Administering Server 2012 R2 from a Windows 8.x machine
In the Managing remote servers from a single pane with Server Manager recipe, we already discussed remotely administering another server by using Server Manager. Did you know we can accomplish the same remote management by using our day-to-day Windows 8.x computer? We will install and use the Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT) to take even more advantage of Server 2012 R2's remote management ideology.
Getting ready
To test out the RSAT tools, we will need a Windows 8.x client machine. We will then also need a Windows Server 2012 R2 system online, and on the same network, which we can remotely control and manage.
How to do it...
To remotely manage a server using RSAT, perform the following instructions:
- First we need to download the RSAT tools. You can use Bing to search for "Remote Server Administration Tools for Windows", or use this link to download RSAT for Windows 8.1: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=39296. Here is also the link for the same RSAT tools in Windows 8.0 flavor: http://www.microsoft.com/en-au/download/details.aspx?id=28972.
After you install these tools onto your Windows 8.x computer, you should now have a copy of Server Manager installed onto your computer. Go ahead and launch that from the Start screen. You can pin it to your Taskbar for quicker launching in the future, of course. In the same fashion, as with Server 2012 R2, you can use the Manage menu to add servers to Server Manager.
For this recipe, I do have the machines we are working with joined to a domain, so we will take a look at adding servers that are part of the domain.
- Click on the Find Now button and you will see a list of server names that are remotely manageable.
- Click on the server names that you want to administer and click on the arrow to move them over to the right side of the screen. Upon clicking on OK, you will see these new servers listed and ready for management inside your Server Manager console.
How it works...
Server Manager in Windows Server 2012 R2 is a powerful tool that can be used for the management of not only the local server, but also remote servers that you want to manage. If we take this even a step further and install the RSAT tools on a Windows 8 computer, this gives us the ability to launch and use Server Manager from our everyday Windows 8 computer. In doing so, we enable ourselves the ability to add roles, view events, and restart servers, all from our own desk. Managing servers using these tools will increase productivity and decrease errors, because your entire infrastructure of servers can be available within a single window. This is much more efficient than using the RDP client to connect to many different servers, all in different windows. If you've never tried using RSAT to manage servers, give it a try!
See also
- The Managing remote servers from a single pane with Server Manager recipe
