Windows Firewall
For the first time, Windows Server ships
with a firewall that’s enabled by default.
The new Windows Firewall is bidirectional
and works seamlessly with all of the roles
and features you can configure in Server
2008. In fact, Windows Firewall is part of
the new roles-based management model:
As you enable and disable various roles and
features, Windows Firewall is automatically
configured in the background so that only
the required ports are opened. This is a
major change, and one that could hamper
compatibility with third-party products, so
testing will be crucial.
Command-Line and Scripting Goodness
Those who prefer to automate their servers
will rejoice in the new command-line and
scripting enhancements in Server 2008,
though I’m a bit concerned by the haphazard
and temporary nature of some of these
changes. In this version of Windows Server,
we’re seeing the beginning of the transition from the old DOS-like command line to the
new .NET-based PowerShell environment.
For now, however, you’ll need to have
a toe in both environments to best take
advantage of the new capabilities. Server
Core, for example, doesn’t support Power-
Shell because it lacks support for the .NET
Framework. To make this even more confusing,
Microsoft continues to add Windows
Shell commands to Windows Server, and
Server 2008 has several new Windows Shell
commands.
On the command-line side, we get two
major additions: a Server Core management
utility called oclist.exe and a command-
line version of Server Manager called
servermanagercmd.exe. Both are designed
with the same premise, providing ways to
configure and manage the roles that are
possible under each environment.
PowerShell is a complex but technically
impressive environment, with support for
discoverable .NET-based objects, properties,
and methods. It provides all of the
power of UNIX command-line environments
with none of the inconsistencies.
(It also provides backwards compatibility
with Windows Shell and VBScript commands.)
The issue is whether Windowsbased
administrators will quickly move to
this new command-line interface. Server
2008 doesn’t ship with any PowerShell
administrative commandlets—fully contained
scripts that can be executed from the
command line—that can handle common
management tasks. Microsoft tells me it will
ship Server 2008 commandlets on its Web
site over time and expects a community to
quickly evolve as well.
Hyper-V
One of the most important and futurelooking
technologies in Server 2008 isn’t
even available in the initial shipping version
of the product. Hyper-V is a hypervisorbased
virtualization platform that Microsoft
is shipping as a beta version with Server
2008 and will update automatically using to this bundling: From a management
perspective, Hyper-V is installed
and managed as a role under Server 2008,
just like DHCP, file and print services, and
other standard roles.
Hyper-V ships only with x64-based
versions of the product and relies on
hardware virtualization features that are
available only in the latest AMD and Intel
chipsets. It supports both 32-bit and 64-bit
guest OSs, up to 64GB of RAM in each
guest OS, and up to four virtual CPUs for
each guest OS. The VM images used by
Hyper-V are compatible with VMs created
for Microsoft’s earlier virtualization products,
such as Virtual PC and Virtual Server.
That means it’s easy to configure, manage,
and service.
Wrapping It All Up
I’ve only touched the surface of Server 2008,
highlighting but a subset of the improvements
Microsoft has shipped in this release.
I’ll have more to say about this impressive
update, and of course my Windows IT Pro compatriots will also, in the coming
months. Though familiar on the surface,
Server 2008 enables so much new functionality,
and comes with so many changes,
that you’ll need to dedicate some time to
understanding how it will benefit your
own requirements and needs. This effort
is worthwhile: Server 2008 is a solid and
impressive upgrade that should meet the
needs of virtually any business customer.
Highly recommended.
Register
