Server Management on Windows

  2025/07/13

Posted Tag: #Linux
Other Tags: #Windows, #Personal, #All

I have been managing my servers for years using Linux but recently I dove into doing it from Windows 11. With WSL and a Debian Linux distribution you can setup a Ubuntu Server LTS server on Windows 11. Well you will need to use Bash in a Command Prompt. But I use a Debian Linux distribution because it is very stable and Ubuntu Server LTS uses the same package manager.

Installing WSL

First of all make sure you have visualization enabled in your BIOS. If this fails determine how you enable it in your computer's BIOS and there are multiple setting names different BIOS use so I can't cover that here. My BIOS in Advanced CPU Settings there is SVM Mode. If you highlight it there is a message that says CPU Visualization.

On Windows 11 in the Start Menu upper right select ALL. Scroll down and click Windows Tools. Click Control Panel and then in the upper right click Category and choose Large icons. Now click Programs and Features. Click in the upper left Turn Widows features on and off.

Here you want to check Virtual Machine Platform and Windows Subsystem for Linux. A restart of Windows is required.

Install Xming

I am ultimately installing Virtual Machine Manager on Windows 11 which needs Xming a X Window System display server on Windows. You can download it at https://sourceforge.net/projects/xming/ . When installing on the last display it has Launch Xming checked so it will start. Xming will run when Windows 11 boots.

Installing Debian

In Start Menu in Search at the type CMD and on the Command Prompt returned right-click and select Run as administrator.

In the Command Prompt type the below.

wsl.exe --install -d Debian

You will be asked for a user name and password. Exit the Debian session and exit the Command Prompt. We are doing the this because copy (CNRTL +c) and paste (CNTRL + v) function easily in an actual Debian session. On Windows 11 in the Start Menu upper right select ALL. Scroll down and click Debian. A Debian session will open. Type in or copy and paste the commands below.

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y && sudo apt dist-upgrade -y 

sudo apt install -y virt-manager ssh-askpass openssh-client

export DISPLAY="grep nameserver /etc/resolv.conf | sed 's/nameserver ' :0"
export DISPLAY="sed -n 's/nameserver //p' /etc/resolv.conf:0"
export DISPLAY=$(ip route|awk '/^default/{print $3}'):0.0 

I am going to present how to setup an RSA key pair to use with the server in the Debain session. On the server you will need the IP address. After installing Ubuntu Server LTS on the server type ip a and record the IP address of the server. In the Debain session type the below to generate a RSA key pair. This makes it so much easier managing the server and is needed for Virtual Machine Manager.

ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096

eval $(ssh-agent)

ssh-add

Press Enter for all the choices including no use of a password. Now transfer the public key to the server.

scp ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub [email protected]:

Use the below to ensure only your public key can be used with the server.

ssh [email protected]
chmod 700 ~/.ssh
cat ~/id_rsa.pub >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys
rm ~/id_rsa.pub
chmod 600 ~/.ssh/authorized_keys
exit

ssh [email protected] again and no password is needed for access.

As I said we just installed Virtual Machine Manager and it can be opened by going to the Windows 11 Start Menu upper right select ALL. Scroll down and click the Debian folder that is now there and click Virtual Machine Manager (Debian).

Since we installed SSH above in the Debain session we can now use it to do all steps in my post Post Installation of Ubuntu Server LTS . Later I will post about using Virtual Machine Manager on Windows 11 to manage virtual machines on the Unbuntu Server LTS server.