Windows Storage Server 2012 R2 Essentials Overview

Joe D April 1, 2015 Leave a comment

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When it comes to configuring Essentials, Microsoft walks you through a different guide. This one is step by step and helps you to configure all major aspects of the operating system and network. Each section will launch wizards that guide you through the configuration process with ease. Many of these are repeated in other banner menu items and quickly become familiar to you.

First out of the gate is the initial setup. This section of the Server Essentials Dashboard guides you through:

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Add user accounts
Add server folders
Set Up Server Backup
Set up Anywhere Access
Customize Health Report Settings
Set up Client Restore Service
Connect computers

Each of these sections start off as arrows and as you walk through the process are checked off.

Add User Accounts

User accounts enable individual users to log on to the network and access network resources. To help secure your network, you can assign specific permissions to individual user accounts. For example, you can give a user account permission to access server folders and the Remote Web Access site. However, you may choose to restrict access to the server Dashboard.

Adding user accounts is simple, the wizard asks you some pretty basic questions to guide you through it. Things like first name, last name, username, password, and level of access are all laid out in a single window. It will allow you configure folder permissions and Anywhere Access Permissions.

Add Server Folders

Server folders make it possible for you to group files together. You can restrict access to specific server folders. You can also enable remote access to server folders. Users can access the server folders from the Launchpad or from the Remote Web Access website.

Server folders are the essential part of your NAS. WSS 2012 R2 Essentials walks you through the folder creation process in just a few steps. The wizard will allow you to name your folder and select the permissions you wish for each user to have.

Set Server Backup

You can help protect your server data by backing up your critical data on a regular schedule to an external hard drive. When you run the Set Up Server Backup Wizard, you can select the backup frequency and the time of day that you want Backup to run. You can also choose to run a backup more than once each day.

Setting a backup schedule for your server is an important task. In my environment, backing up to a local disk is a no go. Personally, I prefer to skip this step and configure the backup after my NAS has been configured and backup to another NAS offsite. However, if you don’t have an offsite NAS, this is the way to go.

Set up Anywhere Access

With Anywhere Access, network users can securely share and access files, run applications and backup their devices from any location by using an Internet-enabled computer or device.

The wizard guides you through the process and will even allow you to subscribe to a free domain name for easy access.

Customize Health Reporting

Your server continuously monitors the status of many system and processes such as backups, storage space, network connections, and more. You can configure the server to send you a health report in email if it detects a problem. This can help keep you informed of the health of your server, even you for are not logged on to the server.

Set up Client Restore Service

By default, all client computers connected to the server are backed up to the server. When a client computer becomes unavailable, you can restore it by using the Client Restore Service. You can also create a bootable USB key from the Client computer backup tasks in the Devices tab.

Connect Computers

Visit http://hostnameofserver/ to connect a computer to the server. Once connected you can manage the computer from Dashboard

This aspect of WSSE is extremely interesting. As you connect computers, an application is installed that will allow you to backup the computer, access your server remotely, quickly access shared folders, or access the server Dashboard directly.