One of the reasons for enabling incoming traffic through the firewall is remote management.

However, since the main reason for a “server” is to “serve” something (be it a service, a file, or anything else that needs to be accessible through the network), you will need to enable certain network traffic through the firewall. Just like on a full Windows Server 2008 installation, the Windows Firewall is on by default, and most inbound traffic is blocked out-of-the-box. The Server Core blog has published a nice guide on how to configure the Server Core firewall for remote management in various scenarios. Read more about remote management of Server Core on my “ Managing Windows 2008 Server Core through RDP“, “ Remotely Managing Windows 2008 Server Core Settings through MMC Snap-ins” and “ Remotely Managing Windows 2008 Server Core Firewall” articles. A third management option is to manage the server remotely using the Microsoft Management Console (MMC) or command-line tools that support remote use. Once you have configured the server, you can only manage it locally at a command prompt, or remotely using a Terminal Server connection.

Read more about Server Core on my “ Understanding Windows Server 2008 Server Core” article. As you already know by now, in Windows Server 2008, Server Core installation does not include the traditional full graphical user interface (GUI).

Windows 10 remote firewall management