News

Windows Server 2016 To Get Remote Management Update

• By Kurt Mackie
• April 07, 2017

Microsoft is readying some improvements to Windows Server 2016 related to remote management.

A new remote management option announced this week will permit IT pros to remotely manage the Server Core option of Windows Server 2016 without having to make a painful deployment choice. For instance, IT pros running Windows Server 2016 currently need to choose between running the Server Core option or the graphical user interface (GUI) option of Windows Server 2016. Alternatively, they can opt to run the Nano Server minimal-footprint option.

In the recent past, though, users had the option to simply switch between Server Core and GUI modes, as was possible with the Windows Server 2012 R2 product. However, Microsoft pulled that capability during the early development of Windows Server 2016. At the time, Microsoft had explained that it was giving back the GUI (which it had wanted to pull from Windows Server 2016), but in doing so, the flexibility to swap modes between Server Core and the GUI had to be sacrificed.

Now, Microsoft is promising some relief, perhaps, although not much detail was included in this week's announcement. Microsoft claimed that organizations wouldn't have a need to switch server modes with the coming remote management improvement.

"We are working on improvements to the remote management experience to make it easier to operate and manage Server Core without the need to switch back and forth," the announcement tersely explained.

Microsoft already has browser-based Server Management Tools for Windows Server 2016, which also work with Windows Server 2012/R2. Microsoft Technical Fellow Jeffrey Snover had previously described these tools as one way to manage the headless Nano Server component of Windows Server 2016, but they also work when managing Server Core. The tools offer IT pros some graphical management controls, instead of having to use the command-line interface.

Since Server Management Tools already exist, Microsoft's announcement may be implying that some other GUI-based management solution will be coming. Questions sent to Microsoft's public relations, though, didn't elicit a response at press time.