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Windows Admin Center version 2009 is now generally available!
Published Sep 22 2020 08:04 AM 101K Views
Microsoft

Today we announce the general availability of Windows Admin Center version 2009, the latest version of our reimagined server management experience. Windows Admin Center continues to be extremely popular with millions of servers managed every day. Based on your feedback, we are continuously making it better and building on our core tools while introducing unique new features. By popular demand, we are also expanding Windows Admin Center to manage related platforms.

 

In this release, we have made improvements across the product with new support for Azure Kubernetes Service on Azure Stack HCI. Note that this release is pronounced as “twenty oh-nine” in regard to this year and month, and not in reference to the year 2009.

 

Download Windows Admin Center v2009 today!

 

New features and updates

 

Windows Admin Center supports Azure Kubernetes Service on Azure Stack HCI

Today we announced Azure Kubernetes Service on Azure Stack HCI, a new way for customers to set up Kubernetes and deploy Kubernetes clusters on their Azure Stack HCI environments.

 

To find out more about Azure Kubernetes Service on Azure Stack HCI or sign up for the public preview, check out the blog post for more details.

 

AKSHCIBlogGif.gif

 

Windows Admin Center: Now available in the Azure Portal

 

Windows Admin Center, your favorite server management tool, is now available in preview on Azure. Check out this blog post to learn more and sign up for the private preview.

 

What's new in Windows Admin Center v2009

 

Core management tools

 

Virtual machine management

The tool is one of our most used extensions, and we see this metric increasing with our support for Azure Stack HCI. We are working hard to bring in new features and improvements to this tool. We hope you enjoy. Here are a few highlights:

 

  • Modified VM dropdown for easier navigation - No more searching through a long list!
  • Live storage migration - Finally, Admin Center supports live storage migration of your virtual machines. Look for it under Manage > Move.
  • Affinity/Anti-Affinity rules - Are you running an Azure Stack HCI cluster? Manage your virtual machines Affinity rules using a new section under VM settings or Hyper-V host settings. 
  • Connect using Windows Admin Center - Manage any virtual machine using the native Windows Admin Center tools. Look for it under Connect > Use Windows Admin Center.
  • Join a domain - Easily join a domain with a simple UI right from within the Virtual Machine tool. Find it under Manage > Domain Join.
  • Clone a VM – Windows Admin Center brings in an optimized VM clone experience that significantly reduces user effort, time, and engagement needed for the process. Find it under Manage > Clone.
  • Minor performance improvements

 

Prasidh_Arora_0-1600737129446.png

 

 

To learn more about virtual machine management using Windows Admin Center, check out https://aka.ms/ManageVMwithWAC to watch a short video.

 

This tool is under active development and we will continuously be pushing new updates through the extensions feed! Let us know what new features you are looking for through User Voice.

 

Improved File Shares tool

The SMB file server is the most used role in Windows Server and gets continuous feature development but has not had a Windows Admin Center update in years. That changes now with the release of the revamped “File and file shares” extension with the following improvements:

 

  • New location – the original File Shares tool is now a part of the Files extension. We bet many of you never found it in the past!
  • New landing page look – The grid of all SMB Shares now shows useful information around local and UNC paths, number of connected clients, encryption, offline files, and other details.
  • New share creation & editing workflow – creating shares now adds helpful folder browsing, Active Directory and local security browsing, plus security, offline files, and advanced options.
  • New global settings page – changing file server security no longer requires PowerShell! You can now control encryption, signing, and even detect and uninstall SMB1.

Prasidh_Arora_1-1600738423307.png

 

Containers tool

In this release, we also have a new version of the Containers tool available on our public feed. Install the latest version in your extension manager today and check out these new features:

 

  • Install Containers feature + Docker— If the extension is enabled and the host is not a properly configured container host, the extension will now offer the option to install the Containers feature on Windows Server, install Docker, restart the server and start the Docker service right after.
  • Common images to pull— We now list the most common used Windows base container images and have it ready to be pulled with no need to type the image name and tag.
  • Disabling extension functionality for Kubernetes nodes— If the targeted server is part of a Kubernetes cluster, the Containers extension will have destructive operations (such as stopping a container) disabled. This will ensure WAC does not interfere with Kubernetes deployments, while still allowing users to use the extension to create new container images.

