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Managing FREE Hyper-V Server 2012 with a Local GUI Console Tool

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Manage Hyper-V Server 2012 with a local GUI console tool?

Yep.

I thought Hyper-V Server 2012 was a free optimized version of Windows Server 2012 Server Core with the Hyper-V role pre-installed!

It is … it’s a FREE enterprise-grade bare-metal hypervisor solution that is based on Windows Server 2012 Server Core.

I can’t use a GUI on Server Core! What are you talking about?

Out-of-the-box, you’re absolutely correct … the FREE Hyper-V Server 2012 product is intended for local console management via command-line tools, such as PowerShell, and remote management via GUI tools, such as Hyper-V Manager and the Remote Server Administration Tools for Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012.

BUT … the community has heard your requests to provide a local GUI tool for basic management and configuration of Hyper-V Server 2012, and on our CodePlex Open Source repository, you’ll find a newly updated tool for Hyper-V Server 2012 and Windows Server 2012 Server Core!

Announcing: Corefig v1.1.1

Corefig is a free Open Source tool that you can download from CodePlex and install locally on your Hyper-V Server 2012 or Windows Server 2012 Server Core hosts.

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Corefig v1.1.1 for Hyper-V Server 2012

Once installed, it provides a local GUI console tool that can be used to perform useful tasks such as:

  • Server renaming and domain joining
  • Role and feature management
  • Service control
  • Remote Desktop Host and Remote Management configuration
  • Windows Update settings
  • Display settings configuration
  • Windows firewall settings
  • Driver installation
  • Regional settings ( keyboard, date and time )
  • Add Programs
  • Network card settings, including TCP/IP
  • Proxy configuration
  • Local group membership
  • Share management
  • iSCSI Initiator Configuration
  • MPIO ( Multipath-IO ) Configuration
  • Basic Hyper-V Management: Start, Stop and View Virtual Machines
  • Windows Server licensing and activation

Of course, you can still use the full GUI tools, such as Hyper-V Manager, Server Manager and Failover Cluster Manager, remotely for more sophisticated management and configuration tasks, but it’s certainly handy to have a way to perform these basic tasks from a local GUI tool.

Sounds cool! How do I get it?

Easy! First, you’ll need to download and install a copy of our FREE Hyper-V Server 2012 enterprise-grade bare-metal hypervisor.  You’ll find all the steps needed to get started with Hyper-V Server 2012 at:

Once you’ve download and installed Hyper-V Server 2012, you’ll find the latest version of Corefig v1.1.1 at:

Installation is very simple – just 4 easy steps – but, make sure you read and follow the installation steps at:

What do you think of Corefig?

After you’ve downloaded and installed Corefig, feel free to leave your comments and questions in the Corefig discussion forum at:

Hope you enjoy!

- Keith

Comments

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Hi Paras, You can view the status of VMs with this tool, but creating and managing VM configurations would still need to be done with PowerShell ( locally at the console ) or Hyper-V Manager ( remotely from an Admin workstation ).  If you're interested in the PowerShell commands for creating and managing VMs, I'm publishing an article this week that will provide step-by-step details. Best regards, Keith

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Thanks Keith. A Great tool to manage Hyper-V as a bare metal server , just want to confirm can we also create and manage virtual machines on Hyper- V server 2012 with the help of this tool.

  • Anonymous
    May 14, 2013
    Looks good Keith. How does this work with "remote" access. Do you have to use KVM-IP or be connected physically to the machine. I'm thinking of the standard datacentre type setup, where currenty I rdp to our servers. We're about to upgrade to Hyper-V server, so will lose the rdp ability.

  • Anonymous
    May 14, 2013
    Wow very handy tool, thanks

  • Anonymous
    August 20, 2013
    For server core 2012 I have just published PSHVM30 located at PSHVM.codeplex.com an all GUI free hyperv manager written in powershell. I have a version that intergrates with corefig1.1 and a stand alone version. Pretty much everything you need to manage your vhost from the console and more.