Windows 10: Announcing Windows Admin Center 1809.5 Insider Preview

Brink · Dec 11, 2018

Thank you for your continued interest in Windows Admin Center! This month, Windows Insiders get early access to our 1809.5 release before it is made generally available.

Release Summary

1809.5 is a cumulative update to our 1809 GA release in September. This release includes various quality and functional improvements and bug fixes throughout the product:

General

Accessibility improvements

Notification message improvements

Certificate handling improvements for upgrades

New splash screen when loading Windows Admin Center

Hyper-V

Add/remove virtual disk or drive for running VMs

VM Connect web console now works in the Virtual Machines tool on Failover Cluster and HCI Cluster connections

VM state refresh time is improved on Windows Server 2019 HCI clusters

Azure Site Recovery protection status is shown for VMs across all cluster nodes

VM health alerts now show VM name instead of VM ID

Clustering

UI improvements for Cluster Aware Updating

Extension Manager

User-installed extensions are persisted across Windows Admin Center upgrades

Increased resiliency against extension errors

Hyper-converged infrastructure

There are several notable new features for hyper-converged infrastructure:

Multi-select bulk actions for drives, volumes, and servers

With full support for shift/ctrl + click keyboard shortcuts, confirmation dialogs, and improved notifications. For example, you can now delete multiple volumes with just one click:

Monitor storage per-server

How much storage capacity is used per server, and how much needs to repair (normal after restarting), is now visible on the Server detail. Now you can track exactly how resync is progressing without relying on Get-StorageJob!

Better network activity monitoring

The Server detail page now has separate charts for non-RDMA and RDMA networking, each showing inbound and outbound traffic separately (summed over all adapters in the server).
In addition to the new features described above, this update also brings many other minor fixes and improvements throughout HCI.

How to Download

Registered Insiders may download Windows Admin Center 1809.5 directly from the Windows Server Insider Preview download page, under the Additional Downloads dropdown. If you have not yet registered as an Insider, see Getting Started with Windows Server on the Windows Insiders for Business portal.

We value your feedback!

The most important part of a frequent release cycle is to hear what’s working and what needs to be improved, so your feedback is extremely valued. Send us feedback via UserVoice. We also encourage you to visit the Windows Admin Center space on the Microsoft Tech Communities forum to collaborate, share and learn from experts.

Terms of Use

All pre-release software made available to you via the Windows Server Insider program are governed by the Insider Terms of Use.
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Source: Announcing Windows Admin Center 1809.5 Insider Preview - Windows Experience BlogWindows Experience Blog

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Brink · Dec 11, 2018

Announcing Windows Admin Center Preview 1807

Hello Windows Insiders!

Thank you for your continued interest in the Windows Admin Center insider preview! If you are new to the preview, check out last month’s post Announcing Windows Admin Center Insider Preview 1806 to learn the difference between GA and Preview versions, and review all the new features in the 1806 preview.

Release Summary

July’s release brings a new streamlined experience to connect your gateway to Azure, as well as a top customer request:

The Virtual machine inventory page now supports multi-select so that you can perform actions on multiple VMs at once!

Completely new functionality in this release consists of new file sharing functionality in the files tool, and Azure update management integration in the updates tool. These new features are described in detail below.

New Functionality

File Sharing

You can now add, edit, and remove shares from the Files tool! Fine-tune access with the ability to add and remove users and groups, as well as control their permission level. This highly anticipated feature is in preview, we are still busy making improvements! Stay tuned for additional sharing features and updates in upcoming releases.

Azure Update

We’ve added another way to easily leverage the power of Azure from your own environment with Azure Update Management integration in the Updates tool. Azure Update Management is a free service in Azure Automation that enables you to easily keep all the servers in your environment up to date, letting you manage and push updates from a single place, rather than on a per-server basis. Learn more about Azure Update Management.

