The new server OS heralds a new age in
Windows computing -- one that will finally see a massive move to
virtualization as well as major improvements in
automation.
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It's official: Windows Server 2008
(WS08) will be launched on February 27, 2008, along with new
versions of Visual Studio and SQL Server. Microsoft's flagship
server operating system will probably be Bill Gates' last product
launch before he retires later in 2008. Is Bill Gates going out
with a bang? We examined the Windows Server 2008 Beta Community
Technology Preview (CTP), which was released in June, 2007, to see
what it promises for the upcoming OS.
Microsoft has been working on WS08
for several years now, ever since the launch of Windows Server 2003
(WS03) on April 24, 2003. Release 2 (R2) of Server 2003 came two
years after the launch, and while R2 was not a revolutionary change
in the OS, it was definitely evolutionary. It brought many new
manageability features, such as Microsoft Management Console
version 3, File Server Resource Management, Simple SAN, vastly
improved Distributed File System features, Active Directory
Federated Services, and the integration of all of the additional
options to the setup of Windows Server 2003 R2, making R2 a
must-have for any shop running Windows servers.
Surprisingly, some IT organizations
still lobotomize their new Windows servers by wiping out the
pre-installed R2 version to re-install the original build of WS03.
Well, if these organizations have a problem with R2, they will have
a major problem with WS08, which brings revolutionary changes to
the Windows Server OS. What's so revolutionary? Well, there are
several new features, but the most important are automation and
virtualization.
Introducing Server
Manager
WS08's
installation is so bare-bones that even Windows Backup is a feature
you must add on to the system. Additional components can be added
on through "roles" (groups of features that support a given group
of server tasks) or through "features" (specific components that
support a single task). In the current CTP, there are 17 different
roles you can assign to WS08, and some 35 features that can be
installed.
To help manage all this, Windows
Server 2008 sports a brand new interface: Server Manager. Though it
cannot be used to remotely manage another computer, Server Manager
provides one main access point to each of the interfaces or
consoles that let you manage server roles and features.
The wizards launched through Server
Manager to add roles or features are intelligent, expanding the
list of tasks based on your selection of components to install and
properly identifying dependencies when you select components that
require the installation of additional features in order to run
properly.
But the best feature of Server
Manager is automation. Following in Exchange 2007's footsteps,
Microsoft has decided to integrate Server Manager into PowerShell,
its new scripting command language. In Exchange, each time you use
Server Manager's graphical interface to perform an activity, a
PowerShell script is generated -- and it is this script that
actually performs the task. What makes this so great is that you
can capture this script at any point during the operation and
voila! the script is built for you automatically. You can export it
and run it on any number of systems.
Now that's a major improvement. Think about it. No more arcane
command lines. No more complex scripting languages. IT pros
everywhere will love WS08's integration of Server Manager with
PowerShell because it means they no longer have to become
programmers to automate operations.
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