| Windows Server 2008 | |
|---|---|
| Part of the Microsoft Windows family | |
| Screenshot of Windows Server 2008 | |
| Developer | |
| Microsoft | |
| Website | www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/us/default.aspx |
| Releases | |
| Release date | RTM: February 4, 2008; Retail: February 27, 2008 [info] |
| Current version | 6.0 (Build 6002: Service Pack 2) (July 22, 2009) [info] |
| Source model | Closed source / Shared source |
| License | Proprietary commercial software |
| Kernel type | Hybrid |
| Update method | Windows Update, Windows Server Update Services, SCCM |
| Platform support | IA-32, x86-64, Itanium |
| Preceded by | Windows Server 2003 |
| Succeeded by | Windows Server 2008 R2 |
| Support status | |
| Mainstream support until 9 July 2013.[1] Extended support until 10 July 2018. |
|
| Further reading | |
Windows Server 2008 (sometimes abbreviated as "Win2K8"[2] or "W2K8") is one of Microsoft Windows' server line of operating systems. Released to manufacturing on February 4, 2008, and officially released on February 27, 2008, it is the successor to Windows Server 2003, released nearly five years earlier. A second release, named Windows Server 2008 R2, was released to manufacturing on July 22, 2009.[3] Like Windows Vista and Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 is based on Windows NT 6.x.
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Originally known as Windows Server Codename "Longhorn", Microsoft chairman Bill Gates announced its official title (Windows Server 2008) during his keynote address at WinHEC 16 May 2007.[4]
Beta 1 was released on 27 July 2005, Beta 2 was announced and released on 23 May 2006 at WinHEC 2006 and Beta 3 was released publicly on 25 April 2007.[5] Release Candidate 0 was released to the general public on 24 September 2007[6] and Release Candidate 1 was released to the general public on 5 December 2007. Windows Server 2008 was released to manufacturing on 4 February 2008 and officially launched on 27 February 2008.[7]
Windows Server 2008 is built from the same code base as Windows Vista; therefore, it shares much of the same architecture and functionality. Since the code base is common, it automatically comes with most of the technical, security, management and administrative features new to Windows Vista such as the rewritten networking stack (native IPv6, native wireless, speed and security improvements); improved image-based installation, deployment and recovery; improved diagnostics, monitoring, event logging and reporting tools; new security features such as BitLocker and 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. Processors and memory devices are modeled as Plug and Play devices, to allow hot-plugging of these devices. This allows the system resources to be partitioned dynamically using Dynamic Hardware Partitioning; each partition has its own memory, processor and I/O host bridge devices independent of other partitions.[8]
Windows Server 2008 includes a variation of installation called Server Core. Server Core is a significantly scaled-back installation where no Windows Explorer shell is installed. All configuration and maintenance is done entirely through command line interface windows, or by connecting to the machine remotely using Microsoft Management Console. However, Notepad and some control panel applets, such as Regional Settings, are available.
Server Core does not include the .NET Framework, Internet Explorer, Windows PowerShell or many other features not related to core server features. A Server Core machine can be configured for several basic roles: Domain controller/Active Directory Domain Services, ADLDS (ADAM), DNS Server, DHCP Server, file server, print server, Windows Media Server, IIS 7 Web server and Hyper-V virtual server. Server Core can also be used to create a cluster with high availability using failover clustering or network load balancing.
Andrew Mason, a program manager on the Windows Server team, noted that a primary motivation for producing a Server Core variant of Windows Server 2008 was to reduce the attack surface of the operating system, and that about 70% of the security vulnerabilities in Microsoft Windows from the prior five years would not have affected Server Core.[9]
Active Directory roles are 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).[10] A number of other additional services are being introduced, including Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS), Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services (AD LDS), (formerly Active Directory Application Mode, or ADAM), Active Directory Certificate Services (ADCS), and Active Directory Rights Management Services (ADRMS). Identity and certificate services allow administrators to manage user accounts and the digital certificates that allow them to access certain services and systems. Federation management services enable enterprises to share credentials with trusted partners and customers, allowing a consultant to use his company user name and password to log in on a client's network. Identity Integration Feature Pack is included as Active Directory Metadirectory Services. Each of these services represents a server role.
Windows Server 2008 offers high-availability to services and applications through Failover Clustering. Most server features and roles can be kept running with little to no downtime.
In Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2, the way clusters are qualified changed significantly with the introduction of the cluster validation wizard.[11] The cluster validation wizard is a feature that is integrated into failover clustering in Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2. With the cluster validation wizard, you can run a set of focused tests on a collection of servers that you intend to use as nodes in a cluster. This cluster validation process tests the underlying hardware and software directly, and individually, to obtain an accurate assessment of how well failover clustering can be supported on a given configuration.
Note: This feature is only available in Enterprise and Datacenter editions of Windows Server.
