to organizations with
multiple offices in the enterprise.
PowerShell for Administrative Tasks
In the past couple versions of Windows
Server, Microsoft has been adding in more and more support for the
extension of administration and management based on PowerShell.
PowerShell has been extended to be a full scripting language for
administration tasks in Windows Server 2012. PowerShell was first
introduced in Exchange 2007 as the Exchange Management Shell (EMS)
underlying all functions of Exchange 2007 administration. PowerShell
(version 3.0) is now installed by default in Windows Server 2012, as
opposed to being an add-in feature in Windows Server 2008. As a
built-in component, all administrative tasks are now fully PowerShell
enabled.
PowerShell in Windows Server 2012 enables
administrators to script processes, such as adding users, adding
computers, or even more complicated tasks such as querying a database,
extracting usernames, and then creating Active Directory users, and to
provision Exchange mailboxes all from a PowerShell script. In addition,
PowerShell in Windows Server 2012 allows an administrator to script
installation processes so that if, for example, the administrator
creates a Remote Desktop server or web server with specific settings,
the administrator can use a PowerShell script and deploy additional
servers all identically configured using the same script over and over.
And with PowerShell built in to Windows
Server 2012, PowerShell scripts and commands can be run against remote
servers. This enables an administrator to sit at one server and
remotely execute scripts on other servers in the environment. Using
secured server-to-server session communications,
an administrator can configure a group of servers, manage a group of
servers, and reboot a group of servers all from a series of PowerShell
commands.
All future server products released
from Microsoft will have the PowerShell foundation built in to the core
Windows Server 2012 operating system, thus making it easier for
products running on Windows Server 2012 to use the same administrative
scripting language.
