Discovering Windows 2008 Official release.
Posted by themsguru on Jun 26, 2008
Hi Everyone,
I have just installed Windows 2008 today to evaluate it & Test it for future use in production. The version I decided to use is the Windows 2008 Enterprise 64-bit. I have the test running on IBM X3650 with a dual Core Single CPU & 2 GB of RAM, which was available in our test enviornment.
The first thing which surprised me is the installation process. It barely requested any information during the installation. The only questions I have seen during installation was the Product Key and If I agree to their License agreement. After the installation went on its own for 30 minutes before it finished (to be honest I went and had my lunch during that 30 mins so it might took a bit shorter). What I like of this comparing to earlier versions of Windows that Windows usually bug you with so many questions during installation, which if you are not running unattended installation you would have to be standing by the screen waiting for the next question (which most of it really can be changed & configured after installation). In windows 2008 all I had to do is answer the license Key and agree to the license and the installation went on its own (I believe Microsoft has heard for all the knocking about their earlier installation process).
After the Installation has been completed the Initial Configuration Tasks Panel has openned up. It looks just like the following image:
<the Initial Configuration Tasks Panel>
From this Panel I were able to install & Configure most of my desired options. I have started by fixing the network configuration (Including my IP & So on) from configuring network. I then have changed my computer name & joined it to our test enviorment domain using provide computer name & Domain. That was easy like a breaze. What I further noticed while testing my network connection, the IE included into Windows 2008 has Java by default. As I were able to browse websites which run Java applets which worked out of the box. Not the case with Windows 2003.
The next step was to setup our server as a webserver. So All I had to do is hit the add a role in the initial configuration Tasks Panel. Then check mark “web server (IIS)” and what was great & different than earlier version it had pointed the dependencies for me and asked me if it should install it. I believe this has been inspired of Linux distributions. The image below show just that.
<Windows 2008 adding IIS webserver role>
The next step for me which any webmaster will guess is to install the .net 3 framework. As IIS does not do much without it. To install it Instead of going to add/remove programs in earlier windows versions and look for it all I had to do is click “add features” from the initial configuration tasks then check mark “.net framwork 3.0 features” and as well choose to add the dependency required for it. The image below show just that.
<Installation .net framwork 3.0 features>
The next step was for me to enable remote desktop, which I have done by clicking “Enable Remote Desktop” from the Windows 2008 Initial Configuration Tasks Panel then check mark “Allow connections from computers running any version of Remote Desktop (less secure)”. hmmm, yes I choose the less secure one in here as its only a test enviornment. Try to keep up with the secure one in production.
So the total process of Installation & Configuration of a new Windows 2008 webserver took me around 1 hour to do. I found the interfaces very familiar as its very similar to Windows 2003 as functionality and to Windows Vista as graphics. At the end I will leave you with an image of how Windows 2008 look like which could seems to you a Windows Vista for the first moment. I hope this introduction was useful.
<Windows 2008 Graphical interface>
Microsoft Windows Cluster Services For Windows 2003 & Windows 2008
Posted by themsguru on Jun 8, 2008
I thought its highly desirable to assemble a list of interesting links on the Microsoft Clustering services and often seek information regarding MS Clustering Services as they tend to hide when you need them the most.I hope these links will help you find out all the info you need about Microsoft Clustering Services. These links point to papers covering all versions of the MS Cluster Server (MSCS) Services.
For those who do not know what I am talking about, Cluster, is a service that offers “High Availability” to services. Ooops, not to be confused with Fault Tolerant, that is another entirely different concept. Raid 1array is a good example of Fault Tolerant, if a harddisk in Raid one Configuration break the system keep operating on the other one without any interruption. High Availability instead is a service that is responsible for giving the highest uptime of an application or service. In case the first node fail there will be a court of service but is minimal since it is the time it takes to initiate such application or service in a second server. Below is my Magical MS Cluster Services Information Links list
Server Clusters: Architecture Overview (Windows 2003)
Server Clusters: Rolling Upgrades (Windows 2003)
Server Clusters: Storage Area Networks (Windows 2000 and 2003)
MSCS Troubleshooting and Maintenance Guide (NT 4.0)
Troubleshooting Windows Server Clusters (Windows 2003)
Server Cluster Frequently Asked Questions (Windows 2003)
Server Clusters: Majority Node Set Quorum (Windows 2003)
Server Clusters: Geographically Dispersed Clusters (Windows 2003)
Quorums in Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Clusters
Server Clusters: Cluster Configuration Best Practices (Windows 2003)
Server Clusters: Network Configuration Best Practices (Windows 2003)
Server Clusters: Storage Best Practices (Windows 2003)
Server Clusters: Backup and Recovery Best Practices (Windows 2003)
Server Clusters: Security Best Practices (Windows 2003)
Server Clusters: Quorum Options (Windows 2003)
How to turn on cluster logging in Microsoft Cluster Server
What’s New in Failover Clusters in Windows Server 2008 (Windows 2008)
Validating Hardware for a Failover Cluster in Windows Server 2008: Step-by-Step (Windows 2008)
Step-by-Step Guide for Configuring a Two-Node File Server Failover Cluster in Windows Server 2008 (Windows 2008)
Step-by-Step Guide for Configuring a Two-Node Print Server Failover Cluster in Windows Server 2008 (Windows 2008)
Failover Cluster Quorum Configuration Step-by-Step Guide (Windows 2008)
Failover Clustering and Active Directory Configuration Step-by-Step Guide (Windows 2008)
Network Load Balancing Deployment Guide (Windows 2008)
Microsoft High Availability Strategy White Paper (Windows 2008)
Overview of Failover Clustering with Windows Server 2008 (Windows 2008)
Quick Migration with Hyper-V (Windows 2008)
Windows Server 2008 Failover Clustering Architecture Overview (Windows 2008)
WS2008 Failover Clustering Datasheet (Windows 2008)
WS2008 Multi Site Clustering (Windows 2008) Step-by-Step Guide for Testing Hyper-V and Failover Clustering
Those links were based on documents and links to Technet with relevant information about the service or Cluster Failover Cluster depending on the version of Windows. Now I would like to make some links with tools or utilities that may serve to work with Microsoft Cluster service.
