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Windows Admin Center for managing servers and clients

Admin onthe Bridge

Article from ADMIN 56/2020

By Thomas Joos

Windows Admin Center consolidates Windows Server admin tools into a browser-based remote management app for physical, virtual, and on-premises servers, although it does not yet fully replace Server Manager.

Windows Admin Center (WAC) is the new headquarters for administrators, where web-based servers and clients can be managed locally and in the cloud. Although WAC cannot yet fully replace Server Manager, Microsoft is constantly expanding the feature set. In this article, I show you how to launch and work with the new server control room.

WAC currently works with Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge; other browsers do not yet support the functions in the management solution sufficiently. Because WAC cannot be used with Internet Explorer, on a server, you can only open WAC directly if Chrome or Edge is installed, although it is not necessary for the gateway endpoint, because the browser is only needed on the client you use for access.

PowerShell sessions and remote desktop connections can also be accessed directly through WAC. Additionally, you will find functions for managing Windows 10 workstations, clusters, and hyper-converged clusters. Finally, virtual machines (VMs) can be managed in Azure and synchronized with local machines.

Continuous Improvements

Microsoft extends WAC's capabilities by providing a new version every six months. New versions are quickly integrated, because only the Microsoft installer (MSI) file of the latest version needs to be installed on the computer on which the WAC gateway is installed. The gateway can, of course, be reinstalled at any time with this MSI file.

In each new version, Microsoft adds new functions, which are usually first introduced in a beta version as a plugin and are only fully integrated in a later version. To use the new functions, just install the new version on the server that provides the WAC gateway. When Microsoft provides new functions in extensions, they can be updated within the WAC. All that is required is a connection to the Internet. After connecting, you can find out which WAC version is installed by clicking the question

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