Managing Windows with WAC - Windows Server Tutorial

- [Instructor] As we have progressed through this unit, I've tried to be pretty deliberate about my use of the word manage as opposed to administer. Administration tools like DNS or active directory tools are available in the MMC, but at least, initially, they're not part of the admin center. For the most part, the things that you will find in the admin center have more to do with looking after the server itself and less to do with configuring the details of the roles that it plays on the network. Let's take a look at the admin center that we've configured and started browsing through for our network. When I select the domain controller and connect, I'll get a list here of the things that I can manage about my work station. One example of what I mean about managing the server instead of administering the roles that it plays is the configuration of specific hardware. Let's take a look at the network option. Off to the right, I get a list of interfaces and when I select one, I can get details about that interface. This is information that I would like to view and potentially manage about this specific server. It gives me things like the NIC-Index, which we've seen used in some power shell courses. It gives the IP configuration, including secondary IP addresses, like some of the things we've talked about in the install and configure courses, and other details that are specific to this machine. Not how the NICs being used, not what services go through it, but the configuration of the network itself. Other options here are great for technicians that have not yet caught on to power shell and remoting. The files link will allow you to access and to create, modify, and remove things from the file system even if they're not in a network share. The Windows Admin Center will help you accomplish remotely all of the tasks that are too often done from the console of the server itself. The less you have to work at the server itself and the more you can do remotely, the more stable your server becomes. Also, because everything you're doing is coming through port 443, or some custom port, it's easier to manage firewalls to secure what type of connections are allowed to this management resource. You can close down remote procedure calls or other types of access to your servers from general locations, allow only port 443, or your specified port from approved work stations to access the server where the admin center is installed. With that ability to limit access and the ability for the admin center to connect to servers through WMI and power shell remoting, you have isolated the specific means by which any network server is managed. The admin center makes remote management both more convenient and more secure and those are two benefits that you don't often see together.