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MikeyB
Asked: 2013-11-12 16:51:53 +0800 CST

Windows serial console

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How do I enable a serial console on Windows (2008 and/or 2012) such that I can log into it like the Good Old Days of Real Servers and issue provisioning commands, ideally via PowerShell?

$ cu -l /dev/ttyS0
Connected.

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Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7601]
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Login: Administrator
Password: 

PS C:\Users\Administrator> New-NetIPAddress –InterfaceAlias eth0 –IPv4Address 192.168.101.11 –PrefixLength 24 -DefaultGateway 192.168.101.1

PS C:\Users\Administrator>
windows

1 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    Wow, well, what you want is called Emergency Management Services (EMS) redirection.

    http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff542282(v=vs.85).aspx

    And it works on modern versions of Windows.

    In XP/2003, enabling it would look like 

    bootcfg /ems on /port com1 /baud 9600 /id 1

    On Windows Vista/2008+ it is enabled by typing the following command where {default} is the OS entry in BCDedit:

    BCDedit /bootems {default} ON

    The following commands set the global EMS redirection settings to use COM2 and a baud rate of 115200, and enable EMS for the specified boot entry.

    bcdedit /emssettings EMSPORT:2 EMSBAUDRATE:115200

    Something that not many people know is that you can still connect to a Windows computer using EMS and perform a few administrative functions even after the computer has experienced a STOP/bugcheck/BSoD!

    Powershell? I don't know about that... I kinda' doubt it, but who knows. The envisioned usage for EMS is after everything else has failed, but you can get a cmd.exe shell with EMS... and you can type powershell.exe from a Cmd.exe shell... so maybe.

    That's the best Microsoft-native thing you're gonna get. Otherwise you are looking at third-party software for running a server over a COM or USB port.

    The book Windows Server 2008 R2 Secrets By Orin Thomas has a decent section on EMS, which is actually freely Googlable.

    Edit: Verified, Powershell is possible through EMS!

    PS: You're nuts!

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