With Windows Admin Center, you can easily set up and use Azure Update Management to keep your managed servers up to date. If you don’t already have an Azure Monitoring workspace in your Azure subscription, Windows Admin Center will automatically configure your server and create the necessary Azure resources in the subscription and location you specify. If you have an existing Azure Monitoring workspace, Windows Admin Center can automatically configure your server to consume updates from Azure Update Management.

To get started, go to the Updates tool in a server connection and select “Keep your server up-to-date with Azure Update Management”, and provide your preferences for the related Azure resources.

Note that you must register your Windows Admin Center gateway with Azure before using this feature.

Updated Functionality

Register WAC gateway with Azure (no manual PowerShell dependency)

It’s now easier to use Azure integration features in Windows Admin Center. Previously, in order to use an Azure integration feature, you had to download and run a PowerShell script outside of Windows Admin Center. We’ve removed the requirement for this script and you can now register your gateway to Azure without leaving Windows Admin Center. To register your gateway to Azure, go to Windows Admin Center > Settings > Azure and click “Register”.

You can find complete Windows Admin Center Azure integration documentation here.

NOTE: See the known issue with Microsoft Edge listed in the known issues section below.

Filter connections based on tags

You can now filter your connections list based on tags. Simply click the filter icon next to the search bar and select the tags you wish to filter. You can filter multiple tags using OR, AND, or NOT queries to tailor your filter results.

NOTE: See the known issue with multiselect and tag filtering listed in the known issues section below.

Miscellaneous improvements

The Server overview pane now contains the Windows Defender status.

Multiselect in grid – in addition to the aforementioned Virtual machine inventory, the multiselect functionality has been added in various locations, such as managing group membership in Local Users & Groups.

Scheduled tasks – multiple triggers are now supported.

Known issues in this release

Localization – some text strings in the new features are not yet localized.

Azure Update Management – you must manually refresh the page after configuring Azure update management. [18062195]

Microsoft Edge Browser – if you have Windows Admin Center installed as a service and using Microsoft Edge as your browser, connecting your gateway to Azure will fail after spawning a new (blank) browser tab. [17990376]

Tag filtering – if you select connections using the multiselect checkboxes, then filter your connection list by tags, the original selection persists so any action you select will apply to all the previously selected machines. [18099259]

Remote App feature of Remote Desktop – Remote App connections may fail. Regular, full Remote Desktop connections are not affected.

Azure integration – if you encounter issues registering your gateway with Azure, visit the troubleshooting guide.

How to Download

Registered Insiders may download Windows Admin Center Preview 1807 directly from the Windows Server Insider Preview download page, under the Additional Downloads dropdown. If you have not yet registered as an Insider, see Getting Started with Windows Server on the Windows Insiders for Business portal.

We value your feedback!

The most important part of a frequent release cycle is to hear what’s working and what needs to be improved, so your feedback is extremely valued. Send us feedback via UserVoice. We also encourage you to visit the Windows Admin Center space on the Microsoft Tech Communities forum to collaborate, share and learn from experts.

Terms of Use

All pre-release software made available to you via the Windows Server Insider program are governed by the Insider Terms of Use.

No downtime for Hustle-As-A-Service,
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Source: Announcing Windows Admin Center Preview 1807 - Windows Experience Blog

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Brink · Dec 11, 2018

Windows Admin Center 1809 and SDK now generally available

The momentum continues

It’s been an exciting debut year for Windows Admin Center, the next-generation graphical management for Windows Server. Our team is committed to helping you manage your Windows Server infrastructure and instances, wherever they run, more easily and more efficiently. This includes delivering a platform and core set of experiences that improve day-to-day Windows Server administration, as well as lighting up new functionality and scenarios to help your organization unlock the full power of the Microsoft cloud.

In April, we announced Windows Admin Center and general availability of version 1804, and shared the user and business value provided by our reimagined management experience.

In May, we announced our SDK preview along with three launch partners to showcase the emerging value of the Windows Admin Center ecosystem.

In June, at the Windows Server Summit event, we declared Windows Admin Center as the fastest growing Windows Server management toolset ever, exceeding 1,000,000 total managed nodes in just over 2 months after GA.

