Summary

---

There are benefits and risks to remotely managing a network. The first thing you will need to decide is whether to allow remote management of servers on your network. In addition to the risks associated with providing access to the server remotely, somebody might eavesdrop on the data that is being sent over the network and authentication capabilities of the management tool could be too weak. Once you’ve decided to allow remote management, you should decide how and if you will mitigate remote management risks on your network. You will also need to look at the features in the management tools.

Remote management tools are provided by Windows Server 2003. These tools provide different mechanisms for managing your servers. You use the Microsoft Management Console to host various management tools called snap-ins. The snap-ins can vary with regard to capabilities and security features. The most popular means of remote management is to use Remote Desktop for Administration. This tool allows you to manage a computer remotely as if you were sitting at the server itself. Remote Assistance is another tool that provides access to the desktop of a remote user to provide assistance when they are having a problem. You can also provide a command-line remote interface through Telnet and SSH. All together, these tools are known as in-band management tools because they use the standard network connections for management. Windows Server 2003 provides for out-of-band management also.

Emergency Management Services (EMS) is used to access the server through a serial interface usually. This means that you may be able to administer the server remotely even if the server is not responding to in-band tools. You can use the Special Administration Console (SAC) to restart the computer or try to troubleshoot the problems.

---