Determining Which Windows Media Services Administration Tools to Leverage

When planning to run Windows Media Services on Windows Server 2008 R2, organizations should consider the numerous ways it can be administered and managed to find their best fit. The following bullets identify the tools available for administering Windows Media Services:

. Windows Media Service snap-in—This is the most common interface for managing Windows Media Services. This interface is based on the traditional Microsoft Management Console (MMC). It can be added as a snap-in to any server running Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Vista, or Windows 7.

. Windows Media Services Administrator for the web—Organizations can choose to administer Windows Media Services over the web. The web interface for administration is particularly useful and appreciated by users who manage Windows Media Services from a non-Windows machine over the Internet or on a network with low latency.

. Command-line scripts—Like many of the Windows Server products, Windows Media Services administration tasks can be automated through the command line by using a series of scripts.

When the full installation option for Windows Media Services is utilized, both the Windows Media Service snap-in and the Windows Media Services Administrator for the web are included. It should be noted that the Windows Media Service Administrator for the web requires the Web Server (IIS) server role to be installed on the Windows Server 2008 R2 system. Alternatively, the Windows Media Services 2008 R2 Remote Server Administration tool can be downloaded from the Microsoft website.

Source of Information : Sams - Windows Server 2008 R2 Unleashed