As Windows administrators, we tend to rely on administrative tools to manage our server infrastructure. If working as a systems administrator, daily tasks require many logins and that can sometimes get frustrating if you are busy either deploying a new server, or configure DNS records, managing Active Directory and Group Policy from your local PC. With your PC, your client OS (whether it be XP, Vista or 7) offers a set of Administrative Tools (RSAT), but they are all for the most part meant to help you in remote desktop support. To make life easier when managing systems, system roles or a centralized console solution such as System Center Operations Manager (SCOM), Microsoft offers many tools to help you run tools from your PC or Laptop. The Remote Server Administration Tools software can be used with Windows 7 Enterprise, Professional, or Ultimate editions.
To administer Windows Servers, you need tools to manage the roles and features installed on them, as well as the base OS. Using tools to manage services remotely is not new to those who have worked with Windows for years. It’s common that Systems Administrators will need to respond to problems immediately, so to jump on a wireless connection on your laptop, connect to the Internet, use a Virtual Private Network (or VPN), to encrypt your connection, and then connect to and manage it, no matter where that server may be on your network.
With Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP, the ‘admin pack’ and resource kit tools helped expand the Administrative Tools toolset, and allowed you to manage servers from your desktop. Anyone familiar with this toolset, will warm right up to the Remote Server Administration tool download. Most of the same tools have evolved into what is currently offered. You can get it free of charge from Microsoft download as long as you have an authentic copy of Windows 7, and by searching for ’Remote Server Administration tool’ at Microsoft download. One thing to note is all versions of Windows 7 will not work with this toolset.
To those new with Windows 7, (or Windows Vista (SP 1) where it evolved from), there are a few caveats to using it. First, this toolset functions with Windows 2008 Server support; with Windows Server 2003, you can still use the toolset, but are limited in what you can do with it. There are also differences between using these tools on a Windows Core installation, or a regular installation.
In this article, we will look at the Remote Server Administration Tools used on Windows 7 to manage Windows Servers, such as Windows Server 2003, 2008 and 2008 R2. Coverage is provided on how to find, download and install the tools, enable them on Windows 7 and configure them for use.
To administer Windows Servers, you need tools to manage the roles and features installed on them, as well as the base OS. Using tools to manage services remotely is not new to those who have worked with Windows for years. It’s common that Systems Administrators will need to respond to problems immediately, so to jump on a wireless connection on your laptop, connect to the Internet, use a Virtual Private Network (or VPN), to encrypt your connection, and then connect to and manage it, no matter where that server may be on your network.
With Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP, the ‘admin pack’ and resource kit tools helped expand the Administrative Tools toolset, and allowed you to manage servers from your desktop. Anyone familiar with this toolset, will warm right up to the Remote Server Administration tool download. Most of the same tools have evolved into what is currently offered. You can get it free of charge from Microsoft download as long as you have an authentic copy of Windows 7, and by searching for ’Remote Server Administration tool’ at Microsoft download. One thing to note is all versions of Windows 7 will not work with this toolset.
To those new with Windows 7, (or Windows Vista (SP 1) where it evolved from), there are a few caveats to using it. First, this toolset functions with Windows 2008 Server support; with Windows Server 2003, you can still use the toolset, but are limited in what you can do with it. There are also differences between using these tools on a Windows Core installation, or a regular installation.
In this article, we will look at the Remote Server Administration Tools used on Windows 7 to manage Windows Servers, such as Windows Server 2003, 2008 and 2008 R2. Coverage is provided on how to find, download and install the tools, enable them on Windows 7 and configure them for use.