Remember, Server Core doesn’t have a graphical interface so you’re very limited in what you can and can’t do. So even though you can install roles and features directly on your Server Core and even do some basic configuration, Server Core can be very difficult to manage without Remote Administration.

By utilizing Remote Administration and a full install of Server 2008 on another computer you can manage your Server Core easily and successfully.

Remote Desktop and MMC

There are two areas of Remote Administration that we’re going to discuss today: Remote Desktop and MMC (Microsoft Management Console).

First I’m going to show you how to enable Remote Administration on your Server Core, also touching on Network Level Authentication and RSAT. Using DHCP as an example I’ll show you how to utilize both the Remote Desktop and MMC to administrate the DHCP server role.

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Related posts:

• How to Setup & Utilize RODC on Server 2008 Server Core
• How to Install Roles & Features on Server 2008 Server Core
• How to Activate a Newly Installed Server Core Edition of Server 2008

So what is Server Core? Well it’s basically a stripped down version of Server 2008 and there are a lot of neat things about it.

Today we’ll focus on Server Core and the DHCP role and I’ll demonstrate the installation, configuration and setup steps.

Here’s what we cover today:

• Server Core – we’ll talk about what Server Core is, how to best utilize it and what the pros and cons of using the core are. I’ll also go over the Server Core roles and when they come in handy.
• Server Core install and core commands — next we’ll look at the installation and the Core commands that you need to know for things like getting system information, renaming the machine, or joining a domain. I’ll also demonstrate how to use the command line here.
• DHCP Role installation — now we move on to installing the DHCP role and the critical commands that you need to know to perform the install, configuration and starting the DHCP service
• Setting up the Firewall — we’ll do this so that we can perform remote administration using MMC on our Server Core
• Installing RSAT — in setting up the Firewall, you may need to install the Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT) to include the MMC Snap-in for a particular role, so I’ll show you how to do that
• Creating an MMC — since not everybody thinks the command line is cool, we’ll use the MMC to connect to our DHCP server

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Related posts:

• Lesson 5: Windows Server 2008 File and Print Servers
• Lesson 7: Server 2008 IIS 7 Web Servers
• Lesson 8: Windows Server 2008 Terminal Services