Windows SBS 2011 and Windows Server 2008 R2 use elements called roles and features
to implement their various applications and services. During the
installation of a Windows SBS 2011 primary server, the setup program
adds a number of roles and features by default. The default Windows
Server 2008 R2 installation includes no roles or features, however. The
primary tool that Windows SBS 2011 and Windows Server 2008 R2
administrators use to install, remove, and manage roles and features is
called Server Manager, shown in Figure 1.
Server Manager is an MMC console that provides access to a variety of
snap-ins, system configuration controls, and diagnostic tools. In
addition, Server Manager includes wizards that enable you to install and
remove roles and
features. When you install a role that includes its own administration
snap-ins, Server Manager, in most cases, provides access to those
snap-ins.
When you open the Server Manager Console on your Windows SBS 2011 primary server and expand the Roles
node, the Scope (left) pane contains all the roles that the setup
program added during the operating system installation, as shown in Figure 2. The Detail (right) pane contains a section for each role that displays its status.
When you select one of the installed roles, the Scope pane contains a
more detailed status display that contains some or all of the following
items:
-
Events Contains a list of the events pertaining to the role from the last 24 hours, derived from the Windows logs and linking to the Event Viewer Console.
-
System services
Contains a list of the services associated with the role, and enables
you to stop, start, and configure them, just as you can from the Services Console.
-
Best practices analyzer (BPA)
For some roles,
by initiating a BPA analysis, Windows Server 2008 R2 compares the
role’s current configuration to a set of predefined rules specifying its
recommended parameters. Any failures to meet the recommendations appear
as noncompliance warnings.
Note
The rules that the Best practices analyzer
uses for its analysis are those for a standard Windows Server 2008 R2
installation; they are not specific to Windows SBS 2011. The default
Windows SBS server configuration is therefore not compliant with all the
recommended best practices.
-
Role services
Contains a list of
the role’s subcomponents, and specifies which ones are currently
installed. You can also add or remove role services using wizards.
-
Advanced tools
For roles
with a large number of additional consoles or command prompt utilities,
this section contains links to those tools and descriptions of their
functions.
-
Resources and support
Contains links to help files, Web resources, best practices, and recommended procedures.
In addition to these resources, Server Manager incorporates many of the MMC snap-ins associated with a role into the console. When you expand a role in the Scope pane, the snap-ins appear underneath, as shown in Figure 3.
Note
The Server Manager Console does not
necessarily provide access to all the snap-ins associated with a
particular role. You might find additional consoles in the
Administrative Tools program group and others that are accessible only
by adding them to a custom MMC.
