A. As Windows Server grows in functionality and subsequent number of components, organizations are able to get more and more out of their Windows investment. However, such OS growth has its downsides: More components means more items that need to patched and updated, and more components potentially means more vulnerabilities and a greater attack vector.

With Windows 2008, Microsoft has addressed these concerns by introducing a new Core installation type, which you select during the installation of the OS. The Core installation contains only 25 percent of the bits in Windows 2008; everything else is add-on functionality. Server Core installations have support for the following server roles:

• Active Directory Domain Services
• Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services (AD LDS)
• Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) Server
• DNS Server
• File Services
• Print Server
• Streaming Media Services
• Internet Information Services (IIS)

Supported features include:

• Microsoft Failover Cluster
• Network Load Balancing (NLB)
• Subsystem for UNIX-based Applications
• Windows Backup
• Multipath I/O
• Removable Storage Management
• Windows Bitlocker Drive Encryption
• Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP)
• Windows Internet Naming Service (WINS)
• Telnet client
• Quality of Service (QoS)

One missing component in Core is the Windows Explorer interface, so the shell is a command interface. The oclist.exe file is used to list the roles available and to add and remove (except for AD, which should be enabled via Dcpromo).