Prasidh_Arora_3-1600738656061.png

 

Check out the blog post from the Windows Containers team to learn more about the new functionality.

 

User experience

 

New look

Windows Admin Center has some new color! We hope you like our new top navigation bar color and the design changes we have made to make Windows Admin Center look more modern. Windows Admin Center has historically been tied to Windows Server, but now it has become its own independent product. While the license terms have been updated, this does not affect your usage of Windows Admin Center in any way.

menu.png

 

 

Bug fixes and accessibility improvements

  • Various bug fixes: Bugs have been fixes across the product and more fixes will continue coming through our extension feed over the next few months.
  • Accessibility fixes: Accessibility continues to play a crucial role throughout the product. This release is our most accessible version of Admin Center ever. If you have any questions or concerns, please email us at wacchat@microsoft.com.

 

Azure Stack HCI management

 

Software Defined Networking

The Windows Admin Center cluster deployment workflow now supports Software Defined Networking (SDN) deployment. We are introducing a new capability that will allow users to provision the Network Controller component of SDN deployment. SDN will be part of Stage 5 of our cluster deployment flow (Add > Cluster > Create New), wherein all required parameters for SDN will be validated and deployed. SDN deployment is optional and users can skip Stage 5.

 

Unfamiliar with Software Defined Networking? The Windows Admin Center workflow makes it easy to get started for novice users! Check it out today.

 

snd.gif

 

 

Cluster deployment workflow

New exclude/include functionality – The cluster creation tool now allows users to choose and include or exclude adapters for cluster networking. It allows users to bring in hardware with additional USB NICs or specialized NICs that are purposed for management or BMC connectivity, but still be able to run through cluster creation by explicitly excluding them in the networking stage.

Prasidh_Arora_2-1600738595517.png

 

Improvements to Cluster-Aware Updates (CAU)

Hardware updates – We now have hardware updates integrated as part of Microsoft Windows Updates. Currently this is just a placeholder. Our OEM partners are working actively to get hardware specific snap-ins that would be available in an integrated manner to keep the clusters always up to date.

contoso.JPG

 

Partner Ecosystem

Our Windows Admin Center partners have been hard at work developing new extensions to enhance your Windows Admin Center experience. In the short time since our last release, our partners Dell and HPE have released three completely new extensions. Additionally, updates have been made to several extensions from Dell, HPE, DataON, and QCT.

 

Dell PowerPath

The Dell EMC PowerPath extension is now generally available. Dell EMC PowerPath is a host-based multipathing software that ensures consistent application availability and performance across I/O paths on physical and virtual platforms. Dell EMC PowerPath with Microsoft Windows Admin Center enables users to manage Dell EMC PowerPath servers as hosts. It simplifies the tasks of IT administrators by remotely managing the Dell EMC PowerPath servers throughout their lifecycle.

Dell EMC PowerPath.png

 

 

HPE OneView

The HPE OneView extension for Windows Admin Center is now in preview. The HPE OneView extension provides server inventory with health status monitoring, firmware and driver monitoring, as well as network inventory management of HPE ProLiant and Synergy servers. This extension uses HPE OneView as the data provider.  The Windows Admin Center server must have connectivity to HPE OneView. This extension is available for ProLiant and Synergy Gen8, Gen9, and Gen10 servers.

HPE OneView.png

 

 

HPE Storage Manager

The HPE Storage Extension is now in preview. The HPE Storage Extensions include both the HPE Storage connection and HPE Storage tool extension. The HPE Storage connection enables configuration of the HPE Primera and HPE 3PAR Storage systems, while the HPE Storage tool extension enables management for HPE Primera and HPE 3PAR storage under Windows Admin Center. The preview edition, HPE Storage Extension 1.0 includes the monitoring features such as general system health, physical and logical inventory view, and performance metrics in terms of total IOPS, bandwidth, and latency.

