Use the Microsoft Management Console (MMC)

10/17/2010 5:06:59 PM

The Microsoft Management Console (MMC) can be used to review, configure, and identify issues within the environment. MMC is nothing new to the Windows OS. You may have used it extensively while working with Windows 2000/2003 Server. In fact, you may have seen version 1.0 in the Windows NT 4.0 Option Pack. If this is the case, you can safely move on to the next section or browse through this section for a review. If you are new to Windows Server configuration and management, you will find that the MMC will become the tool that is used most extensively but at the same time is not really recognized as being used at all because it is just the platform used to add snap-ins.

Let’s take a look at how to launch a new MMC and then add snap-ins:

1.	Select Start, Run.
2.	Type mmc and click OK. Windows Server 2008 launches a new MMC, as shown in Figure 1. Notice that you can’t really do much with this tool at the moment. Figure 1. A new MMC. For the MMC to be of any use to you, you need to add one or more snap-ins. A snap-in is a program that allows you to perform a specified administrative task. Next, you’ll add a snap-in that will allow you to manage your disks.
3.	On the MMC menu bar, select File, Add/Remove Snap-in (or press Ctrl+M). The Add or Remove Snap-ins dialog box appears, as shown in Figure 2. On the left side of the Add or Remove Snap-ins dialog box you see listed all the available snap-ins you can use. Figure 2. The Add or Remove Snap-in dialog box.
4.	You want to be able to manage your disks, so select Disk Management and click the Add button. Now for this and many of the other snap-ins, you are asked if you would like to manage this server or another remote server, as shown in Figure 3. You are going to manage the local server. Figure 3. Choose whether to manage this server or a remote server. Note The available snap-ins list may change as you add applications to your server.
5.	Leave This Computer selected and click Finish. You will notice that Disk Management has been added to the Selected Snap-ins area on the right side of the Add or Remove Snap-ins dialog box. At this point, you could add more snap-ins, depending on what you want to manage. If you accidentally add a snap-in, you can easily remove it by highlighting the snap-in and clicking the Remove button. You can further customize snap-ins by editing the extensions available for a snap-in. For example, if you were to select the Group Policy Editor snap-in from the Selected Snap-ins side of the dialog box, you could then click Edit Extensions to bring up the Extensions for Group Policy Object Editor. By selecting the Enable Only Selected Extensions button, you can remove (or, if previously removed, add) extensions for the Group Policy Editor snap-in (see Figure 4). Figure 4. Removing snap-in extensions. Note You might see different wizard options, depending on what snap-in you select. For example, select ActiveX Controls and Certificates and you will need to answer more configuration prompts. With other snap-ins, such as Authorization Manager, there will be no further configuration prompts; the snap-in will just appear in the Selected Snap-ins list.
6.	Now that you have selected the Disk Management snap-in, click OK to add it to your MMC. The Disk Management snap-in appears under Console Root in the left pane of your MMC. Also notice the word Local in parentheses next to the snap-in. This indicates that you will manage the local server with this snap-in.
7.	If you are planning to use this MMC again, save it. Saving a custom MMC is as easy as saving a Word document: Just select File, Save. You need to provide a name for your new MMC and then choose where you want to save it.

You have now successfully configured your own custom MMC. Although you added only one snap-in, you can see how you will be able to gather the tools you use the most into one MMC and use it to easily manage Windows Server 2008. You can also manage remote servers from your custom MMC. This comes in handy if you have multiple servers to manage; you can create your custom MMC on your desktop and connect to remote servers to manage (assuming that you have the needed security permissions). Here’s how you connect your custom MMC to a remote server:

1.	Open the custom MMC you just configured.
2.	Add the Computer Management snap-in, selecting the default Manage the Local Machine when prompted. (Disk Manager allows you to manage only the local server.)
3.	After you add the Computer Management snap-in, locate it under Root Console in the left pane of your MMC, right-click it, and select Connect to Another Computer, as shown in Figure 5. Figure 5. Selecting to connect to another computer.
4.	In the Select Computer dialog box that appears (see Figure 6), insert the name or IP address of the remote server you would like to manage. Then click OK. Figure 6. Inserting the name or IP address of the remote server.

Now you see the remote server name in parentheses after the Computer Management snap-in. You are ready to manage your remote server.

There should be no doubt in your mind now about how the MMC can ease the task of administration in your Windows Server environment. Even if you are managing a global enterprise, you will be able to connect to each of your servers and manage them from one desktop. You may be thinking, however, there would be a lot of work in building all the custom MMCs. No need to worry: Microsoft has preconfigured many MMCs and grouped commonly used tools together. Let’s take a look at some of these preconfigured MMCs.