Windows 2000 Administration in a Nutshell

Chapter 5. Consoles

This chapter begins with a tutorial on the Microsoft Management Console (MMC). You will learn how to create new administrative tools or consoles by adding or removing snap-ins and how to work effectively with consoles. Although you can perform most Windows 2000 Server administrative tasks without ever creating and configuring your own custom MMC console, it’s a good idea to learn these skills as custom consoles can simplify administration when you have many servers or when administration is distributed between different members of a team.

After this comes the main part of this chapter, an alphabetical reference guide to the standard Windows 2000 Server administrative tools and the various snap-ins that can be installed in the MMC to create custom consoles. These consoles and snap-ins are cross-referenced to Chapter 4, for background information on the concepts involved, to Chapter 4, for descriptions of how to perform specific administrative tasks using them, and to other chapters in Part II, of this book as applicable.

The Microsoft Management Console

Windows 2000 Server administration is based largely upon a software framework called the Microsoft Management Console (MMC). The MMC is an application that in itself has no administrative functionality, but in which other software components called snap-ins can be installed and utilized. These snap-ins each provide basic administrative functionality for some component or aspect of Windows 2000 Server. When one or ...