The approach you take to maintenance in Server Core
is important. You must weigh the cost of various methods. For example,
when you work at the command line, you see an efficient command line
interface. All of the commands execute quickly and you don't need to
worry about a Remote Desktop connection. Of course, you also have to
know the command you want to type. Unfortunately, many of the
maintenance commands are quite unforgiving and you may find yourself
wasting time fixing problems instead of saving time using the command
line interface.
Some
maintenance actions can occur in Server Core's GUI environment. Any
maintenance application that doesn't require you to save settings to
disk using a common dialog box could work. Testing is the best way to
determine whether the application works as intended.
You
can also use the Boot menu options or the installation CD repair
options to perform certain kinds of maintenance. All of the Safe Mode
options work, as does the Windows Memory Diagnostics tool. You can also
use the installation CD to perform a restore of your hard drive as
necessary. All of the normal Windows boot and install diagnostics work
fine with Server Core.
It's
also possible to create a connection between a client machine and the
Server Core installation. You can use this connection in three ways to
perform maintenance tasks.
At the command prompt with utilities that support a remote connection
Using Remote Desktop to manage the server from a client system
Connecting with consoles that support a remote connection
You'll
see many examples of the first technique in this book. Many utilities
provide a method for creating a remote server connection and performing
a task on that connection, rather than using the local machine. The
second technique of working with a Remote Desktop is very much like
working at the machine directly.The third technique won't
receive a lot of attention in this book, but you use the consoles as
you would with the local machine. Here are the steps for setting up a
remote connection with a console.
Open
the console you want to use in the Administrative Tools folder of the
Control Panel or by using the Run dialog box accessed using the Start => Run command. (The Group Policy Editor, GPEdit.MSC, requires the Run dialog box since it doesn't appear in the Administrative Tools folder.)
Right-click
the root node of the console tree. For example, when working with
Computer Management, you would right-click the Computer Management
(Local) node. When the console supports a remote connection, you'll see
a Connect to Another Computer entry on the context menu.
Choose the Connect to Another Computer entry on the context menu and you'll see a Select Computer dialog box.
Type the name of the remote computer in the Another Computer field or use the Browse button to locate the computer.
Click
OK. The console attempts to make the connection to the remote computer.
If you need to provide additional credentials, you'll see a dialog box
for entering them.
Not
all of the console features will work. For example, you'll find that
none (or sometimes most) of the Storage group features work in the
Computer Management console when accessing a remote machine. Because
you can't complete some processes from a remote location, Microsoft
blocks the console feature. In some cases, the lack of a feature
prevents you from using a console entry. For example, you can't manage
SQL Server on a machine that doesn't have SQL Server installed.
