RSSTop 10 New Features in Windows Server 2008
By Scott M. Fulton, III | Published May 24, 2007, 7:37 PM
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#3: Windows Server Virtualization. Even pared down a bit, the Viridian project will still provide enterprises with the single most effective tool to date for reducing total cost of ownership...to emerge from Microsoft. Many will argue virtualization is still an open market, thanks to VMware; and for perhaps the next few years, VMware may continue to be the feature leader in this market.
But Viridian's drive to leverage hardware-based virtualization support from both Intel and AMD has helped drive those manufacturers to roll out their hardware support platforms in a way that a third party - even one as influential as VMware - might not have accomplished.
As Microsoft's general manager for virtualization, Mike Neil, explained at WinHEC last week, the primary reason customers flock to virtualization tools today remains server consolidation. "There's this sprawl of servers that customers have, they're dealing with space constraints, power constraints, [plus] the cost of managing a large number of physical machines," Neil remarked. "And they're consolidating by using virtual machines to [provide] typically newer and more capable and more robust systems."
Consolidation helps businesses to reclaim their unused processor capacity - which could be as much as 85% of CPU time for under-utilized servers. Neil cited IDC figures estimating US businesses have already spent hundreds of billions on processor resources they haven't actually used. It's not their fault - it's the design of operating systems up to now. "So obviously, we're trying to drive that utilization further and further," Neil said.
#2: PowerShell. At last. For two years, we've been told it'll be part of Longhorn, then not really part of Longhorn, then a separate free download that'll support Longhorn, then the underpinning for Exchange Server 2007. Now we know it's a part of the shipping operating system: the radically new command line tool that can either supplement or completely replace GUI-based administration.
Last week at WinHEC, Windows Server programming chief Iain McDonald flat out proclaimed, "If I could set the direction of it, I would like to make PowerShell the default shell for Windows. That's my personal bias."
At TechEd 2007 in Orlando in early June, we'll be seeing some new examples of PowerShell in the WS2K8 work environment - hopefully unhindered now that the product is shipping along with the public Beta 3...at least unless someone changes his mind. We hope that phase of PowerShell's history is past it now.
#1: Server Core. Here is where the world could really change for Microsoft going forward: Imagine a cluster of low-overhead, virtualized, GUI-free server OSes running core roles like DHCP and DNS in protected environments, all to themselves, managed by way of a single terminal.
If you're a Unix or Linux admin, you might say we wouldn't have to waste time with imagining. But one of Windows' simple but real problems as a server OS over the past decade has been that it's Windows. Why, admins ask, would a server need to deploy 32-bit color drivers and DirectX and ADO and OLE, when they won't be used to run user applications? Why must Windows always bring its windows baggage with it wherever it goes?
Beginning with Windows Server 2008, the baggage is optional. As product manager Ward Ralston told BetaNews in an interview published earlier this week, the development team has already set up Beta 3 to handle eight roles, and the final release may support more.
What's more, with the proper setup, admins can manage remote Server Core installations using a local GUI that presents the data from the GUI-less remote servers. "We have scripts that you can install that enable [TCP] port 3389," Ralston told us, "so you can administer it with Terminal Services. [So] if you're sitting at a full install version and let's say I bring up the DNS, I can connect to a Server Core running DNS, and I can administer it from another machine using the GUI on this one. So you're not just roped into the command line for all administration. We see the majority of IT pros using existing GUIs or using PowerShell that leverages WMI [Windows Management Instrumentation] running on Server Core, to perform administration."
PowerShell can run on Server Core...partially, Iain McDonald told us. It won't be able to access the .NET Framework, because the Framework doesn't run on Server Core at present. In that limited form, it can access WMI functions.
But a later, more "component-ized" version of .NET without the graphics functionality may run within Server Core. This could complete a troika, if you will, resulting in the lightest-weight and most manageable servers Microsoft has ever produced. It may take another five years for enterprises to finally complete the migration, but once they do...this changes everything.
...and by the time it's actually released, it will only have 5 of these features. The rest will be dropped in order to meet some fictitious, self-imposed marketing deadline.
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|M$ sucked
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|"...[that] Microsoft has ever produced". I suppose we could say "welcome to the party; let's party like it's 1999"... but seriously, this is good news - especially if it's not expensively in excess of Server 2003 hardware requirements.
One question: On 2K8 Server Core, can we guarantee that no IE or Outlook software is in the system image at all? I hear the sound of battalions of security Whac-A-Mole pumping their fists in the air in jubilation...
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|Finally,Microsoft came to know about the unix power,and trying to be like that!!!!
NO GUI!!!!! It's gonna suck to regular MS users!!!!
More Complicated...Less User friendly...Less HACKABLE!!!!
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|Yes then it will less user friendly.
but Why Microsoft going to do this from
GUI to again Console base interface ?
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|At least it's not Windows Me....
Or is it? lol Some think so....
Though I personally like it a lot more than Win2k3 and I have been using it since the first leaked alpha build many years ago and every beta build since. It rocks!
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|The Windows Server 2003 codebase is as solid as it gets. That's why MS scrapped two years worth of Vista and rebuilt it using Windows 2003.
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|hm..
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|Great article and detailed review.
My only complaint is that there's a pretty big feature that didn't make it into the top 10 -- a feature that has well over 100 partners and a growing technology segment -- Network Access Protection (NAP), which of course is Microsoft Netowrk Acess Control (NAC) solution.
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|I agree with that..