In June, July and August, we continued with regular preview releases, each showcasing new and improved functionality through our Insiders program: Windows Admin Center Preview versions 1806, 1807, and 1808.

Today, we are very excited to present the latest generally available release of Windows Admin Center in support of Windows Server 2019. We are also pleased to announce that the SDK is now generally available.

Install or update today!

As a platform, version 1809 of Windows Admin Center is generally available, and contains all the features and improvements of the previous monthly preview releases. As the number of capabilities grows, please note that some extensions and features are still clearly marked as “preview” to help differentiate newer functionality and allow for flexibility of ecosystem growth.

Download: Go to ms/WindowsAdminCenter to download Windows Admin Center 1809 and browse updated documentation on a variety of relevant topics.

For customers currently using version 1804 of Windows Admin Center, upgrade to version 1809 within 30 days to remain supported under Microsoft’s Modern Lifecycle Policy.

What’s new?

There are too many additions to list them all, so here’s a summary of some key new and improved features added to Windows Admin Center since 1804…

Core functionality

Windows Admin Center continues to provide you with increasing value for single server or single cluster troubleshooting, configuration and maintenance tasks. Almost all of these were added as a direct result of aggregated user feedback:

View Script: See and copy the underlying PowerShell scripts for actions in supported modules, with syntax coloring.

Scheduled Tasks: View, edit, enable/disable, start/stop, and create scheduled tasks.

File Shares: View, edit, and create file shares and permissions in the Files tool and Storage tool.

Installed Apps (Windows Server): View and remove Win32 applications which are installed.

Apps and Features (Windows 10): View and remove Store and Win32 apps which are installed. Enable/disable Windows features.

Hyper-V: Improvements include multi-VM bulk actions, VM and host settings including nested virtualization and hypervisor scheduler configuration, integrated VM Connect web console, and more!

Failover Cluster: Added support for Cluster-Aware Updating, add/remove cluster node, validate cluster and an all-new cluster validation report UI. Hyper-V host settings on a cluster now allows you to make changes across all cluster nodes at once!

Tags: Editing and filtering improvements to better group and organize large connection lists.

Gateway settings: Improved categorization and updates to improve clarity.

Notifications: Improved notification system provides a more organized experience.

Windows Server 2008 R2: Supported as a connection target, with limited functionality.

Hybrid

Windows Admin Center continues to empower you with new and improved ways to optionally leverage Azure services from your on-premises environment:

Discover, deploy, and use Azure services: Enjoy streamlined setup right from Windows Admin Center, where it automatically provisions required Azure resources, installs necessary agents, and initializes the service behind-the-scenes. Windows Admin Center currently integrates with:

Azure Site Recovery: Protect business-critical workloads running on Hyper-V virtual machines from disaster.

Azure Backup: Protect your servers from accidental-deletion of data, corruptions and even ransomware-attacks.

Azure Update Management: Manage operating system updates across all the servers in your environment.

Azure AD authentication: Bolster the security of your Windows Admin Center gateway with features like conditional access policies and multi-factor authentication.

Azure Network Adapter: Connect an on-premises Windows Server 2016/2019 instance to an Azure virtual network via simplified configuration of point-to-site VPN.

Manage Azure IaaS VMs running Windows Server: Granular troubleshooting or configuration using Windows Admin Center, wherever you run Windows Server instances.

Hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI)

Windows Admin Center continues to be the best way to manage and monitor hyper-converged infrastructure, including Storage Spaces Direct and SDN, powered by Windows Server 2016 or Windows Server 2019. With this update, most HCI functionality is now generally available.

Clustering and Hyper-V: All the new features listed above, including multi-VM bulk actions, add/remove node, and cluster-aware updating, apply to HCI clusters too. For Windows Server 2019 HCI clusters, the VMs list loads as much as 5X faster, and VM detail pages include performance history (hour/day/week/etc.).

