Enabling Remote Management for a Windows Server 2012 Core Hyper-V instance

I have a small virtual lab running inside hyper-v hosted on a Windows Server 2012 standard instance.  The host is running AD and DNS and has a GUI interface.  The virtual lab machines all run Windows Server 2012 Core.

Connect to the Hyper-V Instances

There is an array of ways to manage or execute operations on Windows Server 2012 core instances.

  • Use the Server Manager -> All Servers tool.  Highlight the server and right-mouse to see the following options
    • Computer Management:  This provides remote access to the Computer Management console. This will not work out of the box due to firewall rules.
    • Remote Desktop Connection: This does not work because core instances do not have any GUI installed
    • Windows Powershell:  This essentially runs a remote Powershell command. I've had inconsistent results with commands typed in this window

  • Use the Hyper-V management console accessible from the Server Manager -> All Tools menu.  Highlight the server and right-mouse to see the following options
    • Connect... This opens up a console screen on that machine.  By default is uses the local Administrator account.  You can force it to use an Active Directory Account by sending that screen a Ctrl-Alt-Delete and selecting Switch user. Note the schizophrenic use of a graphical screen on a Server Core instance that isn't supposed to have any GUI! 


Enable Remote Management

You may receive the following, somewhat misleading, error panel when attempting to remotely manage a Hyper-V virtual machine.  The panel correctly tells you that you have to enable the windows firewall rules.  It tells you the wrong rule sets when the machine you are trying to manage is a server 2012 instance, probably also  Windows 7 and Windows 8 instances.  The panel appears after the remote connection times out.
Note that it tells you to enable rule sets
  • COM+ Network Access (DCOM-In)
  • Remote Event Log Management
You actually want to enable rule sets
  • Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI)
  • Remote Event Log Management
Run these commands as administrator on the machine you wish to manage using the remote console via Hyper-V.  I normally do this with a domain account.

netsh advfirewall firewall set rule group="Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI)" new enable=yes
netsh advfirewall firewall set rule group=“remote event log management” new enable=yes

The Computer Management control panel (mmc) should now be able to remotely connect to and manage your core server.

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