This extension supports the following storage systems:

  • HPE Primera – all OS versions including 4.2.0
  • HPE 3PAR OS 3.3.1 MU5

HPE Storage.png

 

Updated partner extensions

In addition to the new partner extensions that have been released in the past few months, several of our partners have updated their existing extensions:

 

  • Dell EMC OpenManage – The latest version includes compatibility updates for the latest version of Windows Admin Center.
  • HPE Server and Azure Stack HCI— HPE has made many improvements to this extension with their latest version, including support for Gen10 and Gen10 Plus servers as well as Azure Stack HCI cluster models.
  • DataON MUST— In the latest build of this extension, DataON has extended the Azure Stack HCI solution monitoring and management experience and fully integrated with Azure Monitor and Azure Analytics for a true hybrid cloud management experience.
  • QCT Management Suite— QCT has added support for the QuataMesh T4048-IX8D and QuataMesh T7032-IX7D in their latest build.

 

Known Issues

 

Azure Stack HCI cluster creation

The SDN phase of the cluster creation workflow will take a long time to complete (~1 hour or more). Often it depends on the Hyper-V host configuration and available free space. As SDN gets deployed, there are additional SDN logs created on the Hyper-V hosts at C:\Users\<user>\Documents\SDNExpress-<date>-<timestamp>.log that help you keep track of the deployment process.

 

Refer to the new WAC SDN guide for more information.

 

In addition, the ability to utilize the SDN controller to connect a virtual machine to a logical network and apply Access Control Lists (ACLs) for micro-segmentation is not yet available and planned for an upcoming update through the extension feed.  In the meantime, you can connect virtual machines to a virtual switch without applying SDN policy, or you can perform the optional steps to enable virtual networking, software load balancing and/or gateways.

 

Logging into Azure

In this release, you may run into issues logging into Azure or registering your Windows Admin Center gateway with Azure. The guidance below should help you mitigate these issues:

 

  • Before using any Azure capabilities within Windows Admin Center, including gateway registration, make sure you are signed into your Azure account in a different tab or window. We suggest signing in through the Azure Portal.
  • If you successfully sign into Azure during gateway registration but do not see visual confirmation on the Azure page of your Windows Admin Center Settings, try navigating to a different page in settings before navigating back to the Azure page.
  • The Azure sign-in pop-up may appear more frequently in this build and may require administrators to grant Windows Admin Center permissions more frequently.
  • If you have already given admin approval for Windows Admin Center in the Azure Portal and you are still seeing an error message saying “Need admin approval”, try signing into Azure using one of the banners (pictured below) around Windows Admin Center instead of in the Settings page.

Prasidh_Arora_11-1600733170581.png

 

For more details about known issues in Windows Admin Center, visit our documentation.

 

Download today!

 

We hope you enjoy this latest update of Windows Admin Center, the various new functionality in preview, and all the extensions now available. Learn more and download today!

As always, thanks for your ongoing support, adoption, and feedback. Your contributions through user feedback continue to be very important and valuable to us, helping us prioritize and sequence our investments.

 

<3,

 

Windows Admin Center Team (@servermgmt)

43 Comments
Copper Contributor

Hello, Can you apply this to a HA WAC installation. Previously applying any of the last two updates would break an HA installation.

Microsoft

@moisesar Yes, that bug should have been fixed! Unfortunately, you will have to uninstall your current version of Windows Admin Center and deploy Admin Center v2009 as a HA deployment to get the bug fix.

@Prasidh_Arora 

This moment when you are setting up the free migration lab in #MSIgnite LRN222 and the first thing you install and setup on your management host is WAC 2009 which is just released :)

I was curious how this works out instead of the proposed Azure Migration process via web. :grinning_face:

Iron Contributor

Always happy to see a new release of this. Sad to see that the Azure sign-in issues and constant allowing permissions prompt is still happening - the Azure integration (especially around Azure Update for us) is really important and also where we're having the most issues.

 

Can you please also bring Open Files to the File Shares tool?

 

Thanks!