Storage Spaces Direct: Create, open, resize, or delete Storage Spaces volumes with just a few clicks. With this update, you can see pool reserve capacity and read/write cache statistics for Windows Server 2019 clusters.

Software-Defined Networking: All-new tools and capabilities to manage and monitor virtual networks, subnets, connect virtual machines to virtual networks, and monitor SDN infrastructure.

General: The HCI Dashboard and pages are more colorful, more consistent, load faster, and reflow better to different window sizes.

Windows Server 2019 platform

Windows Admin Center lights up several platform features which are new or improved in Windows Server 2019. In addition to several already mentioned in the sections above (Azure Network Adapter, Storage Spaces Direct, Software-Defined Networking), the following platform features rely exclusively on Windows Admin Center for graphical management:

Storage Migration Service: Migrate servers and their data without reconfiguring applications or users. It’s fast, consistent, and scalable while taking care of the enormous complexity and subtle environmental problems inherent to server migrations, all with an intuitive graphical workflow.

Storage Replica: Set up and configure disaster protection easily via replication of volumes using Windows Admin Center.

System Insights: Manage native predictive analytics capabilities in Windows Admin Center. Use rich visualizations and a simple management interface to understand future resource consumption across storage, compute, and networking.

Extensibility and ecosystem

Windows Admin Center is an extensible platform, and partner extensions continue to contribute towards greater customer value:

Extension Manager: Users can now get notified of available extension updates, update in just one-click, and use extensions from multiple extension feeds simultaneously.

SDK: Now generally available after several months of validation by multiple partners building compelling extensions. Recent improvements include a CLI to help you get started quickly and easily, updated samples which leverage the latest features, new and improved documentation topics, and a new PowerPoint design toolkit to enable quick and consistent design mock-ups.

Partners: The Windows Admin Center ecosystem continues to grow with more partners developing and releasing extensions for monitoring and managing servers, clusters, hyper-converged infrastructure and storage devices. DataON is releasing an all-new extension for HCI management, Fujitsu’s preview extension is now generally available, Squared Up provides unique monitoring capabilities based on SCOM, and Pure Storage is releasing an extension for FlashArray management. The following new partners are currently developing extensions and will be demoing their progress in their respective expo hall stations at Ignite: Cisco, HPE, Lenovo, NEC, QCT, and Riverbed.

Ignite presence and sessions

If you are registered to attend Ignite next week, we invite you to come visit our Windows Admin Center station in the expo hall. Here’s a list of all the related breakout sessions which will cover various Windows Admin Center topics described above:

Main Windows Admin Center session

Windows Server management reimagined with Windows Admin Center

Windows Server sessions showcasing Windows Admin Center

Windows Server 2019: What’s new and what’s next

Windows Server 2019 deep dive

The Perfect Match: Windows Admin Center & Server Core

Windows Server 2019 platform feature sessions using Windows Admin Center

Windows Server 2019 System Insights: Simplified ML for the intelligent edge

Establishing hybrid connectivity with Windows Server 2019 and Microsoft Azure

Retire your old file servers with Storage Migration Service in Windows Server 2019

Hyper-converged Infrastructure sessions showcasing Windows Admin Center

From Hyper-V to hyper-converged infrastructure with Windows Admin Center

Be an IT hero with Storage Spaces Direct in Windows Server 2019

Modernize your datacenter with Software-Defined Networking (SDN) in Windows Server 2019

See you at Ignite!
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Source: Windows Admin Center 1809 and SDK now generally available! - Windows Server Blog

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Brink · Dec 11, 2018

Windows Admin Center - Centrally manage all your Windows 10 PCs

Announcing Windows Admin Center Preview 1807 Insider - Windows 10 Forums

Windows 10: Announcing Windows Admin Center 1809.5 Insider Preview

Announcing Windows Admin Center 1809.5 Insider Preview

Announcing Windows Admin Center 1809.5 Insider Preview

Announcing Windows Admin Center 1809.5 Insider Preview

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