Microsoft Windows Server 2008

Microsoft Windows Server 2008 - Codename Longhorn

Windows Server 2008 is the name of the next server operating system from Microsoft. It is the successor to Windows Server 2003. It is also known as codename Windows Server "Longhorn".

Windows Server 2008 is built from the same code base as Windows Vista; therefore, it shares much of the same architecture and functionality. As the code base is common, it automatically benefits from most of the technical, security, management and administrative features new to Windows Vista such as new improved rewritten networking stack; improved image-based installation, deployment and recovery; improved diagnostics, monitoring, event logging and reporting tools; better security features such as Bitlocker, ASLR, improved Windows Firewall with secure default configuration; .NET Framework 3.0 technologies, specifically Windows Communication Foundation, Microsoft Message Queuing and Windows Workflow Foundation; and the core kernel, memory and file system improvements.

In addition to new functionality, Windows Server "Longhorn" provides powerful improvements to the base operating system over Windows Server 2003. Notable improvements include those to networking, advanced security features, remote application access, centralized server role management, performance and reliability monitoring tools, failover clustering, deployment, and the file system. These improvements and many others help organizations maximize the flexibility, availability, and control of their servers.

Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Benefits

Windows Server "Longhorn" allows you to achieve greater control over your server and network infrastructure, permitting you to focus on your most critical business needs by providing:

• Better management over your infrastructure with policy based networking.
  
• Deeper insight into the operating system and infrastructure, allowing you to take appropriate actions sooner, reducing time to resolution.
  
• New tools to easily and centrally install, configure, and manage server roles and resources and reporting only useful and uncomplicated information to assist troubleshooting.
  
• New scripting and monitoring technologies to centrally manage servers and automate tasks.
  
• Increased security and management of servers located in remote locations.

Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Availability

Windows Server "Longhorn" gives your users an increased availability to maximize uptime and productivity by delivering:

• More responsive systems by actively monitoring the state of installed roles and providing proactive data about potential failures, reducing potential downtime.
  
• Completely redesigned advanced clustering capabilities that offer unprecedented availability in case of a hardware failure.
  
• New option for installing a number of key server roles in a manner that requires less servicing

Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Flexibility

Windows Server "Longhorn" provides you with the flexibility to meet your changing business needs by including:

• Enhanced interoperability and compatibility advancements to ensure a seamless heterogeneous experience.
  
• New deployment options that offer the most flexible and cost-effective methods for your environment.
  
• New solutions for users who are mobile and remotely connected, allowing them to securely and seamlessly access critical resources and applications.
  
• Enhanced manageability options, such as true delegated administration, allowing you to manage your environment in a manner that suits your business' security and auditing needs.

Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Fundamentals

Windows Server "Longhorn" provides you with a solid foundation on which you can run your business by delivering the security, reliability, and performance you need by including:

• A more manageable and secure computing experience for PCs and servers through policy-based administration.
  
• New scalability advancements that enable you to deploy even the most demanding infrastructure for your business.
  
• Advanced reliability enhancements to reduce loss of access, work, time, data and control.
  
• A next-generation networking stack for improved security, performance, and scalability.

Microsoft Windows 2008 Server Core Features

Perhaps the most notable new feature of Windows Server 2008 is a new variation of installation called Server Core. Server Core is a significantly scaled-back installation where no Windows Explorer shell is installed, and all configuration and maintenance is done entirely through command line interface windows, or by connecting to the machine remotely using Microsoft Management Console.

Server Core also does not include the .NET Framework, Internet Explorer or many other features not related to core server features. A Server Core machine can be configured for basic roles: Domain controller/Active Directory Domain Services, ADLDS (ADAM), DNS Server, DHCP Server, file server, print server, Windows Media Server, Terminal Services Easy Print, TS Remote Programs, and TS Gateway and Windows Server Virtualization. This last role is expected to be available at most 180 days after release of Windows Server 2008.

Microsoft Windows 2008 Active Directory

Active Directory is expanded with identity, certificate and rights management services. Active Directory until Windows Server 2003 allowed network administrators to centrally manage connected computers, to set policies for groups of users, and to centrally deploy new applications to multiple computers. This role of Active Directory is being renamed as Active Directory Domain Services (ADDS).A number of other additional services are being introduced, including Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS), Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services (ADLDS), (formerly Active Directory Application Mode, or ADAM), Active Directory Certificate Services (ADCS), and Active Directory Rights Management Services (ADRMS).

Microsoft Windows 2008 Terminal Services

Windows Server 2008 features major upgrades to Terminal Services. Terminal Services support Remote Desktop Protocol 6.0. The most notable improvement is the ability to share a single application over a Remote Desktop connection, instead of the entire desktop. This feature is called Terminal Services Remote Programs. Other features new to Terminal Services include Terminal Services Gateway and Terminal Services Web Access (full web interface).

With Terminal Services Gateway, authorized computers are able to connect securely to a Terminal Server or Remote Desktop from the Internet using RDP via HTTPS without implementing a VPN session first. Additional ports do not need to be opened in the firewall, RDP is tunneled through HTTPS. Terminal Services Web Access enables administrators to provide access to the Terminal Services Sessions via a Web interface. TS Web Access comes with an adjustable Webpart for IIS and Sharepoint, which advertises the possible applications and connections to the user.

