Although
there are many preconfigured MMCs, in this section, we focus on just
two MMCs that are directly associated with managing your Windows Server
2008 OS:
Server Manager
Computer Manger
Note
There
are preconfigured MMCs for just about all the Microsoft applications
and roles, such as Exchange, SQL, and IIS, to name just a few. In
addition to these, third-party vendors develop applications that also
allow you to use an MMC.
Server Manager
The Server Manager MMC contains the snap-ins that allow you to accomplish the following tasks:
Add or remove server roles
Add or remove server features
Monitor system events
Manage devices
Schedule tasks
Manage local users and groups
Configure Windows Firewall
Configure storage
Perform backups
Computer Manager
There
is some overlap in terms of the tools in Server Manager and in Computer
Manager. You may also remember Computer Manager from previous versions
of Windows Server (2000/2003). A couple obvious items that you do not
see in Computer Manager but do see in Server Manager are the roles and
features snap-ins. But as you compare Server Manager and in Computer
Manager, as shown in Figure 1,
you also find many others missing. So when would you choose one over
the other? Well, basically, where they overlap, it’s up to you. In
these cases, Microsoft has given you multiple ways to accomplish
identical tasks. Two specific snap-ins are available in Computer
Manager but not in Server Manager:
Figure 1. Comparison of Server Manager and Computer Manager.
Routing and Remote Access
As
the title of this snap-in suggests, you can configure two functions:
routing and remote access. A router is used to separate network
segments or subnets. With the routing portion of the Routing and Remote
Access snap-in, you have the ability to configure your server to act as
a software router. This would be okay for small subnets, with not too
much traffic passing from one subnet to another (for example, in a test
environment). When traffic increases (for example, in any production
environment), you will use hardware routers to accomplish this task.
Note
It
is strongly suggested that you use a hardware router even in a test or
development environment. When developing or testing new technologies,
you will want the testing done in an environment that is close, if not
identical, to your production environment.
The
remote access portion of the Routing and Remote Access snap-in allows
you to configure the server to provide two types of remote
connectivity: VPN and dial-up. Remote access allows users to connect to
the organization’s network as if they are local. For example, they can
connect to drives using Windows Explorer and map to network printers,
also Universal Naming Convention (UNC) paths are fully supported.
Shared Folders
The
Shared Folders snap-in allows you to see what folders are shared on the
server, how many sessions (connections) there are to the shares, and
what shared files are open. This snap-in is truly a useful tool when
managing your server. Say that you needed to reboot the server and want
to see if there are any active sessions to the shares. From the session
view, you can easily see who is connected, from where they are
connected, how long they have been connected, and even how long the
session has been idle. In some cases, you may get a call that a file is
in use and should not be—maybe someone has left a file open on his or
her workstation and left for the day. You will be able to see whether
the file is open and what user has it open. If needed, you can close
that open file by using this tool. (It is usually a good idea to make
sure the person asking you to close the file has seniority over the
person who has the file open.)
Let’s now take a look at some other tools that help you manager Windows Server 2008.