There will be improvments on file management in WAC according to 

See MSIgnite main page you can review anytime

MyIgnite - Your home for Microsoft MyIgnite

3h 12min (Wes + Orin) + 4h (Ned + Orin)

@Marc Laflamme 

Microsoft

@Marc Laflamme We're sorry about the Azure login issues. We are working hard to make sure that it is more reliable in our next release. We believe there are workarounds to all of the current problems though. If you hit any issues where the workaround is not documented, please feel free to email wacchat@microsoft.com

Iron Contributor

Hello,

 

We are still missing a lot of features from Server Manager regarding file servers, like :

 

- Share type selection : Quick, Advanced, Applications for SMB, Quick, Advanced for NFS

- NTFS permissions customizations (shares are not usable in an enterprise environnement without this feature)

- Search for NT AUTHORITY or BUILTIN identities within Active Directory (like, "NT AUTHORITY\Authenticated Users")

- Opened Sessions/Opened Files and corresponding statistics currently available in Computer Management MMC

- Quota Management from Server Manager/FSRM MMC

- File Server Resource Manager features : things like file screening, extension rules, various reporting etc... 

 

Also, Acccess-Based Enumerations shoud dbe enabled by default, and directly visible within the right-pane. Please do not hide such critical features.

 

Last, the tooltip for ABE is in the wrong place, next to SMB encryption option. This will cause serious problems for your customers when they activate SMB encryption believing they activate ABE instead.

Copper Contributor

Hi, I having problems enabling the cloud based options for admin center. I think this is because of firewall rules in place by our infosec team.

I have searched online for documentation for URLs\IPs\PORTs that need to be allowed for the below functions. I have not been able to do so.

1. Extensions

2. Azure\Azure registration

 

All attempts have so far failed.

 

We do have a rule to allow the below URLs.

 

Internet locations accessed by extensions in Windows Admin Center

Iron Contributor

Windows Admin Center 2009 breaks Storage Migration Service.

 

When creating a new job, then entering credentials, you get "remote exception : a parameter cannot be found that matches parameter name 'IncludeDFSN'" error message.

 

It works fine with WAC 2007 on an identical setup (Windows Server 2019 Datacenter with latest Microsoft updates and WAC extensions updated).

Microsoft

@moisesar I have emailed someone to find out :) 

 

@Alban1999 That's not good. We're looking into it right now and I'll follow up here. If it's okay, I might send you a private message for more details if needed.

Microsoft

@Alban1999 The issue has been fixed and an extension update has been deployed. You should see this banner to update and get the fix.

 

Prasidh_Arora_0-1601077056885.png

 

Copper Contributor

@Prasidh_Arora 

Is Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 is still supported? Having issues connecting WAC 2009 to it even with WMF 5.1 and .Net Framework 4.8 installed on it.

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/windows-admin-center/windows-admin-center-version-2009-window...

 

Microsoft

@pavlomnykh Windows Server 2008 has reached end of support and thus, it is also no longer supported by Windows Admin Center. 

@Prasidh_Arora does this mean one cannot manage 2008R2 at all / anymore starting with WAC 2009, because they have been manageable with earlier versions (with limited featureset of course)

Iron Contributor

@Prasidh_Arora I confirmed the issue with Storage Migration Service has been fixed. Thanks !

Copper Contributor

Hello @Prasidh_Arora , any updates on the URLs\IPs\Port information?

 

Thank you

Copper Contributor

When will this release be available through Microsoft Update?

Copper Contributor

I have deployed windows admin center as a cluster role back in April. I used 1910.2 version. It was not having issues managing the vms/clusters (in azure). I upgraded it to 2007 in August. When I tried to connect to my azure clusters (and azure vms) from WAC portal, I got error saying "No such host is known.". It happened to work one day. But it has been inconsistent. I downloaded the latest version i.e. 2009 version which has same error when connecting to the resources. 

Is anybody experiencing the same issue with 2009 version? It works for me when I install 1904 version.

How do I work with this to get the issue resolved?

Microsoft

@Dusty Today!

 

@MahindraManoj When it says that WAC can't connect, are you able to successfully Remote PowerShell into those VMs and clusters?

Copper Contributor

Hello,

 

Problem with WAC 2009 now available on Windows Update and on WSUS.

 

WAC 2009 has been pushed yesterday to WSUS but with a wrong version (same version as previous one : 2007.31005 released in august).

