Another post appeared on the Server & Cloud Platform team blog last night, describing the various ways we can install Windows to get different administration interfaces. We’re getting:
- Full installation: all the bells and whistles with a full GUI there all of the time.
- Minimal Server Interface: there is a GUI that allows “most” local administration tasks. You won’t have Internet Explorer, the desktop, Windows Explorer, Metro-style application support, multimedia support, or Desktop Experience.
- Server Core: By default, no GUI at all, just the command prompt and PowerShell.
Microsoft Corporate is recommending (as always) that you use the Server Core installation by default (obviously not for RDS session hosts 
). We should be remotely managing the machines using the Remote Server Administration Toolkit (or whatever RSAT will be called when Win8 is RTM). You probably know my thoughts on that up to now: phooey! It’s a nightmare to do troubleshooting and we can do stuff quickly with a few mouse clicks in the GUI instead of googling for 30 minutes to find obscure command prompt or POSH commands, which we then need to figure out. “Learn PowerShell” … yes, once I’ve learned Windows 8 server and desktop, the new Hyper-V, and the 8 or so System Center products that are on the way … and find some time to do the day job. And learning POSH does nothing to use 3rd party hardware management tools on the servers themselves, e.g. hardware diagnostics that use IE.
I’m not a shouting-at-the-trees-crazy-man vocal minority on this one. Most people I know who have tried Server Core switch to full installations very quickly, as I did (my first Hyper-V cluster pilot was Core). And to be a bit more scientific, the Great Big Hyper-V Survey of 2011 backs me up:
- Hyper-V Server: 15.93%
- Full Windows Server installation: 71.08%
- Server Core installation: 12.99%
So there’s a compromise (an improvement) in Windows 8. Apparently, with a command (probably a PowerShell cmdlet) and a reboot we can install a GUI (looks like either Minimal Server Interface or the full Server Graphical Shell if I’ve read the post correctly) on Server Core. OK, that isn’t a bad start. I’d like to see the reboot replaced by a logoff/logon. But it’s a step forward to making Server Core more acceptable. I’ll hold off judgement until the beta comes out (end of February) and have a play with it but it’s a good step forward by the looks of it.
You need to learn PowerShell
Tell you what – come on my next PowerShell PowerCamp and I’ll give you a small discount.
http://www.tfl09.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/announcing-powershell-v3.html