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Windows Server 8 Beta: 10 Big Feature Boosts

Microsoft has tweaked and tuned up Windows Server 8 since the Developer's Preview. Here are the biggest updates in the latest version.

March 2, 2012

Microsoft made available March 1 the beta version of the Windows Server 8 operating system, just one day after the release of the Windows 8 Consumer Preview. The Windows Server 8 code is . The latest iteration of the Windows Server OS has been tweaked and received several new features since we first took a look at the Developer's Preview last year.

We've been provided a bit more information about the system requirements and possible upgrade path from legacy Windows Server OSes to Server 8. Installing the beta version requires a minimum 1.4 GHz 64 bit processor, 512 MB RAM and 32 GB of free disk space.

Also, the only current supported upgrade path for this version of Server 8 is from Server 2008 R2. It seems unlikely that upgrade options will change with the final release. We saw that same rigidness with Windows 7 upgrade options and the unsupported upgrade from XP. Also, you won't be able to upgrade the final Server 8 release from the beta install.

And, of course, questions remain. Most business IT departments still have Windows 2003 servers and Active Directory infrastructures in place. Will they be able to incorporate the new features of Server 8 into those existing operations without having to upgrade all clients and servers? It's too early to tell. When I added the Active Directory Services role to my test installation, I saw the option to set a domain or forest's functional levels to either Windows 2003, Windows 2008, Windows 2008 R2 or Windows Server 8, so the assumption is that Microsoft is planning integration of Server 8 into legacy Windows environments.

1. Installation
There are two ways to install Windows Server 8: Server Core, which is the option Microsoft recommends, as it is less taxing on server resources (administrators are encouraged to not run GUI-based server tools on production servers) and Server with a GUI Installation which is the equivalent of the Full Installation option in Windows Server 2008 R2.

Windows Server 8 beta's installation was the fastest of all Windows Server OSes I've tested. I installed the bits on a Dell PowerEdge T110 II. The default login screen, pictured below brings to mind the cover of Bill Gates' 1995 book, "The Road Ahead." I'm not sure if that is deliberate or not.

2. Metro-Style
One of the most noticeable new features is the Metro desktop interface. The Server 8 GUI is not the full Metro interface that you'd encounter with the Windows 8 desktop client (which couldn't make much sense anyway for a server product). Microsoft instead, calls it "Metro-style." It has the same tiled interface of the client—each tile allows administrators to quickly access commonly used server management tools: Server Manager, Windows PowerShell, Task Manager and Control Panel. There is also a tile for accessing Windows Explorer, Computer, Desktop (which brings the desktop back to the Sever 2008 interface), and one for Internet Explorer (it's IE 10 in Server 8, just as in Windows 8).

While the Metro interface does little to enhance the overall administration experience, the quick search capability it delivers makes it very easy for administrators to locate and run common management tools and programs as well as to elevate permissions to run applications.

3. Server Manager
Server Manager was a highlighted feature in the Windows Server 8 Developer's Preview, and it looks as though it has undergone even more fine-tuning in the beta.

Server Manager can be launched right from a tile on the Metro-style desktop. It is the central location for server management, and it features a wizard that assists in adding server roles, managing remote servers, and creating server groups. The wizard offers two installation options: Roles-based/Feature-based installation (which lets you configure the server by adding roles, role services, and features), and Scenario-based installation (which is for Remote Desktop Services and lets users select servers as components in multi-server workloads).

You can install server roles by selecting a server from a server pool or by selecting a virtual hard disk. Server Manager culls all of these resources into one view in the dashboard. I added the Active Directory Domain Services Roles. As in Server 2008 R2, all required dependent services and roles are automatically installed as well.

Server Manager also provides a centralized view of all logged events, services, and performance alerts on the local and all remote servers. The Best Practices Analyzer (BPA) gives recommendations for optimizing roles by scanning and reporting any best practice violations. It's not a new feature, but it's handy to have it centrally located within the new Server Manager dashboard.

