Manage Server 2008 from 2012 Server Manager

One of the biggest improvements to Windows Server 2012 is the (almost) all encompassing Server Manager. From any 2012 server you can now manage any other 2012 server through WinRM - but if you add a 2008 or 2008 R2 server to Server Manager, you will get a manageability warning of “Online – Verify WinRM 3.0 service is installed, running, and required firewall ports are open“.

To get this working, there are 3 main steps to perform: Install Windows Management Framework 3.0, Allow remote server management through WinRM (preferred method is via Group Policy), Create firewall rules.

Install Windows Management Framework 3.0 Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 WINDOWS6.1-KB2506143-x64.MSU Windows Server 2008 SP2 64-bit versions: WINDOWS6.0-KB2506146-x64.MSU 32-bit versions: WINDOWS6.0-KB2506146-x86.MSU As you can see, there are some slight caveats. 2008 R2 requires SP1 while 2008 requires SP2 to be installed.

Allow remote server management through WinRM There are 2 ways you can do this. I would recommend use Group Policy wherever possible, so go to:

Computer Configuration > Policies > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Remote Management (WinRM) > WinRM Service > Allow remote server management through WinRM

Set it to enabled and if you want it to listen on all addresses, put a * in IPv4 and IPv6 filter boxes. Alternatively, you can run the command “winrm quickconfig” to enable remote access.

Create firewall rules. Again, Do this through Group Policy, allowing port 5985.