What is Windows Admin Center? How to download and install it on your Windows? If you are looking for the answers to the above questions, you come to the right place. This post from MiniTool introduces details about Windows Admin Center.
What Is Windows Admin Center
What is Windows Admin Center? Windows Admin Center is an on-premises browser-based application for managing Windows servers, clusters, hyper-converged infrastructure, and Windows 10/11 PCs.
Here are some things you can do with Windows Admin Center:
- Simplify server management Manage your servers and clusters with modern versions of familiar tools like Server Manager. Install in five minutes and immediately manage servers in your environment with no additional configuration required.
- Simplify hyper-converged management Simplify management of Azure Stack HCI or Windows Server hyper-converged clusters. Create and manage VMs, Storage Spaces Direct volumes, software-defined networking, and more with simplified workloads.
- Integration with Azure using a hybrid solution can help you choose to connect on-premises servers with relevant cloud services.
Windows Admin Center is compatible with Windows Server 2022, Windows Server 2019, Windows Server 2016, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Server 2012, Windows 11, Windows 10, and Azure Stack HCI.
How to Download/Install Windows Admin Center
The following is about how to download and install Windows Admin Center.
Step 1: Go to the Windows Admin Center download page.
Step 2: You can choose MSI download or Try Windows Admin Center in Azure. Just click the corresponding download link.
Alt=download MSI download
Step 3: Choose a path to store your download package.
Install on Windows 10
When Windows Admin Center is installed on Windows 10, it uses port 6516 by default, but you can choose to specify a different port. You can also create desktop shortcuts and let Windows Admin Center manage your TrustedHosts.
Install on Windows Server with desktop experience
On Windows Server, Windows Admin Center is installed as a network service. You must specify the port the service listens on, and it requires an HTTPS certificate. The installer can create a self-signed certificate for testing, or you can provide the thumbprint of a certificate that is already installed on the computer.
Install on Server Core
If you use the generated certificate, it will match the DNS name of the server. If you use your own certificate, make sure the name provided in the certificate matches the computer name (Wildcard certificates are not supported.)
- msiexec /i <WindowsAdminCenterInstallerName>.msi /qn /L*v log.txt SME_PORT=<port> SSL_CERTIFICATE_OPTION=generate
- msiexec /i <WindowsAdminCenterInstallerName>.msi /qn /L*v log.txt SME_PORT=<port> SME_THUMBPRINT=<thumbprint> SSL_CERTIFICATE_OPTION=installed
How to Add Connections to Windows Admin Center
Then, we will introduce how to add connections to Windows Admin Center.
Step 1: Click + Add under All connections. The type of resources that you can add are displayed. Select Add for the resource type that you want to add.
Step 2: Windows Admin Center supports various methods to add resources depending on the resource type:
- Add one resource at a time
- Add multiple resources by bulk importing
- Add resources by searching the Active Directory
Step 3: Select the tab based on how you want to add resources. The label for each tab can differ based on the resource type you’re adding.
Step 4: This is the default method. The label for this tab appears as Add cluster when adding a cluster.
- Select the Add one or Add cluster tab. This tab is selected by default.
- Enter the name of the resource in the resource name box.
Step 5: As you begin entering text, Windows Admin Center starts searching for a resource based on your input text string. If a match is found, you can add the name exactly as you entered or use the default resource name. If no match is found, you can still add this resource to appear in your list of connections.
Step 6: When you’re done adding resources, select Add. The selected resources are displayed under the connections list on the All connections page.
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Originally published at https://www.minitool.com on October 17, 2022.