 

Can be checked on https://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com/Search.aspx?q=windows%20admin%20center

 

WAC.jpg

 

In consequence of what, WAC 2009 is correctly upgraded, but after that, each search action on Windows Update triggers a reinstallation of 2009.

 

Can this be corrected please (in my case I had to disapprove the latest "2009" package).

 

Regards

Microsoft

@Didier Escoin Where are you seeing this? I went to the catalog link myself and installed Windows Admin Center 2009 (screenshot below) and it is the correct version (2009.21002).

 

Prasidh_Arora_0-1603369617238.png

I would love to fix anything here but I'm not sure what the problem is.

Copper Contributor

@Prasidh_Arora 

 

Thanks.

 

I still see the wrong version (on 3 different browsers), I'm on the french localized version of Windows, I'm going to check on US version.

 

Could it be localization related (my WSUS is in french too) ?

Copper Contributor

@Prasidh_Arora 

 

I see the good version like you on a french installed W10 with the en_us LP installed and selected (on the english version of Microsoft Update Catalog page).

 

Seems to be related to localization, bad version on fr_fr, good version on en_us...

 

Here is what I see on my WSUS : 

 

WSUS.jpg

Microsoft

@Didier Escoin Thank you! We're looking into it. Is it still installing the correct version of WAC? If you make sure to install the latest one based on the date.

Copper Contributor

@Prasidh_AroraSince I disapproved the "2009" package (latest), it does not try to install anymore.

 

And my two servers with Admin Center do well have the right 2009 version installed (by the first update following the download of the package by WSUS).

 

So I don't have any more problem now, but if I approve the package again, it tries again to reinstall at each update search.

 

If it did not try to reinstall at each update attempt, it would just be cosmetic.

 

Solving this could help some other users.

 

Thanks for looking into.

 

Best Regards.

Microsoft

@Didier Escoin We released a fix for this this morning! Would you mind trying again and letting me know :) 

Copper Contributor

@Prasidh_AroraI am able to connect to those clusters from 1904 version and 1910.2 version of WAC. With 2007 and 2009 I have issues. I deployed this as a cluster role on one of my guest clusters in azure. When I try to connect to my VMs and clusters, it says no such host is known. I have no issues logging to those VMs. When you say remote powershell, do you mean it from WAC tool itself? I cannot run any PS script from WAC on the VMs that I added to WAC portal.

 

I do not see any issue with the VMs in our environment. I am able to remote powershell to them from my jumpbox.

 

Thank you! 

Copper Contributor

Please fix this in the next version:

 

we cannot connect to WAC from external network via AppProxy /MFA and remotely manage our environment/systems remotely via Powershell, and Remote desktop

This has been asked by other customers as well.

Hoping it will be implemented in the next build as in this way it is not usable from home, which is a shame considering the period we are now as well…

thank you

Copper Contributor

@Prasidh_Arora 

 

Hello,

 

Problem is still exactly the same, I still see the wrong version numbers on catalog french version, package has not been refreshed on WSUS, and if I try to search update directly from Windows Update on my server with WAC, it tries to reinstall "WAC 2007.31005" each time (in fact the 2009 version with bad number).

 

Regards.

Brass Contributor

I like the colored icons in the navigation tree. If you could add some colors to extensions, this would improve the visibility in WAC. Especially in event viewer it would make a huge difference to see errors in red and warnings in yellow like in every other tool... Thx Christian

Microsoft

@Didier Escoin We really should have fixed it now! How about now?

Copper Contributor

@Prasidh_Arora 

 

It is fixed now, correct versions are displayed and no more install attempt. Thanks.

 

catalog.jpg

 

WSUS.jpg

Microsoft

@Prasidh_Arora Is there any update to the security configurations? Such as being able to enable TLS1.1 and disable 1.0?

 

It was talked about here: https://windowsserver.uservoice.com/forums/295071-management-tools/suggestions/33952261-windows-admi... but there has been no update that I can find

 

Copper Contributor

Hello team,

 

great work, unfortunately RBAC does not work for server clusters since RTM.

User with the WAC Role Reader gets an error Connection error - cannot process argument because the value of argument "cmdlet" is null.

