Windows Admin Center Doesn’t Connect

powershellsysadminwindowswindows-server-2016winrm

I've installed version 1804.25 of Windows Admin Center (WAC) onto my Windows 10 Pro v1709 laptop. I accepted the WAC self-signed cert, provided by the installer, on first page load. I then used the WAC interface to add two EC2 servers. That is, I specified the public DNS of the two machines, and then chose "use another account for this connection" and provided the EC2 server's "Administrator" account and password for both machines. WAC indicated that both machines were successfully confirmed and added. I successfully reached this point because I set IP inbound rules on the EC2 security group for WinRM, and opened the WinRM port on the servers' firewall.

However, when I click "Connect" for either of these servers, I get the message:

Couldn't Connect: Verify the connection details and then try again.

I notice there is also the option to connect to my local laptop, where WAC is running. When I choose this option – it still won't connect and gives the same error. In short, WAC acts healthy, but can't connect to anything.

Any ideas? I can successfully connect to both EC2 servers via RDP.

further details:

  • Did you install with the default port setting? Yes
  • Is the machine where Windows Admin Center is installed joined to a domain? Yes
  • Is the machine that you are trying to manage joined to a domain? No
  • Windows version of the machine that you are trying to manage: Windows 2016 and Windows 2016 Core
  • What browser are you using? Edge

Best Answer

I discovered the problem. It is a design flaw in Windows Admin Center. Here is a User Voice ticket that describes the problem and work-around.

Simply put, I'm giving FQDN server identifiers to WAC on my domain-joined laptop. It confirms that the server exists and that I've provided the correct credentials. Then it stores the server connection using the hostname of the server instead of the FQDN. Unfortunately, the cloud-based servers I'm targeting are not on my own domain - or any domain at all. So the hostname does not resolve.

The solution is for me to put the hostname into my HOSTS file with explicit IP addresses. Very obnoxious, since the cloud-servers have dynamic IP's!

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