Hi Folks,
I have had a few requests from people out there about the Windows Server 2008 System, mainly in relation to release date, and items such as roles, features and step by step info.
Now, Microsoft released Windows Server 'Longhorn' Beta 3 about 6 weeks ago to Technet Plus subscribers, and now is readily available to everyone, microsoft's official release date on this product has yet to be determined, but all signs indicate that manufacturing will start at the end of this year, ready for early 2008 (as the name Suggests).
Tecnet Plus subscibers will notice that Windows Server 2008 IDS-3 is now available on technet in both standard, & enterprise.
So whats the difference?! As far as I can see there are not too many, however I have come across a few differences thus far.
First up, the installation was slightly different, everyone who has used Longhorn knows you have 2 install methods you can choose, a Windows Server Core install, or Windows Server server, i'm just going to take a moment to explain the differences....Essentially, Server Core is a slimmed-down, appliancelike version of Longhorn Server that functions in a couple of limited roles and does nothing else.
Server Core, as I see it, has three main advantages: it’s extremely focused, which means it does what it does very well, resulting in better performance, resilience and robustness than a full-fledged operating system. It also has limited dependencies on other pieces of the Windows puzzle, in that the Core is designed to work without a lot of other software installed; it can generally work by itself. In comparison, many of the previous Windows components aren’t really necessary -- like Windows Explorer or Internet Explorer, for example, which is something that can’t be said for Windows Server 2003.
All of this translates into a far smaller attack surface than the standard Windows Server product, given all of the material that's been stripped out.
ok back to the differences... during install mode I was not prompted to set an Administrator password, which i thought was a bit strange, but it did speed up the install process.. on my Vm machine it took about 15 Minutes to install the OS.
Upon First load you now actually get prompted to set the Administrator password..
now set your password
You also now have the facility to create a password reset disk, handy, however so far I cannot see a USB key option, which i'm sure will come around prior to final release.
Once your password is set and you log in, you will notice one little difference, nothing important, but in my opinion means they are finally getting closer to releasing the various RC's which is a good sign...In the bottom Right Hand Corner it has always stated Windows Server 'Longhorn' eval..... It now states Windows Server 2008.
I also noticed boot up time is incredibly quicker, os loaded in under 1 minute!
ok, moving right along, naturally you you will get asked to fill in the usual info in the 'initial Configuration Tasks' wizard, i.e Time Zone, Networking, Computer name & domain, automatic updating & feedback, install updates, add roles and add features, enable remote desktop and customise windows firewall
Now lets run you through roles. now server manager is still what you use to install roles and features, in this example we are going to install Active Directory but the screen dump lets you see what roles are available.
Best Practices: Make sure prior to installing Active Directory that you have assigned the server a static IP, and that you have set its DNS primary pointing to its loopback address of 127.0.0.1.
First up you will get your welcome screen
next comes the confirmation screen, notice taht in all prior server versions, once you install AD and restart it is up and running, but in Windows Server 2008 you need to run dcpromo AFTER initial install of AD to activate the role, which i will cover later.
Active Directory starts to install and then finishes.
Now you need to run dcpromo, you access this via selecting the active directory services role in server manager and selecting the link selected in red below.
now lets kick off the dcpromo config. you get the usual welcome screen
go next, now you will hit Deployment Configuration page, please note in this example I am setting up the first dc in my forest.
next comes your forest root domain name, in this example, my FQDN is XtremeIT.com
next comes your AD firest level, in my example i'm going with 2008 and following that is your DNS.
now you will recieve the following warning message
this message is basically telling you it cannot contact another DNS zone, this is of course true, as I am doing a first Domain Controlller install and I am using this DC as my primary DNS If you are running a seperate delegated DNS (i.e you have another DNS Server and appropriate zone)you only need to manually create a connection to this on your other DNS Server and zone.
The next warning message you get is quite lengthy, but all it is talking about here is that if this server will be your primary DNS, you need to ensure your primary DNS settings reflect the server. This is what i was talking about earlier in the best practices section, by point it to 127.0.0.1, if you forgot to do that prior to install, selecting yes on this screen will make the appropriate changes
the next part of the wizard will prompt you about installtion loactions for SYSVOL etc, now best practices on DC's is to segment these directory locations for performance, but in this example i'll leave it as default.
moving along, the next screen prompts you to set a restore password for Authoritive and Non-Authoritive and DS restores, as well as a review of all wizard steps.
hitting next kicks off your install
you will then get a completed screen and naturally the prompt to restart.
once you restart, under server manager you will now see AD installed.
Now please, please, please remember if you plan to install other Active Directory roles like Certificate Services or Federation Services, you MUST install this first and install ONLY this role, meaning although you have the option to install multiple AD roles at once, they will NOT work correctly until this role is installed and configured, so Install the Directory Services role first then move on to other roles.
Ok my next blogs in my Windows Server 2008 series, will cover the following.
Active Directory Certificate Services
Active Directory Federation Services
Active Directory Rights Management Services
Network Policy & Access services
Health Authority Services
Windows Depoyment Services & deploying Windows Server 2008 & Vista
Exchange 2007 Installation & configuration.
Stay Tuned!