Cluster Server Recovery Utility (ClusterRecovery.exe) Cluster Diagnostics and Verification Tool (ClusDiag.exe)
Microsoft Cluster Configuration Validation Wizard (ClusPrep) Microsoft Product Support’s Reporting Tools (MPSReport) for Cluster
If a link does not work please leave me a comment so that I can solve the problem. I hope these links will be helpful for someone who wants to set up a Cluster or supporting it. I was served a lot by these links and would like to share it. If you have another good link and would like to share it please post it in the comment as well. Thanks
Embarrassing Limitations for Windows 2008 Server Core
Posted by themsblogger on Jun 8, 2008
Windows 2008 Server Core has some truly embarrassing Limitations. In this Article I will try to cover few of them.
For example I read that a core installation can be used to run a web server with IIS 7 but then:
“As Internet Explorer being a prerequisite for. NET Framework, you can not use Powershell or run any managed Application (note: nothing. NET), although IIS is supported it can not be used to publish web applications based on ASP.NET, but Only html based sites. ”
How? Only sites based on HTML? Both true, I say nothing web server.
And nothing Powershell? But for the peppa, I have only the line of command and I also take away the Powershell?
It is not over, continuing with quotes:
You can not upgrade from an earlier version of Windows Server.
Right! Better format. : o (
“You can not upgrade mode Server Core mode from full graphical interface, but you will need a new installation.”
Great! OK! Choose well immediately otherwise: zak! formats the distribution if you want Explorer.
I understand, vai installation standards as before.
I need to say I find very good the idea that they offer a minimal installation, although undoubtedly it need to be improved (who said the service pack?). Maybe for the moment will be mainly used in embedded devices.
The point of this article. Before deciding to go all the way with your infrastructure on Windows 2008 Server Core, Please test rigidly as it has a lot more limitation than Windows 2008 with Graphical interface.
I hope this would help and warn many new comers to Windows 2008.
The News Of The New Windows 2008 Kernel
Posted by whatavm on May 31, 2008
Find out what coming up with the new kernel of Windows Server 2008 by reading below:
* To begin with, WS2008 is the last version of windows that will supports 32 bits. The R2 version of Windows Server 2008 will only be compatible with 64-bit hardware, so get ready!!!! So this is the first time for Microsoft, where it forces the transition to a new architecture abandoning the older one.
* Second the technology of HotPlug PCI Express adopted in the new kernel will allow the addition and replacement of hot swap graphics card, memory and processor while the system is up and running.
* WHEA (Windows Hardware Error Architecture) is the new reporting system error standardized equipment, WS2008 implemented it in order for MS to spend more hours to find out who is involved in a crash of the machine in cases of hardware problems.
* The big novelty of Windows 2008 is the hypervisor Hyper-V. A hypervisor is a system that allows virtualization to host multiple virtual operating systems per host. You may be familiar with VMWare ESX, and the difference is that Microsoft Hyper-V contains no driver, trying to make it more secure, more stable…
* Without going into too much technical detail in Windows Server 2003, the distribution of quantums time for threads was very poorly managed, in WS2008, the time calculations are made more with the time switch threads but over CPU time. This improvement will be present in WS2008 and Windows Vista SP1.
* Another large improvement, is the level of control for users quotas. Now, administrators can set quotas for resources for each user, for example, a quota for CPU utilization. Attention, quotas are not well documented by Microsoft.
* In order to avoid the sudden reboots of servers, Microsoft has implemented a background service who performs an audit of hard disk (command chdsk) when a file or folder is reported as corrupt. It will run auto-repair for that NTFS partitions.
* The protocol SMB (Server Message Block) undergoes a small face-lift on Vista SP1 and WS2008 and released as SMB2. On the menu of news, the possibility of creating symbolic links NTFS client side, then the exchange of packets between the client and server is now a lot better to reduce the number of going back. Finally, it is also possible to enlarge the size of the buffer which was predetermined before.
* Windows 2008 New Kernel introduces a new random core addressing system (ASLR Address Space Load Randomization), which no longer allows to have the DLLs to the same addresses remembered for all computers which can reduce the risk of viruses or worms that use it addresses Fixed to load the computer malware that could spread throughout a network.
* KTM (Kernel Transaction Manager) allows transactional access to the registry and other resources of the machine. This avoids the corruption of a part of the registry during a program crash. This is the same transaction system on databases like SQL Server.
There are still plenty of news that we can not discuss here because of its complexity for this article.
A trial version of Windows Server 2008 is available on the Microsoft site. So try it out your self.