Managing a Windows 2008 Server Core installation locally using command prompt

Another way to manage a Windows 2008 Server Core computer remotely is by using the Windows Remote Shell (WinRS). WinRS uses Windows Remote Management (WinRM), which is Microsoft’s implementation of the WS-Management protocol.

To configure the Windows Remote Shell to manage a Windows 2008 Server Core computer, run the command WinRM quickconfig at the command prompt. This command will create a WinRM listener on the Windows 2008 Server Core computer. Type yes to confirm the changes and to create WinRM listener.

C:\>WinRM quickconfig
WinRM is not set up to allow remote access to this machine for management.
The following changes must be made:

Create a WinRM listener on HTTP://* to accept WS-Man requests to any IP on this
machine.

Make these changes [y/n]? y

WinRM has been updated for remote management.

Created a WinRM listener on HTTP://* to accept WS-Man requests to any IP on this
machine.

 

After configuring WinRM on Windows 2008 Server Core computer, you can winrs command from a full installation to manage the Windows 2008 Server Core computer remotely. The syntax of the winrs command is as shown below.

winrs –r:<Windows_2008_Server_Core_name> <Command>

Below example displays the directory contents of "C:\" of a Windows 2008 Server Core computer by executing dir command.

C:\>winrs -r:score-01.omnisecu.pvt -d:"c:\" "dir"
Volume in drive C has no label.
Volume Serial Number is 200F-8C12

Directory of c:\

09/18/2006 02:43 PM 24 autoexec.bat
09/18/2006 02:43 PM 10 config.sys
10/03/2010 11:14 PM <DIR> MyShare
01/19/2008 01:44 AM <DIR> PerfLogs
10/02/2010 09:47 PM <DIR> Program Files
10/07/2010 12:45 AM <DIR> Users
10/02/2010 08:41 PM <DIR> Windows
2 File(s) 34 bytes
5 Dir(s) 13,868,564,480 bytes free