Windows Server 2008

Just a few hours ago, we officially RTM’ed Windows Server 2008 and - as usual - the team is now having a celebration with balloons, hot wings, drinks and speeches. As team members sign their names on a giant copy of the Windows Server 2008 DVD, I look around proudly and see more faces than I can name, shoulder to shoulder smiling with all my colleagues who have helped us get here today. < ?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

And while the laughs and smiles fill the room with the excitement that this release brings to the team, our partners, and our customers, I can’t help but have a complete mix of emotions flooding over me.

 

I’m excited to be part of the best Windows Server release that we have ever released. I’m honored by the continual stream of messages in IM and email that I have been getting all day saying “congratulations."  I’m filled with joy like a new father as we bring a new member into the family of Server products, and at the same time I am saddened. I am saddened by the feeling of loss, as people start moving on to new projects.

 

It is now time to get the product into all of our customers' and partners' hands. I’m looking forward to our launch event on Feb. 27 in Los Angeles and I know that it will be great.  Today, I raise my glass to everyone in the room with a smiling tear to my eye and say I could not be more proud to work with a group of seasoned professionals like everyone here today and in few years everyone here can look back with pride and say “I was part of Windows Server 2008."

 

-Tom Hazel

CodingHorror has a blogpost titled Get Your Database Under Version Control

It is suggested that you also keep the data in version control. I am reading through the comments and I am amazed. One person writes "Once you have used ActiveRecord Migrations it is very hard to go back!"

This might work for a small or medium size database. My database is well over a terabyte, how would you keep that data under version control? Data gets modified every day. Some of the data is encrypted. Some of the data gets inserted into audit tables. Data gets replicated to other servers/databases. There are jobs that pull in data from real time systems every second. I do have different versions of DBs on staging and QA servers but only one on the production server. Changes have to go through change management, you have to open a ticket to do a change. This is not something you would do on a daily basis.

What is your opinion? Do you have the schema in version control? What about the data itself?

As I write this,  I’m in the room where it all happens - in building 26, better known as the ship room.  Ten minutes ago Windows Server 2008 officially RTM’d.  Also in here with me are my colleagues who have been working on Windows Vista SP1, also RTM’ing today.  We’ve all been working towards this day for the past 3 years and over 5,000 people have contributed to this release.

It’s an exciting day for us and an exciting day for our partners, and customers.   As one of the guys responsible for getting Windows Server 2008 out the door, I thought I’d pull back the curtain a bit and let everyone know what it’s like to be here as we ship Windows Server 2008.    

In the final days leading up to RTM, the tone in the war room meetings was calm, almost too calm because there were minimal bugs to resolve and final testing went very smoothly.  We focused on testing of the code changes made in Nov/Dec to make sure nothing regressed. Hundreds of system component teams across the Windows division and Microsoft performed their escrow test passes and signed off.  The last important step was to ensure our deployment customers, OEMs, and Microsoft IT were satisfied and had no major issues.

 

For the past two years we have run performance benchmarks against Windows Server 2003, the Lone Server, and saw significant performance benefits with IIS7, File transfer using SMB2, and across multiple networking scenarios.  I expect that customers will see significant improvements running Windows Server 2008 because we only install the binaries and services required for the specific role they deploy.  This means a small server footprint, easier management, and less servicing.  With server core, you can even install a GUI-free server. 

I am extremely proud of the Windows Server development team who worked hard to ensure that Windows Server 2008 is a world-class operating system.   Every day I get to come to work with such smart and dedicated people, and we will remember this moment for the rest of our lives.  For the development team, the celebration begins today. But we’ll continue to celebrate and look forward to seeing a lot of our customers and partners at the Heroes Happen Here Launch event in LA, on February 27!   

 

< ?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />-Alex Hinrichs, Group Program Manager Windows Server 2008

Thinking about upgrading – see guidance posted here:

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2008/feb08/02-04WS2008.mspx

 

Want more information on Windows Vista SP1, see the Windows Vista Team Blog:

http://windowsvistablog.com/blogs/windowsvista/archive/2008/02/04/announcing-the-rtm-of-windows-vista-sp1.aspx and the Windows Vista Experience Blog:  http://windowsvistablog.com/blogs/windowsexperience/default.aspx