Remote commands on Windows Server 2003 Standard - powershell

I was wondering if there was any method of connecting to a windows 2003 server using Powershell to have it return any data from the server, such as operating system, processes etc. I've gotten different commands to get data to return from 2008-2016 but can't seem to get 2003 server to respond to any commands and return any data.

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PowerShell Asynchronous Zip for Windows Server 2008

I need to run a PowerShell script that zips larger files (dozens of gigabytes) asynchronously on Windows Server 2008 virtual machines without using 3rd parties. Is that possible and how?

Can we use ansible to run a powershell script on a single remote windows server?

There is a powershell script on a windows server(2016) that runs basic network connectivity test such as ICMP ping Test-Connection/Test-NetConnection cmdlets against couple of windows servers ~3k. The results of those commands are streamed as events to Splunk http event collector. The target windows servers are located within retail stores spread across the country. The event data which is streamed to Splunk has details such as the hostname, status(online/offline), center-number(basically the retail store identifier). The powershell script is scheduled to run every ten minutes. However it taking a long time to complete a single run. As new stores are opened, this is only going to delay the execution of the script. Now it takes ~20 min. to ping 3k servers.
Can Ansible be leveraged to trigger the powershell script by passing the store/center identifier as a parameter? Due to security restrictions, the in-store servers cannot receive ICMP ping/echo request from any machine. The windows server hosting the powershell script is the only machine which can successfully run ICMP ping commands against the server. With ansible, probably we are thinking that the remote powershell script can be launched in a for loop(of all stores) as a async task perhaps.
The powershell script can run a quick server availability test for a store, stream the result and then quit which is more efficient than having it run for nearly 25 min. The only concern is ansible will be making multiple connections to remote WinRM service on a single windows host. The host has 16 Gb of RAM.
Is this a good approach?

Can I tunnel a connection using Windows Server 2008

I have a client that has some data that I need to process. This data is in a closed server that can only be accessed by a Windows Server 2008 server instance, via a specific port on the closed server.
My idea is to create a tunnel that forwards whatever comes from that port to me, although I have no idea of the feasibility of my plan.
Windows Server 2008 instance connects to closed server via socket.
Windows Server 2008 exposes a port that forwards the received data.
I connect to this newly exposed port.
Constraints: I cannot install anything on the Windows Server 2008 instance, so I am left with configuration tweaks and PowerShell scripts.
Is it possible to do this?
I have a lot of experience with Linux servers but none with Windows, I am researching ways to do this, but maybe someone can light the path on what I should look into.

Configure a server to execute software like Matlab, SPSS etc on Server from multiple clients simultanously

I have a big server in my department. We have around 60 students accessing it to run software like SPSS, R, Matlab etc to perform their work. At the moment server is configured in linux and clients are mostly MAC and Windows. The problem is that there are compatibility issues of SPSS, Matlab with linux and also the users are not familier with linux desktop which are making the process complicated. I searched and found that their is Remote desktop services server in windows to do similar jobs However Ideally I would like to configure a server in windows in such a way that users log in to the server using remote desktop from windows or mac and do their work and logout. Its simple client server configuration environment I am searching for in windows?
Not an answer, but maybe an alternative: I've professionally used matlab on a linux server from windows clients on a previous job; We had 3 options:
vnc into the server and do everything through vnc
ssh (eg: putty) and only use commandline
Forward the screen to Windows; eg with MobaXterm
The third option was pretty simple to use and offered windows-like user experience:
open MobaXterm, connect to server (you can create favourites)
specify username + password (it asks for it + option to 'remember')
type "matlab" + enter
gui of matlab opens, user experience is the same as he would have opened locally installed matlab (except for X-look-and-feel)
Matlab was just installed on the server locally, I don't know how they solved licensing issues (because basically everything would probably run just fine using one single license on that machine)

How can i know if someone in the network connected to the SQL Express 2008 on my system

I have installed a SQL Express 2008 Server on my Desktop for some local work. This has mixed authentication. I have enabled TCP/IP connection so that one colleague can connect to this server. However, this exposes the server to everyone in the network. How do i keep track of which PC in the network connected to this server and when ? This would just help me audit the usage of the server.
Well you can get information about current users, sessions, and processes in an instance by using
sp_who;
MSDN Documentation