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131 
CHAPTER 5 | Systems management 
C H A P T E R
5 
Systems 
management 
By John McCabe and Ritesh Modi 
This chapter explores some of the new elements for Windows Server 2016 
related to systems management. We begin the discussion with Windows 
PowerShell V5/V5.1 and then we will dive into detailing what’s new in 
System Center 2016 and how you can take advantage of Microsoft 
Operations Management Suite to have a complete hybrid management 
experience. Finally, we will look at the new server management tools for 
managing Windows servers from a web GUI or command-line tools. 
Windows PowerShell improvements 
Windows PowerShell is the de facto standard for managing Microsoft technologies. With increased 
support across our private and public cloud offerings, you will not find a single management solution 
that provides the vast capabilities that Windows PowerShell offers today. It has become so popular, in 
fact, that many third-party vendors are including Windows PowerShell support directly with their 
application portfolio. Windows PowerShell now has been open-sourced, which means the community 
can get involved and contribute to it and make it even better than before. Another fantastic area that 
Microsoft announced in 2016 is support for Linux. Now, you can use the same interfaces and coding 
standards you have developed in Windows PowerShell to manage your Linux environments. The 
future is bright for Windows PowerShell and these improvements reflect the investment Microsoft is 
making to ensure that it is not just the primary choice for managing Windows Environments, but 
Linux, as well. 
Windows PowerShell is part of the Windows Management Framework. Version 5.1 will be released 
with Windows Server 2016 but is backward compatible with Windows 7 up to 2012 R2. 
We cover some of the newer features throughout this chapter for 5 and 5.1 to ensure we give 
coverage of the most interesting topics. However, a useful link in all Windows PowerShell user’s 

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CHAPTER 5 | Systems management 
arsenal should be 
http://microsoft.com/PowerShell
. This one stop resource gives you access to the 
following: 

Windows PowerShell Gallery 
http://www.powershellgallery.com/
 

Windows PowerShell Blog 
https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/powershell
 

Windows PowerShell Repo on GitHub 
https://github.com/PowerShell/PowerShell
 
In addition, you can do the following: 

Download Windows Management Framework 
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=50395
 

Review the Windows PowerShell Documentation 
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/scripting/powershell-scripting
 

Give feedback to the Windows PowerShell team 
https://windowsserver.uservoice.com/forums/301869-powershell
 
And much more… 
Here are just some of the new (or improved) features for Windows PowerShell that we discuss: 

Package management 

Windows PowerShell Classes 

Windows PowerShell script debugging 

Desired State Configuration 
For a full walkthrough on what is available in WMF 5.0 and WMF 5.1, check the following links: 
WMF 5.0
https://msdn.microsoft.com/powershell/wmf/5.0/releasenotes
 
WMF 5.1 
https://msdn.microsoft.com/powershell/wmf/5.1/release-notes
 
Package management 
If you think of how you would traditionally install software on Windows today, there are a variety of 
ways. For example, you could get an .exe file or a .msi file to perform the installation. These files might 
have dependencies that come in different packages or are dependent on patches with .msu 
extensions. In short, installing software can be difficult. In Linux, this problem has been solved through 
package management using managers like APT-GET, YUM, and so on. These managers understand 
the software you are trying to install, retrieve all its dependencies, and then install the software. 

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CHAPTER 5 | Systems management 
Like Linux, we have some common terms that we use for our package management implementation: 
