Windows Server 2012 MMC Administration (part 5) - Building custom MMCs - Adding snap-ins to the console

Step 2: Adding snap-ins to the console

While you are thinking about the organization of the tool and the possibility of using additional views of the console root, you should also consider the types of snap-ins that you want to add to the console. Each of the tools listed in Table 1 is available as a stand-alone snap-in you can add to the console. If you’ve installed any third-party tools on the computer, these tools might have standalone snap-ins you can use. Many other snap-ins are available from Microsoft as well.

Again, think of snap-in types or categories, not necessarily specific snap-ins you want to use. You might want to organize the snap-ins into groups by creating folders for storing snap-ins of a specific type or category. For example, if you are creating a console tool for managing Active Directory, you might find that there are four general types of snap-ins you want to work with: General, Policy, Security, and Support. You would then create four folders in the console with these names.

Folders are implemented as a snap-in you add to the console root. To add folders to the console root, follow these steps:

1. In your MMC, choose Add/Remove Snap-In from the File menu in the main window. As shown in Figure 6, this displays the Add Or Remove Snap-Ins dialog box.

2. The Available Snap-ins list shows all the snap-ins that are available. Scroll through the list until you see the Folder snap-in. Select Folder, and then tap or click Add. The Folder snap-in is added to the Selected Snap-ins list. Repeat this for each folder you want to use. If you are following the example and want to use four folders, you tap or click Add three more times so that four Folder snap-ins appear in the Add Or Remove Snap-Ins dialog box, as shown in Figure 6.

   

   Figure 6. Added snap-ins are listed in the Selected Snap-ins list.

3. Now close the Add Or Remove Snap-ins dialog box by tapping or clicking OK and return to the console you are creating.

After you add folders, you must rename them. Press and hold or right-click the first folder, and choose Rename. Type a new name, and then press Enter. If you are following the example, rename the folders: General, Policy, Security, and Support. When you are finished renaming the folders, follow a similar process to add the appropriate snap-ins to your console:

1. Choose Add/Remove Snap-in on the File menu in the main window. This displays the Add Or Remove Snap-ins dialog box shown previously in Figure 6.

2. Tap or click Advanced. Select the Allow Changing The Parent Snap-in check box. When you tap or click OK, the Add Or Remove Snap-ins dialog box is updated to include a Parent Snap-in drop-down list.

3. In the Parent Snap-in drop-down list, choose the folder to use. In the Available Snap-ins list, choose a snap-in to add as a subnode of the selected folder and then tap or click Add. When you are finished adding snap-ins to the selected folder, repeat this step to add snap-ins to other folders.

4. When you are finished adding snap-ins to folders, tap or click OK to close the Add Or Remove Snap-ins dialog box and return to the console you are creating.

Some snap-ins prompt you to select a computer to manage, as shown in Figure 7.

Figure 7. This Services dialog box is where you specify which computer a snap-in will manage.

If you want the snap-in to work with whichever computer the console is running on, select Local Computer. Otherwise, select Another Computer and then type the computer name or IP address of the computer you want to use. If you don’t know the computer name or IP address, tap or click Browse to search for the computer you want to work with.

Specify which computer to manage

To ensure you can specify which computer to manage when running the console from the command line, you must select the Allow The Selected Computer To Be Changed When Launching From The Command Line check box. When you select this option and save the console, you can set the computer to manage using the /Computer=RemoteComputer parameter.

Some snap-ins are added by using wizards with several configuration pages, so when you select these snap-ins you start the associated wizard and the wizard helps you configure how the snap-in is used. One snap-in in particular that uses a wizard is Link To Web Address. When you add this snap-in, you start the Link To Web Address Wizard, as shown in Figure 8, and the wizard prompts you to create an Internet shortcut. Here, you type the Uniform Resource Locator (URL) you want to use, tap or click Next, enter a descriptive name for the URL, and then tap or click Finish. Then, when you select the related snap-in in the console tree, the designated webpage appears in the details pane.

Figure 8. You add snap-ins with multiple configuration pages by using a wizard.

While you are adding snap-ins, you can also examine the available extensions for snap-ins. In the Add Or Remove Snap-ins dialog box, choose a previously selected snap-in and then tap or click Edit Extensions. In the Extensions For dialog box, all available extensions are enabled by default, as shown in Figure 9. So, if you want to change this behavior, you can select the Enable Only Selected Extensions option and then clear the individual check boxes for extensions you want to exclude.

Figure 9. You can enable all extensions or selected extensions.

Figure 10 shows the example console with snap-ins organized using the previously discussed folders:

• General Contains Active Directory Users And Computers, Active Directory Sites And Services, and Active Directory Rights Management Services

• Policy Contains Group Policy Management and Resultant Set of Policy

• Security Contains Security Templates and Security Configuration And Analysis

• Support Contains links to Microsoft Knowledge Base, Microsoft Tech Support, and Windows Server Home Page

Figure 10. A custom console with snap-ins organized into four folders.