Microsoft Windows 2008 PowerShell

Windows Server 2008 is the first Windows operating system that will ship with Windows PowerShell, Microsoft's new extensible command line shell and task-based scripting technology.PowerShell is based on object-oriented programming and version 2.0 of the Microsoft .NET Framework and includes more than 120 system administration utilities, consistent syntax and naming conventions, and improved navigation of common management data such as the Windows Registry, certificate store, or Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI). Windows PowerShell's scripting language was specifically designed for IT administration. In most everyday tasks, PowerShell can be used in place of cmd.exe and Windows Script Host (WSH). However, for backward-compatibility purposes both cmd.exe and WSH will continue to be supported. Windows PowerShell is also available as a free update for Windows XP, Windows Server 2003 and Windows Vista.

Other Microsoft Windows 2008 Server features

A new "Read-Only Domain Controller" operation mode in Active Directory, intended for use in branch office scenarios where a domain controller may reside in a low physical security environment. The RODC holds a non-writeable copy of Active Directory, and redirects all write attempts to a Full Domain Controller. It replicates all accounts except sensitive ones. In RODC mode, credentials are not cached by default. Moreover, only the Domain Controller running the PDC-Emulator needs to run Windows Server 2008. Also, local administrators can log on to the machine to perform maintenance tasks without requiring administrative rights on the domain.
Restartable Active Directory allows ADDS to be stopped and restarted from the Management Console or the command-line without rebooting the domain controller. This reduces downtime for offline operations and reduces overall DC servicing requirements with Server Core. ADDS is implemented as a Domain Controller Service in Windows Server 2008.

All of the Group Policy improvements from Windows Vista. Group Policy Management Console (GPMC) is built-in.

Policy-based networking with Network Access Protection, improved branch management and enhanced end user collaboration. Policies can be created to ensure greater Quality of Service for certain applications or services that require prioritization of network bandwidth between client and server.
Internet Information Services 7 - Increased security, xcopy-deployment, improved diagnostic tools, delegated administration.
New cryptography (CNG) API which supports Elliptic Curve Cryptography and improved certificate management.

Improved hot patching, a feature that allows non-kernel patches to occur without the need for a reboot.

Granular password settings within a single domain - ability to implement different password policies for administrative accounts on a "group" and "user" basis, instead of a single set of password settings to the whole domain.

Fully multi-componentized operating system.

Server Message Block 2.0 protocol in the new TCP/IP stack provides a number of communication enhancements, including greater performance when connecting to file shares over high-latency links and better security through the use of mutual authentication and message signing.
Windows Deployment Services replacing Automated Deployment Services and Remote Installation Services.

Roles-based management tool called Server Manager[8], a combination of Manage Your Server and Security Configuration Wizard from Windows Server 2003. Server Manager is an improvement of the Configure my server dialog that launches by default on Windows Server 2003 machines. However, rather than serve only as a starting point to configuring new roles, Server Manager gathers together all of the operations users would want to conduct on the server and provides a consolidated, portal-like view about the status of each role.

Support for being booted from Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI)-compliant firmware on x86-64 and Itanium systems.
Windows SharePoint Services 3.0.

Several improvements to failover clusters (High-availability clusters).
DFS enhancements - On Demand Replication (Ghosting), SYSVOL on DFS2, Read-only Folder Replication Member.

Windows Server Virtualization, an implementation of operating system-level virtualization, forming a core part of Microsoft's virtualization strategy. This hypervisor virtualizes servers on an operating system's kernel layer. It can be thought of as partitioning a single physical server into multiple small computational partitions. Windows Server Virtualization will include the ability to act as a Xen virtualization hypervisor host allowing Xen-enabled guest operating systems to run virtualized. This will not be a part of Windows Server 2008 initially, and will ship 180 days after it.

Windows Server 2008 Disk management improvements:

• The ability to resize hard disk partitions without stopping the server, even the system partition.
• Shadow Copy based block-level backup which supports optical media, network shares and Windows Recovery Environment.
• Support for 256-bit AES encryption for the Kerberos authentication protocol.
• Internet Storage Naming Server (iSNS) enables central registration, deregistration and queries for iSCSI hard drives.
• Secure Socket Tunneling Protocol
• An optional "Desktop Experience" component provides the same Windows Aero user interface as Windows Vista, both for local users, as well as remote users connecting through Remote Desktop.
• Improvements due to client-side (Windows Vista) enhancements:
  Searching Windows Server 2008 servers from Windows Vista clients takes advantage of enhanced indexing and caching technologies on both to provide performance gains.
• In a networked environment with a print server running Windows Vista, clients can render print jobs locally before sending them to print servers to reduce the load on the server and increase its availability.
• Offline files are cached locally so that they are available even if the server is not, with copies seamlessly updating when the client and server are reconnected.

Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Self-healing NTFS

In previous Windows versions, NTFS marked the volume "dirty" upon detecting file-system corruption and CHKDSK was required to be run by taking the volume "offline". With self-healing NTFS, an NTFS worker thread is spawned in the background which performs a localized fix-up of damaged data structures, with only the corrupted files/folders remaining unavailable without locking out the entire volume and needing the server to be taken down.

Please contact us for more information.

Call us at (214) 717-5539 or (817) 717-5539.
Email us your contact information and we will contact you.
Request support with your details and we will contact you.
Request a quote and we will send you a written estimate.