To ease remote server management, Microsoft has included a remote server administration tools pack with Windows Server® 2008 R2.

About the Remote Server Administration Tools pack

You can install the Remote Server Administration Tools pack on computers that are running the Windows Server 2008 R2 operating system, and use the Remote Server Administration Tools pack to manage specific technologies on computers that are running either Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2008 R2, and in some cases, Windows Server 2003 or Windows Server 2003 Release 2 (R2).

The Remote Server Administration Tools pack enables remote management of some technologies that run on Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008, and Windows Server 2008 R2 from a computer that is running Windows Server 2008 R2, by letting you open and run management tools on a remote computer.

The Remote Server Administration Tools pack includes support for remote management of computers that are running the Server Core installation option of Windows Server 2008 R2. However, Remote Server Administration Tools cannot be installed on a Server Core installation of the Windows Server 2008 R2 operating system.

As with other management tools that are included with Windows Server 2008 R2, Remote Server Administration Tools helps secure the system by default. The default Remote Server Administration Tools configuration opens only those ports and enables only those services and firewall exceptions required for remote management to work.