Is it possible to fix it? Thanks

Copper Contributor

Hello,

 

Is there a way to import a CSV file of servers?  I'm with a large company with 1500+ servers and I'd like to be able to import a list with tags.  I did import just a text file of a subset of server names, one per line, I'm just hoping for something more complex.

 

Also looking forward to more advanced modules like ADCS and ADFS.

 

Thank you,

 

Matt Maguire

Copper Contributor

Windows Admin Center - GCC-High - Gateway Registration

 

Hello,

I cannot register a Windows Admin Center "Gateway" to the Azure Government (specifically GCC-High). This seems like a HUGE oversight, as it cripples the seamless, hybrid management workflow that WAC is intended for. 

 

1. Is there a way to register a Windows Admin Center "Gateway" to the Azure Government cloud (specifically GCC-High)?

2. If "no" to the above question, is this on the roadmap?

 

Thanks,

Kevin

Since 2-3 days I am getting the following error. 


Extensions - Error: The given key was not present in the dictionary.

Looking at Extension feeds configured on my gateway, ( https://aka.ms/sme-extension-catalog-feed and https://aka.ms/wac-insiders-feed ), there seems to be no package available... Is there an issue with extension publishing ?

Copper Contributor

In this new version is any PS session option when connection like: -includeportinSPN ???

We cannot use Windows Admin Center for the servers that has HTTP service SPN under a service account.

Copper Contributor

Hello, i discovered a small problem regarding Windows Updates. We use WSUS for updates, some Hyper-V hosts and our servers as VM. All servers are Windows Server 2019. I just installed and configured WAC 2009 lately, never used it before.  Everything is working fine.

Now, when i search and install Updates to our servers using the WAC, the updates run fine and the Update History on those servers in WAC is shown correctly, e.g. Servicing Stack update 11-2020, cumulative update 11-2020 etc.

Unfortunately when you login to the servers directly, the update history doesn’t show these updates. Update search correctly says there are no updates available, but in history the updates triggered from WAC are not listed, latest entries are e.g. 10-2020 servicing stack or cumulative update.

This is confusing. Can anyone confirm or replicate this? Is there any solution? Thanks for any reply!

Copper Contributor

Can we fix the basic stuff first for Windows Admin Center (e.g. assigning certs to WAC ) before moving to fancy stuff?

 

We can't even get basic auth (cert with AD account) to work.

 

Ideally Windows Admin Center would have a used IIS so we can handle web mgmt from IIS Admin console. That would have been great.

 

Thanks!

Copper Contributor

Couple of comments / questions:

 

Had issues uploading an Linux ISO image to Win Svr 2019 through WAC.  Installed the updated extension to see if that fixed this issue.  Still unable to upload a file, even when logged in as Administrator.   We ended up using RDP session to upload to the server via desktop experience.  It appears we will not be able to do this if we install Server Core or HCI Clusters which do not have a Desktop for RDP to connect.

 

Creating VMs if we move the VHDx files has not posed a problem.  If we try to create a new VM through WAC, we can start the machine and access the Hyper-V Manager via RDP in WAC.  The resolution is fixed and the remote display size is inadequate to display the entire screen for an Ubuntu installation.  We would have to RDP through a Win10 machine directly to the Server 2019 box.  If were installing into Server Core with no desktop or RDP services, it would be helpful to have a remote keyboard/video/mouse utility to access a new VM with a guest OS install, like a BMC management connection.

Brass Contributor

I have WAC 2007. What is the right way to update to 2009?

Hi @badsector you can simply run the 2009 setup on the existing installation.

Make sure you have copied the thumbprint of the wanted server authentication / webserver certificate (MS Enterprise CA) or use the automatic certificate.

The copy paste hash is now easy earlier versions had issues with non visible chars to fail at this step. 

There is a new option for WinRM SSL but I have failed to make this run yet. you can only change WinRM SSL by reinstalling WAC. 

If you like there is also a new WAC beta in Server Insider Page. 

In any case after installation make sure to check for updates on the plugins. 

 

 

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‎Sep 22 2020 08:04 AM
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