Windows Server 2008

Today, the virtualization team kicked off the Get Virtual Now event in Bellevue. It's designed to educate more than 250,000 IT professionals on our virtualization products, deployment tools and partner solutions, helping customers to virtualize from the datacenter to the desktop, and manage with the same tools they’re already using for their physical infrastructure.  With more than 125 events planned, the event series started Aug. 3 in South Africa, and by early 2009 will have covered more than 50 other countries.

 

Highlights from the event:

·         Microsoft Hyper-V Server will be a free download: Microsoft Hyper-V Server  will be available at no cost and within 30 days.

·         SCVMM Soon!: System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 (SCVMM) will be available within 30 days.

·         Live Migration is Coming:  This feature was demoed for the first time and will be available with Windows Server 2008 R2.

 

More info can be found on the Virtualization Team Blog.

An update for Windows Server 2008 Server Manager (KB940518) has been released to integrate Windows Server Update Services 3.0 Service Pack 1 (WSUS 3.0 SP1). This update to Server Manager enables full integration of WSUS 3.0 SP1 into Server Manager, allowing installation, configuration, and management of WSUS 3.0 SP1 using the Server Manager console and wizards.

 

You can download and install the update for Windows Server 2008 Server Manager from the Microsoft Download Center or from Windows Update.

 

To download and install updates for Windows Server 2008 Server Manager through Windows Update:

1.        Use one of the following methods to open Server Manager:

o    Click Start, right-click Computer, and then click Manage.

o    Click Start, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Server Manager.

o    Click the Quick Launch bar, and then click Server Manager.

2.        Click the Check for New Roles task in the Security Information section.

3.        Follow the instructions and open Windows Update.

4.        Click Check for updates.

5.        Click View available updates.

6.        Close the Server Manager and Initial Configuration Tasks windows, if they are open.

7.        Select and install Update for Windows Server 2008 Server Manager (KB940518).

 

To download and install this update for Server Manager, please see the Update Information in the following knowledge base article: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/940518.

 

After you have installed the update for Windows Server 2008 Server Manager, to install WSUS 3.0 SP1:

1.        Use one of the following methods to open Server Manager:

o    Click Start, right-click Computer, and then click Manage.

o    Click Start, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Server Manager.

o    Click the Quick Launch bar, and then click Server Manager.

Note If WSUS 3.0 SP1 is already installed on your computer, you do not have to complete the remaining steps. The Windows Server Update Services server role will show up in Server Manager as an installed server role.

2.        On the Server Manager home page, click Add Roles in the Roles Summary section. 

3.        On the Select Roles page of the Add Roles Wizard, click Windows Server Update Services in the list of available server roles. 

4.        Follow the instructions in the Add Roles Wizard to complete the installation. 

 

For more information about the update for Windows Server 2008 Server Manager, see the following knowledge base article: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/940518.

 

For more information about WSUS 3.0 SP1, see the following knowledge base article and blog: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/948014/en-us 

http://blogs.technet.com/wsus/archive/2008/08/28/new-categories-appearing-on-wsus.aspx

 

Eric Rezabek

With the launch today of Hyper-V - available only in x64 versions - I thought that now would be a good time to revisit the topic of "64-bitness."

 

I'm a technical product manager on the Windows Server team focused on Windows Server 2008, R2, clustering, and power management, along with a few other areas.  In the past I focused more on our Enterprise, Datacenter, and Itanium editions, along with x64.

 

While it may take a while for client computing to reach the stage where 64-bit is the norm and 32-bit the exception, that day is coming soon for servers - and it may be today.  A few quick facts:

 

·         x64 processors have been with us for over 5 years now.

 

·         While I confess I can’t read every single web page on the AMD, Intel, HP, IBM, and Dell sites, last time I checked all currently shipping servers from major OEMs - and obviously the processors in them - were 64-bit.

 

·         Microsoft announced several years ago that Windows Server 2008 would be the last server OS available in 32-bit. (And let’s not overlook the word “server” there!  I’m not talking about the desktop.)  Windows Server 2008 R2 will be 64-bit only.

 

·         The last time I checked our evaluation download figures, more than half of the downloads were of the x64 edition of Windows Server 2008.

 

·         The virtualization features of today’s processors require 64-bit.

 

So, why the transition?  And why now?

 

Well, today you can buy laptops with 4 GB of RAM.  So you can imagine many servers could probably make use of more than that.  But 32-bit operating systems and processors are limited to addressing 4 GB of RAM.  (Yes, I know there are workarounds, but PAE and AWE are not our topic today!)  Two to the thirty-second power is 4,294,967,296 so that’s all the bytes you get:  4 GB.  With 64-bit, well... we currently support up to 2 TB of RAM in our Enterprise and Datacenter editions.  Even Standard supports 32 GB.

 

Databases, computationally-intensive applications, connection-oriented applications such as Terminal Services or Exchange, and of course virtualization will be among the first to experience the benefits of 64-bit.  (You already knew that Exchange 2007 was 64-bit only, and that Microsoft has over a dozen server applications available in 64-bit today, right?)  Direct access to more RAM, and the ability to store, say, entire databases in RAM rather than needing to swap to disk will benefit such applications most.  And of course, a dozen virtual machines, each with 2 GB of RAM, requires more a lot more than 4 GB on the physical server hosting them.

 

So what about 32-bit?  The underlying x64 architecture is based on 64-bit extensions to the industry-standard x86 instruction set.  That means most of today's 32-bit applications can run natively on the processor without emulation in our our WOW64 subsystem.  There are a few limitations - 32-bit applications with kernel drivers won’t install or run.

 

So if you choose to deploy the 64-bit version of Windows Server 2008 (and you should!  Why deploy into a 32-bit cul-de-sac?) you can still run most of your existing 32-bit applications while transitioning “bit-by-bit” to a pure 64-bit future.