Let's say you happen to be the sort of IT particular person whose days, evenings,
and weekends are consumed by operating all-around from level to level, making an attempt to help keep
your company's or clients' computer systems operating. Possibilities are very superior you might be however implementing XP on
the desktop and Server 2003 inside closet, considering you might be applied to it, you are
relaxed with it, your end users fully grasp it, and nobody's having to pay you to get
disruptive. Plus, you might be occupied! So as soon as you listen to the name "Windows Server 2008
R2,
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than a warmed-over service pack for Windows Server 2008, which can be the server
version of the much-maligned Windows Vista. That by yourself is enough of a condemnation to
always keep an abundance of persons away, even prior to we get on the understanding curve.
But at the time you begin to get a closer glance, you recognize that
anything quite a bit greater is heading on right here than the identify suggests. This "R2"
moniker has obtained favor in Redmond inside very last couple of many years being a method of declaring, "It's
a similar software programs, truthful! We've nailed on some bits to the side." It is really supposed
to appeal to IT departments which are allergic to disruptive alterations. Maybe
it really is meant to appeal to the internal Star Wars fan and make you believe that
it's an adorable sidekick that may fix complicated challenges with a straightforward instrument. Windows Server 2003 R2 clearly fit that description—the kernel, core
operating system and feature set of Server 2003 were 100 percent retained for 2003 R2,
and some useful tools were added on. Server 2008 R2, on the other hand, is a a whole lot
different story. It has a revised kernel, it has a new user interface, and it
isn't a drop-in upgrade for that entry-level server you bought six many years ago. But it presents some new and genuinely interesting ways of solving a lot of
the day-to-day issues, big and small, that the active IT person deals with.
We will take a closer appear at two of those new features, Remote Desktop Services and DirectAccess, in the coming weeks. But for now, let us start out with the basics.
The Boring Stuff
Let's get the (frankly boring) marketing & accounting details
out for the way first. The core editions of Server 2008 R2 are Foundation,
Standard, Enterprise, and Datacenter. The relative newcomer here will be the
"Foundation" edition. It's functionally the same as Standard Edition and
contains almost all with the same exact features, but at about one third the price—about $270 USD. It is limited to 15 network accounts,
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physical CPU, does not support Server Core, and can only be obtained as part of
a server purchase from OEMs like Dell, HP, and others. Other editions offered
by Microsoft include a Web edition (branded as "Windows Web Server 2008 R2") for
dedicated large-scale Web hosting environments, an edition for Intel's Itanium 2
processors that is roughly analogous towards the Datacenter edition (but does not
support Server Core), and an edition for large-scale distributed computing
called HPC Server. The Small Business Server and Essential Business Server editions of Server 2008 R2 are due out later in 2010.
A very few quick points about licensing. Companies that have
already purchased Client Access Licenses or Terminal Services CALs for Windows
Server 2008 can continue to use those CALs with Server 2008 R2. Client
machines that connect to a Windows Server Foundation machine don't require CALs
at all. A license for Server 2008 R2 Enterprise qualifies it to be run in up
to four separate virtual machines on a single server (regardless of whether
you might be implementing Microsoft's Hyper-V, VMWare, or some other virtualization
software system), and a license for Server 2008 R2 Datacenter can be utilized to run an
unlimited number of instances on a single server, though it is licensed on a
per-CPU basis.
In terms of hardware requirements, 2008 R2 generally has
lower "real-world" requirements than Server 2008, but higher requirements than Server
2003. The main issue that most administrators are going to need to pay
attention may be the new 64-bit CPU requirement. There are a number of scalability
and optimization benefits that come from this, and it has some positive
implications for security, but it comes at a cost. Most pre-2006 hardware
cannot run it at all, and any software package that needs to operate in kernel mode
(e.g. drivers and anti-virus software programs) needs to be 64-bit as well. 2008 R2 can
even now run user-mode applications designed for 32-bit versions of Windows by
utilizing a feature called "Windows on Windows 64-bit" (WOW64 for short). WOW64 makes it possible for those applications to run as 32-bit, by
intercepting any system function calls, file system access, registry access,
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print jobs, and interactions with the kernel, translating them to a 64-bit
equivalent. It can be all done in a means that's almost completely transparent to the
application. This technology isn't new, but it is becoming pretty widely utilised
as alot more persons use 64-bit versions of Windows.
One feature of WOW64 that's new to 2008 R2 in a Server Core
install is that it can be removed altogether. Microsoft had originally intended to
make WOW64 an installable option, and did all the refactoring work to untangle
it from the rest of Windows, but had to back off after a rash of negative
feedback from beta testers. It turns out that many application packages, even
64-bit ones, use 32-bit installer code—even if all that 32-bit code does is
say, "Hey, you need a 64-bit model of Windows!" If you want to remove WOW64
from a Server Core install, it really is easy: type "ocsetup ServerCore-WOW64
/uninstall" at a command prompt. Reinstalling it is just as straightforward:
"ocsetup ServerCore-WOW64."
The Pretty Stuff
As you already know from our
extensive review of
Windows 7, the user interface has received a pretty
significant update. 2008 R2 includes this new interface as well, including the
new taskbar, the litany of new keyboard & mouse shortcuts, the new Explorer
with the vastly improved left-hand navigation pane, and the various toys and
tidbits such as the Ribbon-based Paint and WordPad. Unlike its desktop counterpart,
none in the advanced graphics or multimedia features are installed by default. Installing the "Desktop Experience" optional component adds Windows Aero
graphics and effects, Windows Media Player, a bevy of desktop backgrounds,
Windows Defender, Sound Recorder, and other desktop tools to a Server 2008 R2
installation, making it appearance and feel significantly more like Windows 7.
By and large, most customers won't do this on their Server 2008
R2 installs. But there are two groups of people who will want to:
enthusiasts that plan to run Server 2008 R2 as their desktop operating system,
and administrators of Remote Desktop Session Host server. While the to begin with
scenario is obvious ample, the second will come being a massive surprise: yes,
you can use Windows Media Player to play audio and video at full speed about a
Remote Desktop connection. Yes,
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connection. And, perhaps most surprising of all, yes,
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Aero-enabled desktop, with translucent effects, animations, full-fidelity audio
and all, more than a Remote Desktop connection.
No, I'm really not making this up:
Windows Media Player (and, in theory, DirectShow or Media Foundation-based multimedia application) is able to recognize when it
is being run in a Remote Desktop session, and will stream the contents of the
file being played through the Remote Desktop connection. Your local desktop
decodes the file and displays it on your own screen. It is a great deal exactly the same with
the Windows Aero graphics and effects; the remote machine instructs the local
machine to draw the windows and do all the Aero effects. Bitmap acceleration is also supported; this allows any application running
on the server that uses DirectX (including Flash and Silverlight) to run on the server, utilizing a GPU if available, or the CPU if necessary, to render the graphics, then capture the output and send it to your client. While this
sounds great in theory, in practice it is not really all that scalable.
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Hybrid Mode
