Cool Tool Alert: Core Configurator 2.0 Ships…

By Matt McSpirit - virtualboy. Microsoft Partner Technology Specialist for Virtualization;
http://blogs.technet.com/mattmcspirit

Anyone who’s deployed Windows Server 2008 (Pre-R2) with the Server Core deployment option will know it requires a slight behavioural change from what most Windows guys will have been used to.  For those of you who need a refresher, the Server Core interface, in all it’s glory, looked like Exhibit A, below:

OK, the eagle-eyed among you will know that isn’t a screengrab from a Server Core box, as I’ve got aero-glass present – it’s actually from my Windows 7 box, but, the point is, the interface is the same, all you get is the command line for manipulation and local management.  With a reduced overhead, less patching, reduced attack surface, and the ability to trim the install size still further using DISM, there are some key benefits to using Core, however, for some, those benefits are outweighed by the additional ‘overhead’ around managing the thing!  Locally at least.

Step up Core Configurator.  Developed by Andrew Auret and Tony Ison from Microsoft UK, this little tool, which can be run from a USB stick, gave the usual GUI-admins much more of a GUI to work with, simplifying and speeding up implementation of aspects such as installing Roles and Features, managing Windows Updates, and Licenses, but also turning on things like MPIO and setting iSCSI options.  For those of you who haven’t seen it, it looked like this:

As you can see, even in V1, it was a much simpler and more streamlined interface than just using CMD!

Fast forward to now, and V2 is upon us, with significant GUI and usability improvements (click to enlarge):

As you can see, it’s pretty rich, and you can run it directly from a USB stick, so it’s always handy to have with you!  What else can it do?

• Product Licensing
• Networking Features
• DCPromo Tool
• ISCSI Settings
• Server Roles and Features
• User and Group Permissions
• Share Creation and Deletion
• Dynamic Firewall settings
• Display | Screensaver Settings
• Add & Remove Drivers
• Proxy settings
• Windows Updates (Including WSUS)
• Multipath I/O
• Hyper-V including virtual machine thumbnails
• JoinDomain and Computer rename
• Add/remove programs
• Services
• WinRM
• Complete logging of all commands executed

You can download it here.  I know I will be!