Windows Server 2008

Windows Server 2008, due for release next week, will present a number of challenges to users looking to migrate, experts say.

Microsoft's Windows Server 2008 will present a number of challenges, including application compatibility concerns, to users looking to migrate given its palette of new components, APIs, and feature upgrades, experts say.

Some issues will be familiar to those who rolled out Vista, including user-account control, which restricts user privileges, and the Windows Firewall, which is turned on by default. Vista also has an ongoing issue with application compatibility that is not cleared up in the pending release of Vista Service Pack 1. Other issues unique to Windows Server 2008, such as new, clustering APIs, will require application testing and some recoding of applications, according to Microsoft.

The server also will present issues for in-place upgrades and upgrades to servers running Exchange 2007.

Read the rest at PCWorld.

Of the nearly 800 IT decision-makers polled by CDW Corp., 49 per cent cited security features as the benefit of most interest to their company, school or government agency.

Better security is the biggest draw of Windows Server 2008, the newest server operating system from Microsoft Corp., but worries about first-version bugs top their list of IT professionals' concerns, according to a recent survey.

Of the nearly 800 IT decision-makers polled by CDW Corp., 49 per cent cited security features as the benefit of most interest to their company, school or government agency. Other perceived benefits of Windows Server 2008, according to the survey, included faster setup and configuration (cited by 41 per cent of the respondents), easier administration (40 per cent) and the operating system's new integrated virtualization (35 per cent).

"Security ranked No. 1, both here and in the three surveys we did on Windows Vista," said David Cottingham, director of product and product management at the Vernon Hills, Ill.-based computer and software reseller. "It's [because] Microsoft's been effective in getting its message across," he said, referring to the security drum that the developer has pounded for both Windows Vista and Server 2008. "They spent a lot of time talking about security.

Read the rest at itWorldCanada

Of the nearly 800 IT decision-makers polled by CDW Corp., 49 per cent cited security features as the benefit of most interest to their company, school or government agency.

Better security is the biggest draw of Windows Server 2008, the newest server operating system from Microsoft Corp., but worries about first-version bugs top their list of IT professionals' concerns, according to a recent survey.

Of the nearly 800 IT decision-makers polled by CDW Corp., 49 per cent cited security features as the benefit of most interest to their company, school or government agency. Other perceived benefits of Windows Server 2008, according to the survey, included faster setup and configuration (cited by 41 per cent of the respondents), easier administration (40 per cent) and the operating system's new integrated virtualization (35 per cent).

"Security ranked No. 1, both here and in the three surveys we did on Windows Vista," said David Cottingham, director of product and product management at the Vernon Hills, Ill.-based computer and software reseller. "It's [because] Microsoft's been effective in getting its message across," he said, referring to the security drum that the developer has pounded for both Windows Vista and Server 2008. "They spent a lot of time talking about security.

Read the rest at itWorldCanada

Although Microsoft continues to expand PowerShell with more capability, the trusty traditional command prompt has not been left behind in Windows Server 2008. In fact, with this latest Windows Server release, the command prompt gains some capability, including a tool that allows administrators to add features to a Windows Server 2008 installation.
This command line tool, called servermanagercmd.exe, replicates some of the functionality from the Windows Server 2008 Server Manager. Through the use of various command line options, you can quickly and easily add or remove features and roles to or from your server.

The command requires a parameter indicating the action that you wish to perform and, for some parameters, additional information such as which features you want to manage. The list below outlines some of the parameters available with servermanagercmd.

Read the rest at TechRepublic

Microsoft's slimmer and stronger server OS, bolstered by virtualization, networking, and security advances, is an upgrade that IT can't refuse, a 200-pound gorilla that eats commercial Linux

A standing complaint about Windows Server is its resource footprint. Those in IT just take as rote that it requires lots of memory, lots of CPU, and lots of disk to put any substantial services on the air with Windows Server 2003. I think it's safe to say that the typical x86 rack server's characteristics reflect the requirements of Windows Server. Microsoft's big OS has always been designed under the presumption that it will have a full physical server to itself.

Read the full review at InfoWorld