In Windows versions prior to Windows Vista, if the operating system detected corruption in the file system of an NTFS volume, it marked the volume "dirty"; to correct errors on the volume, it had to be taken 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. The operating system now features S.M.A.R.T. detection techniques to help determine when a hard disk may fail.[12]
Hyper-V is hypervisor-based virtualization software, forming a core part of Microsoft's virtualization strategy. It 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. Hyper-V includes the ability to act as a Xen virtualization hypervisor host allowing Xen-enabled guest operating systems to run virtualized.[13] A beta version of Hyper-V shipped with certain x86-64 editions of Windows Server 2008, prior to Microsoft's release of the final version of Hyper-V on 26 June 2008 as a free download. Also, a standalone version of Hyper-V exists; this version only supports the x86-64 architecture.[14] While the IA-32 editions of Windows Server 2008 cannot run or install Hyper-V, they can run the MMC snap-in for managing Hyper-V.
Windows System Resource Manager (WSRM) is integrated into Windows Server 2008. It provides resource management and can be used to control the amount of resources a process or a user can use based on business priorities. Process Matching Criteria, which is defined by the name, type or owner of the process, enforces restrictions on the resource usage by a process that matches the criteria. CPU time, bandwidth that it can use, number of processors it can be run on, and allocated to a process can be restricted. Restrictions can be set to be imposed only on certain dates as well.
Server Manager is a new roles-based management tool for Windows Server 2008.[15] It is 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, such as, getting a remote deployment method set up, adding more server roles etc., and provides a consolidated, portal-like view about the status of each role.[16]
Other new or enhanced features include:
Most editions of Windows Server 2008 are available in x86-64 and IA-32 versions. Windows Server 2008 for Itanium-based Systems supports IA-64 processors. Microsoft has optimized the IA-64 version for high-workload scenarios like database servers and Line of Business (LOB) applications. As such it is not optimized for use as a file server or media server. Microsoft has announced that Windows Server 2008 is the last 32-bit Windows server operating system.[26] Windows Server 2008 is available in the editions listed below,[27] similar to Windows Server 2003.
Server Core is available in the Web, Standard, Enterprise and Datacenter editions. It is not available in the Itanium edition. Server Core is simply an alternate installation option supported by some of the editions, and not a separate edition by itself. Each architecture has a separate installation DVD. The 32-bit version of Windows Server 2008 Standard Edition is available to verified students for free through Microsoft's DreamSpark program.
Microsoft occasionally releases service packs for its Windows operating systems to fix bugs and also add new features.
Because Windows Server 2008 is based on the Windows NT 6.0 Service Pack 1 kernel, the RTM release is considered to be Service Pack 1; accordingly, the first service pack is called Service Pack 2. Announced on October 24, 2008,[30] this service pack contains the same changes and improvements as the Windows Vista Service Pack 2, as well as the final release of Hyper-V 1.0, and an approximate 10% reduction in power usage.
The first SP2 beta build was sent out in in October 2008, a public beta arrived in December 2008, and an RC-escrow build was given to testers in January 2009. Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 share a single service pack binary, reflecting the fact that their code bases were joined with the release of Server 2008. On May 26, 2009, Service Pack 2 was ready for release. It is now available in Windows Update.
A second release, Windows Server 2008 R2, was released on October 22, 2009.[31] Retail availability began September 14, 2009.[32] Windows Server 2008 R2 reached the RTM milestone on July 22, 2009.[33] Like Windows 7, it is built on Windows NT 6.1. New features include new virtualization features, new Active Directory features, IIS 7.5, and support for 256 logical processors. Support for 32-bit-only processors (IA-32) has been removed. On July 22, 2009, Microsoft officially announced that they had released both Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7 to manufacturing. Windows Server 2008 R2 was generally available for download from MSDN and Technet on August 19 and for retail purchase from October 22, 2009.
System requirements for Windows Server 2008 are as follows:
| Minimum for Windows Server 2008[34] | Recommended for Windows Server 2008[34] | Minimum for Windows Server 2008 R2[35] | Recommended for Windows Server 2008 R2[35] | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Processor | 1 GHz (IA-32) or 1.4 GHz (x86-64) or Intel Itanium 2 | 2 GHz or faster | 1.4 GHz (x86-64 processor) or Intel Itanium 2 | |
| Memory | 512 MB RAM (may limit performance and some features) | 2 GB RAM or higher
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512 MB RAM | Maximum: 8 GB (Foundation) or 32 GB (Standard) or 2 TB (Enterprise, Datacenter, and Itanium-Based Systems) |
| Video adapter and monitor | Super VGA (800 x 600) | Super VGA (800 x 600) or higher resolution | Super VGA (800 x 600) | Super VGA (800 x 600) or higher resolution |
| Hard drive disk free space | 40 GB or higher |
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| Optical drive | DVD-ROM | |||
| Devices | Super VGA (800 x 600) or higher-resolution monitor, keyboard and mouse | |||
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