4. Resilient File System
Resilient File System (ReFS) is a new local file system now available in the beta version. ReFS is offering a number of advantages over NTFS, such as extremely scalable volume size. It also pushes the maximum file length beyond the traditional 255 characters.

Perhaps most importantly, ReFS is touted as maximizing data availability and integrity. A few ways the new file system accomplishes keeping data intact includes keeping metadata integrity with checksums, keeping user data integrity with integrity streams, verifying and auto-correcting data to limit data corruption, isolating corrupt data, and keeping an entire volume intact, online, and accessible.

ReFS is anticipated to be used mostly in conjunction with Server 8's Storage Spaces feature for automatically repairing data corruption.

5. Microsoft Online Backup Service
Microsoft Online Backup Service is encrypted cloud backup for Windows 8 beta servers. So far, it will only backup data stored on Windows Server 8 beta systems.

To access the service, users must request a Microsoft Online Backup Service account (which is currently given by invitation only) at: http://connect.microsoft.com/onlinebackup. Users have to full out a questionnaire to receive the invitation.

An agent needs to be installed on each server being backed up. This will be available at the same connect.microsoft.com link as above. Other prerequisites include: Windows PowerShell, Windows Identity Framework, and Windows Live ID client authentication. Local storage requirements include 10-15 GB free space for caching.

6. Metro-Style Remote Desktop
Touch-capable Metro-style Remote Desktop client has also been made available in Server 8 beta to access remote resources from Windows 8 client machines.

7. Remote Desktop Services and VoIP Integration
VoIP applications can integrate with RemoteFX, a feature in Server 2008 (and now in Server 8 beta)which enhances the remote desktop experience especially with regard to video and 3D graphics.

8. Cluster Aware Updating Self-Updating Mode
Clustering is used to provide high availability of data and applications using multi servers, or to provide increased processing power. In Windows Server 8's Developer's Preview, we were introduced to Cluster Aware Updating (CAU)—a feature in which all nodes in a cluster are updates in an automated way with no downtime of machines in the cluster. Now Server 8 beta includes CAU Self-Updating Mode which lets administrators to configure the CAU feature as a workload process on failover cluster with a customizable update schedule set by the administrator.

9. Hyper-V Increased Memory and Virtual Hard Drive Capacity
Server 8 beta's Hyper-V supports double the amount of RAM for virtual machines than was previously available—1TB. Virtual hard disks now support up to 64TB.

10. SMB Encryption
SMB encryption is used to protect sensitive data from eavesdropping. For instance, a client machine accesses data from a server via the SMB protocol (used in Windows environments for clients to communicate with servers). Typically, this data in transmitted is visible in clear text, and therefore accessible to those with permissions to the network.

Administrators can encrypt this data as it is sent back and forth between clients and servers. Enabling this feature is as simple as right-clicking on a share within File and Storage Services, going into Properties and checking the "Encrypt data access" field.

Windows Server 8, So Far
Server 8's biggest potential for adoption remains in the honed features network administrators have been longing for: NIC teaming, Hyper-V replica, and Cluster Aware Updating are a few of those features.

The Metro-style interface is just gravy. In fact, I believe most networking administrators will opt not to use it. Because it works like a mobile OS, if you leave apps open you can't gracefully close them.  With most mobile OSes you just kind of switch into different apps and pull the app you are currently using at the forefront of the interface while others run in the background. This is potential resource death for servers and I can't imagine most admins tolerating that sort of interface.

Server Manager is another story. This is Microsoft's greatest achievement in the Server UI. Being able to centrally manage and do just about anything you need to do with servers in an organization is a boon to sever managemement.

I did experience some freezing and weird error messages attempting to walk through the new features—in short, behavior expected from beta code. Early glitches aside, I think Server 8 will prove to be Microsoft's best server operating system. What will be critical is for Microsoft to find a way to allow IT to incorporate the goodness packed into Server 8 with existing Windows infrastructures. If the best features of Server 8 can only be leveraged by updating all servers and clients to Windows 8/Server 8 level—then this potentially excellent operating system is going to be a tough sell for IT.