NEW FEATURES IN WINDOWS SERVER 2008

1. Self-Healing NTFS One of the new embedded technologies in Windows 2008 is self-healing NTFS. Effectively, the operating system has a worker thread that runs in the background, which makes corrections to the file system when NTFS detects a corrupt file or directory. In the past when there was a file system problem, you typically had to reboot the server for chkdsk to run and clean up file and directory corrupt errors. This self-healing function is not something you will ever see running; however, it is an added capability under the hood in Windows 2008 that keeps the operating system running reliably and with fewer system problems. 2. Hot-Swappable Components Windows 2008 has the ability to hot swap core hardware components, such as replacing memory, processors, and PCI adapter cards to a server that supports this feature. In an IT environment where zero downtime means that an IT administrator cannot even shut down a system to replace failed components, having hot-swappable capabilities built in to the operating system helps organizations minimize system downtime. 3. Server Message Block 2.0 Introduced in Windows Vista and now core to Windows 2008 is Server Message Block 2.0, more commonly called SMB2. SMB2 is a protocol that handles the transfer of files between systems. Effectively, SMB2 combines file communications and through a larger communications buffer is able to reduce the number of round-trips needed when transmitting data between systems. For SMB2 to work effectively, the systems on both ends need to be Windows 2008 systems, Windows Vista systems, or a combination of the two. A Windows XP client to a Windows 2008 server will communicate over SMB 1.0 for backward compatibility and will not gain from this new technology. 4. Parallel Session Creation In Windows 2008, the Session Manager Subsystem (smss.exe) creates an instance of itself to initialize each session up to the number of processors in the server. In the past with Windows 2003 or earlier, there was only a single instance of smss.exe, and, thus, system requests had to be handled sequentially. With parallel processing of sessions, each of the client sessions can run simultaneously at processor speed. 5. User Profile Hive Cleanup Service Another technology built in to Windows 2008 is the User Profile Hive Cleanup Service. This service helps to ensure user sessions are completely terminated when a user logs off of a system. It removes temporary file content, cache memory content, and other information typically generated during a user session, but deemed unnecessary for longer-term storage.

6. Hyper-V Hyper-V is a technology built in to the core of the operating system in Windows 2008 that greatly enhances the performance and capabilities of server virtualization in a Windows 2008 environment. In the past, virtual server software sat on top of the network operating system and each guest session was dependent on many shared components of the operating system. Hyper-V provides a very thin layer between the hardware abstract layer of the system and the operating system that provides guest sessions in a virtualized environment to communicate directly with the hardware layer of the system. Without having the host operating system in the way, guest sessions can perform significantly faster than in the past, and guest sessions can operate independent of the host operating system in terms of better reliability from eliminating host operating system bottlenecks. Hyper-V is available in Windows 2008 Standard, Enterprise, and Datacenter editions. But it is only supported on x64-bit systems that have hardware assisted virtualization support. This means that an organization cannot load up the 32-bit version of Windows 2008 and try to set up virtual guest sessions on the 32-bit host version of Windows. 7. PowerShell for Administrative Tasks An add-in feature in Windows 2008, PowerShell is a full scripting language for administration tasks. PowerShell was first introduced in Exchange 2007 as the Exchange Management Shell (EMS) that underlies all functions of Exchange 2007 administration. PowerShell can be added to Windows 2008 as an additional feature using Server Manager. PowerShell in Windows 2008 provides the ability for administrators to script processes, such as adding users, adding computers, or even more complicated tasks such as querying a database, extracting usernames, and then creating Active Directory users, and to provision Exchange mailboxes all from a PowerShell script.

Versions of Windows Server 2008

The main versions of Windows 2008 include Windows Server 2008 Standard Edition; Windows Server 2008 Enterprise Edition; Windows Server 2008 Datacenter Edition; Windows Web Server 2008; and Windows 2008 Server Core. Windows Server 2008, Standard Edition Standard Edition is the most common server version of the operating system and the default version deployed by organizations. Available in both 32-bit and x64-bit versions. Windows Server 2008 x64-bit Standard Edition system supports up to 4 core processors and 32GB of memory 32-bit Standard Edition system supports up to 4 core processors and 4GB of memory Supports all of the server roles available in Windows 2008, with the exception of clustering and Active Directory Federation Services.

 Single Virtualized Guest Instance included with OS Windows Server 2008, Enterprise Edition Available in both 32-bit and x64-bit versions. Windows Server 2008 x64-bit Enterprise Edition system supports up to 8 core processors and 2TB of memory. 32-bit Enterprise Edition supports up to 8 core processors and 64GB of memory Supports all of the server roles available in Windows 2008, including clustering and Active Directory Federation Services. Four Virtualized Guest Instances included with OS

Windows Server 2008, Datacenter Edition Datacenter Edition is a high-end hardware version of the operating system that supports very large-scale data center operations. Available in both 32-bit and x64-bit versions. Windows Server 2008 x64-bit Datacenter Edition system supports up to 64 core processors and 2TB of memory. 32-bit Datacenter Edition supports up to 64 core processors and 64GB of memory. Unlimited Virtualized Guest Instances included with OS Windows Web Server 2008 Web edition is a web front-end server version of the operating system focused on application server needs that are dedicated to web services requirements. Available in both 32-bit and x64-bit versions. Windows Server 2008 x64-bit Web Edition system supports up to 4 core processors and 32GB of memory. 32-bit Web Edition supports up to 4 core processors and 4GB of memory. Does not support for virtualization. Windows Server 2008 Server Core Windows 2008 Server Core is a GUI-less version of the Windows 2008 operating system. When a system boots up with Server Core installed on it, the system does not load up the normal Windows graphical user interface. Instead, the Server Core system boots to a logon prompt and from the logon prompt the system drops to a DOS command prompt. There is no Start button, no menu, no GUI at all. Server Core is not sold as a separate edition, but rather as an install option that comes with the Standard, Enterprise, Datacenter, and Web Server Editions of the operating system. So, when you purchase a license of Windows Server 2008, Standard Edition, the DVD has both the normal Standard Edition code plus a Windows 2008 Standard Edition Server Core version.