After many months of delays, Microsoft finally released the Beta 3 version
of Windows Server 2008—previously code-named "Longhorn"—a major
milestone prerelease version of the next version of Windows Server. Windows
2008 has evolved quite a bit over time, and though the project hasn't suffered
from the many feature drops and problems that dogged Windows Vista, Beta 3 certainly
has a few surprises. Here's what you need to know about Windows 2008 Beta 3.
The Basics
Windows 2008 will boast enhanced scripting and task automation via the new Windows
PowerShell—a surprise addition to Beta 3, given that PowerShell was originally
not going to ship as part of this product. In addition, Windows 2008 will have
improved roles-based installation and management capabilities that extend to
Windows Server Core, a new lightweight and safer version of the OS that provides
only a subset of roles available in the mainstream server versions.
Like Windows Vista, Windows 2008 includes increased security prowess. The Windows
Firewall is enabled now by default, for example, and in branch offices Windows
2008 can be installed using technologies such as Read Only Domain Controller
(RODC) and BitLocker, which can help ensure that physical server theft won't
result in a major security disaster. Windows 2008 also includes the long-awaited
Network Access Protection (NAP) feature, which finally brings policy-based network
quarantining to the Windows platform.
On the flexibility front, Windows 2008 adds some
intriguing new Terminal Services improvements that will
allow organizations to deploy remote environments and
even remote applications, both within their firewall and
beyond. And eventually, the inclusion of the Windows
Server Virtualization piece (as an optional add-on) will
provide Windows 2008 with a more performance-friendly
and secure bare metal virtualization solution, though that
piece isn't present in Beta 3.
Moving to Beta 3
In the gear-up to Windows 2008 Beta 3, Microsoft has made a number of improvements.
Windows Firewall is configured to open and close only the required ports as
roles and features are installed and removed, resulting in the most secure Windows
Server version yet. Server Manager, Microsoft's central console for daily server
administration tasks, has been improved and augmented by a new command-line
tool called servermanagercmd.exe that provides administrators with all of Server
Manager's functionality from the command line.
Speaking of command lines, the Server Core installation type has been augmented
with a new command-line tool called oclist.exe, which provides a way to examine
the roles and features that are installed in the Server Core environment. Microsoft
has also increased the number of roles with the addition of new Active Directory
Lightweight Directory Services (AD LDS), Print, and Windows Media Services (WMS)
roles. (Other roles, such as Web Server and Virtualization, will be made available
later.) The seven roles available in Beta 3 include AD, AD LDS, DNS, DHCP, WMS,
File, and Print.
Beta 3 itself includes some Terminal Services improvements over past versions
of Longhorn. A new feature called Easy Print makes it, well, easy to
print from a Terminal Services-based environment or application to your default
printer. Remote Programs has been rebranded as Terminal Services RemoteApp.
You can seamlessly copy and paste between a Terminal Server session and the
host OS, which is a huge improvement. And Terminal Services now supports 32-bit
color sessions, increased from 24-bit in previous versions.
NAP has been updated so that you can remediate connecting clients via Windows
Update or Microsoft Update if your local Windows Server Update Services (WSUS)
box is unavailable. You can now integrate NAP with Cisco's Network Admission
Control (NAC) quarantine solution as well, which was the ostensible reason for
delaying NAP's release from Windows Server 2003 R2 to Windows 2008. And a new,
simple, wizard-based UI makes setting up and managing NAP easier than ever.
Drilling Down
Looking over the long list of new and improved Windows 2008 features, a number
of them stand out. The new Server Manager is turning into a true one-stop shop
for an admin's daily management needs. Here, you'll see nodes in the Microsoft
Management Console (MMC) UI for all of the installed roles and features; troubleshooting
tools such as the new XML-based Event Viewer and the new Vista-like reliability
and performance tools; configuration tools such as Task Scheduler, Windows Firewall,
Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) Control, and Device Manager; and storage
and backup tools such as Windows Server Backup (finally, a replacement for the
miserable NTBackup) and Disk Management, which can resize NTFSbased volumes
on the fly.
Server Manager is the culmination of years of work in management UIs. In the
topmost "home page," you'll see a variety of information about the server that's
currently connected, along with task pads for editing server configuration information.
Other commonly needed server attributes (e.g., security, roles, features) are
also available from this home page, which isn't a dashboard, but rather an interactive
cockpit. That is, you can view installed features, for example, but you can
also install and uninstall features from this home page and drill deeper into
the functionality of installed features.
Server Core is one of the most intriguing
things about Windows 2008. This stripped
down installation type lets you configure a
GUI-less, headless server with one to seven
roles, including AD, AD LDS, DNS, DHCP,
WMS, File, and Print (and it will eventually
include Web Server and Windows Server Virtualization). Server Core opens into a blank
desktop and a single command-line window.
There's no shell, Microsoft Internet Explorer
(IE) browser, Windows Media Player, or any
other pointless graphical application.
The point behind Server Core is to provide
only core server features and to do so in the
most secure way. Because of the roles-based
installation and management aspects of Windows 2008, each of the Server Core roles are
installed in a manner that significantly reduces
the attack surface of the server. Note that
Server Core-based servers are still based on
Windows 2008, and thus provide the same
connection capabilities: You can still manage
them remotely using the GUI-based tools you
already know and love, from another server or
a desktop machine.
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