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|Gee, didn't Microsoft tell the DOJ that Windows was so completely interdependent that they couldn't remove anything. Now they they toss the whole GUI! It makes me begin to doubt Microsoft's sincerity.
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|uh, gee, this is a new version of Windows...they were being sued over Windows 2003. They could do whatever they want with 2008, new version, new features, new design...I guess some people just don't understand that logic. ;/
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|So we can look forward to the version of Windows that can be customized with any vendors modules and tailored to specific purposes by system builders with any software they choose to use.
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|Dude, that was 10 years ago!! It was actually Win98 and they were referring to IE. MS has since added an option to allow another browser as the default.
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|The upshot being that (then) anyone can extend it to crash more often and still blame it on Microsoft.
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|K, well... hmmm
Being a UNIX/Linux/Windows SA... not sure if I'm really enthusiastic about this or not.
It would be nice to finally see windows go headless/no gui. Though As said before by Dave, too little too late.
I'm still waiting for Microsoft to do something revolutionary and evolutionary that doesn't emulate something that already exists in the market. Seems like they are constantly playing catchup trying to keep up with the rest of the world, while fronting that they are the leading and bleeding edge.
As for Vista... I seriously expect this OS to kill MS. There is no real reason for anyone to go to it other than to say "Dude, I've got Vista!"... Now for gamers, they may be somewhat forced into it because of DirectX10 only being Vista and now games only being released for Vista. However, I think these vendors will get the hint if their sales don't go any where because (I feel) most won't want to upgrade an OS to play a new game.
Good luck MS, but I still think you're going the wrong way in a one way street.
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|"As for Vista... I seriously expect this OS to kill MS."
Yea, sure. Just don't hold your breath.
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|I disagree, people will upgrade to Vista to play games. They might not pay for it, or they will be buying a new system so they can get that extra 10 fps on their favorite game. I a year you won't have a choice, if you buy a new system you'll get Vista.
As for those with old systems, they don't have the systems to play new games, so by definition aren't part of the gaming market, unless you count the 5 dollar value bin games at Walmart.
Vista itself might not sell Vista, but vendor support will force Vista on people just as Win ME/2k was forced on users that didn't want to reboot every hour (to the ban of those that chose ME).
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|It's curious to see how fast Mark Russinovich (from the recently bought SysInternals) has already become a frontman for M$... Maybe the guy really wanted some fame or something...
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|Woah! Pick on Russinovich and folks will get mad. The guy is a frickin' genious!
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|Too little too late.
Yeah, like I'm going to even consider anything Microsoft Server based beyond Server 2003.
Vista sucked. The latest version of Longhorn Server Beta has sucked.
Microsoft is really really eating the brown log here.
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|Since Vista SP1 is said to share the same kernel as Server 2008, what does that mean for Vista? Which features/aspects of Server 2008 will it be picking up, if any, because of this?
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|That's a good question, but I don't think many of these server features will be in Vista. Yes, they will share the same kernel when SP1 is released, but I doubt these 10 features are located within the kernel itself.
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|I'll bet the majority of these features touch the kernel in some way. It's windows "heart." You don't change windows without looking at the impact of the kernel.
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|the Viridian project will still provide enterprises with the single most effective tool to date for reducing total cost of ownership...to emerge from Microsoft.
I love how they threw that last bit in there. ...to emerge from Microsoft. Just so we all know it's still light-years behind the stuff from their competitors.
At least they're not trying to tell us it's better than ESX for instance.
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|Did you see that the first release won't support live migrations?
Virtualization is on its way to being a commodity and as such MSFT has no choice but go go heavy into this market.
But as you point out, there's no way Viridian will be able to hold a candle to ESX within the next 2 years.
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|Hmmm... Setting live migrations aside and with the understanding and acknowledgement that VMWare has been in the Vm business for years...
please do detail exactly what puts ESX 'light-years' beyond Viridian (without the sarcasm or jokes or the rehearsed sales pitch)?
(NOTE: I am assuming your comments/response come from deep knowledge of both products including extensive beta testing along with detailed knowledge of both vendors roadmap [12-18months ahead]. If not... what do you base your comments on?).
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|#1: Server Core = GUI-free server OSes
Novell and UNIX had this ability 15 years ago or more.
The more things change the more they stay the same.
It looks like we've gone full circle.
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|Do you remember pre-windows history? There was a MS OS named DOS and many of the commands can still be performed today in all versions of Windows. DOS can't compete with a UNIX shell, but it can accomplish MUCH more than NetWare. At one point, you had to install DOS to even install NetWare.
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|Ahhh....the good old days.
/sarcasm
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|Re: #8 Clean Service Shutdown
More time for a high-jacked app by a Trojan is a golden opportunity to get to the system when the system may be weak.
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|Haha, that marketing slide/comment was helarious
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|is it me or "The new session model in both Vista and WS2K8 can initiate at least four sessions in parallel" sounds ridiculous compared to what the various UNIXs have always been able to do ?
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|I don't think he did a good job explaining the feature. All modern OS can initiate multiple sessions, but they aren't truly in parallel due to time-slicing of the processor. It sounds like that for certain processes, true parallel computing is possible. One process per CPU with no time-slices.
If I am wrong, please correct me.
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|Every operating system has critical sections that are non-reentrant. Doesn't matter how many processes, threads, or CPUS you have only one can execute in a critical section at time. What they have done is break up the bottleneck critical section into several critical sections so that more logins can be doing something instead of waiting for access to a critical section.
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|dope. looking 4wd.
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|Funny, I didn't see Four Wheel Drive listed as an option.... :p
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|longhorn is powerful
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|ok?
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