The long and the short of it on the “solid foundation” of Windows Server 2008

In the second of his new columns, Gareth Hall starts to delve into the four areas of improvement for Windows Server 2008, the server product code named, Longhorn.

 


Last month, I set out the overall Windows Server 2008 story and explained how we are grouping improvements into four areas:

• A solid foundation for your business
• Security
• Built for the web
• Virtualisation

This month, I would like to drill down into the first of these areas in more detail – why is Windows Server 2008 an even better solution to run your infrastructure on?

A solid foundation for your business

While it isn’t necessarily the most exciting aspect of Windows Server 2008, “solid foundation” is a hugely important group of features – and one that we have invested in significantly.

We had great customer feedback on Windows Server 2003 (a very successful product release in all areas, including the NHS) and we have taken that feedback and designed Windows Server 2008 to deliver on the requests made by customers. "The concept of “role” is really important in this server release. A server can have a number of roles, and those roles help IT administrators to group servers together and manage them more easily."

Server Manager

One of the most noticeable changes in Windows Server 2008 is the new Server Manager. As we describe it on the Microsoft Website:

“Server Manager is a ‘one-stop shop’ to guide IT administrators through the end-to-end process of installing, configuring, and managing server roles and features that are part of Windows Server 2008.

“[It] replaces and consolidates a number of features from Microsoft Windows Server 2003, such as Manage Your Server, Configure Your Server, and Add or Remove Windows Components.”

The concept of “role” is really important in this server release. A server can have a number of roles, and those roles help IT administrators to group servers together and manage them more easily.

Server Manager helps you understand what roles your server has, to add and remove roles and to manage them – answering customer requests for simplicity.

Windows Powershell

At the other end of the scale from Server Manager, we have integrated Windows Powershell into the server itself.

Powershell is a powerful scripting language that enables you to automate a huge number of tasks. IT administrators have been asking for a powerful scripting environment for Windows Server – and it now comes free with Windows Server 2008.

Powershell can also help trusts that are struggling to set up servers in a consistent way. It can be used to ensure that the steps that your trust goes through when it is setting up a new server can be completely automated and documented. "We have taken feedback [on Windows Server 2003] and designed Windows Server 2008 to deliver on the requests made by customers."

Server Core

The final area I want to focus on this month is Server Core – the most requested feature in Windows Server. If you are deploying core infrastructure servers into your trust, Server Core is an installation option that enables you to install a smaller footprint version of Windows Server 2008 that has a significantly reduced user interface (the command prompt, notepad and a couple of other utilities, but no Internet Explorer and no Windows Media Player).

If there is less code running on the server, then there is less code that will need updating. So you can expect a significant reduction in the number of patches and updates that you will need to apply to a server core installation.

However, removing lots of stuff does mean that the server can’t perform all the roles that the “full” server install can. You can find a list of the roles that Server Core can perform on the Windows Server 2008 website.

We have seen a huge amount of interest from early adopter customers in these improvements and they are already delivering benefits for users and IT administrators. If you want to try it for yourself, you can get the Release Candidate (and huge amounts of information) on the Windows Server 2008 website.

About the author: Gareth Hall is Windows Server Product Manager for the UK, and is responsible for launching Windows Server 2008 in the UK next year. He previously worked in the NHS team at Microsoft, and before that as an IT and Information Manager in the NHS.