TechEd 2007: Windows 'Server Manager' to Change the Game for Admins

ORLANDO - If you follow the crowd at TechEd, eventually they'll lead you to what's truly important. So in the wake of some schedule changes here this morning, we let the crowd lead us to what turned out to be one of the more significant demos here: Microsoft product manager Dan Harman showed off the new Server Manager that downloaders of Windows Server 2008 Beta 3 are seeing for the first time.

Server Manager completely replaces the "Manage Your Server" Wizard, which we were surprised to hear (if not entirely surprised to learn) was among the least well-received enhancements to Windows Server 2003. As Harman freely admitted, this Wizard "didn't provide the functionality" that admins were looking for, was too lightweight, and tried to hold admins by the hand as though they were users.

The setup and configuration of WS2K3 wasn't so much centered around the Manage Your Server Wizard as it was built around and on top of it, creating a sequence of methods, corrections to those methods, and double-checks to those corrections that admins eventually found annoying.

A case in point was the Security Configuration Wizard, which was part of a WS2K3 service pack, and as such, was an unknown component to the rest of the system. It came in later to apply "best practices" that the operating system's older setup methods hadn't learned yet.

The new Server Manager in WS2K8 (note the "8" at the end there) has the goal of being the "one-stop shop" for server setup and configuration. It comes with Initial Configuration Tools for getting a remote deployment method set up properly right away, an Add Roles Wizard which lets admins drill down into the configuration of roles (something the older Wizard did not do), a completely new snap-in MMC console, and the Server Manager Command prompt - by any other name, PowerShell.

Stay in touch with BetaNews for more on Harmon's demo and the changes in store to Windows Server.