Windows "Cougar" Small Business Server
Due in early 2008, Windows Cougar, Microsoft's next major version of Small Business
Server (SBS), will be based on Windows Server Longhorn, which I cover a bit
later. At this point, Cougar is less well defined than Windows Home Server.
We know that Cougar will include Longhorn Server, Exchange Server 2007, Windows
SharePoint Services 3, System Center Essentials 2007, SQL Server 2005 Workgroup
Edition, and ISA Server 2007. We know that it will serve the same market that
SBS did—small businesses with 75 or fewer PCs. We also know that it will
include technologies related to PC and data protection, remote access, and antivirus/anti-spyware.
More specific details, however, are unknown. Stay tuned.
Windows "Centro" Midmarket Server
Microsoft's been talking up its midmarket server offering, code-named Centro,
since early 2006, and with the first beta release late last year, this product
is finally shaping up. Unfortunately, because of non-disclosure agreement issues,
I can't discuss this product in detail yet, but if you imagine a multi-server
version of SBS that works with far more users, you're on the right track. I'll
write more about Centro in the coming months.
Windows Server Longhorn
Windows Server Longhorn, or Longhorn Server, is shaping up to be the biggest
Windows Server release since Windows 2000. Like Vista, Longhorn Server has been
redesigned from the ground up in a modular fashion, which has several benefits.
First, a roles-based model makes Longhorn Server easy to install and manage,
and features specific to certain functional roles aren't installed until an
administrator decides they're necessary. This functionality significantly reduces
the server's total attack surface. Second, because Longhorn's roles understand
exactly which dependencies are required whenever features are added and removed,
users never have to go back manually, as they did with Windows 2003's SCW, and
reestablish security. Finally, Longhorn Server will be available in a stripped-down
Windows Server Core version that will provide only basic infrastructure services
with no GUI at all. Enterprises have been asking for this feature for years.
Windows Server Core provides access to seven core services—Win2K Server
Terminal Services, Internet Authentication Service (IAS), Microsoft Internet
Information Services (IIS) 7.0, Windows SharePoint Services 3, Windows Server
Virtualization (see below), printing, and media streaming—all via a command-line
interface, although you're free to use GUI tools if you want to control the
server remotely. (You can also administer Windows Server Core via Terminal Services.)
Note that because Windows Server Core doesn't include the .NET Framework, it
can't support certain features in this first version. But Microsoft has big
plans for the next version, which will be bundled with Longhorn R2 in 2009.
The Longhorn Server feature set is so vast that I can only hit the high points
here. It will include the .NET-based Windows PowerShell command-line environment
for scripting and automation. The new Windows Server Manager, based on MMC 3.0,
will provide a friendly and task-based approach to managing your Windows Server's
various roles. (And yes, you can finally install multiple roles simultaneously.)
The newly rebuilt Windows Firewall supports bidirectional filtering and is fully
policy-controlled via Group Policy and AD. Longhorn's Web server, IIS 7.0, is
built on the same roles-based underpinnings as Longhorn itself, providing better
security and a smaller functional footprint.
As with Vista, Longhorn's TCP/IP networking stack has been completely rewritten
and now supports almost real-time analysis and control of everything that moves
through it. The stack also includes the ability to fine-tune network window
sizes on the fly. Previously, windows were hard-coded to certain small sizes,
hindering performance and ease of use.
To protect the server from attack and reduce downtime, Longhorn Server includes
a number of technologies—such as BitLocker Drive Encryption, Secure Startup,
Windows service hardening, and the Restart Manager, which reduces the need to
reboot by 50 percent by restarting individual services instead of the full system
when a patch is installed. In addition, because of its roles-based approach,
Longhorn Server is always in "shields up" mode, regardless of the roles you've
configured. As roles and features are added and removed, the server ensures
that it's always configured for the best security, automatically.
Longhorn Server, finally, includes Network Access Protection (NAP), providing
businesses with a way to quarantine connecting clients that don't meet established
security baselines. While in quarantine, these machines can be updated and swept
of any malware, then allowed into the corporate network. Longhorn Server also
includes Windows Rights Management Services (RMS), to provide businesses with
a way to protect sensitive corporate data from prying eyes.
A new feature called Read-Only Domain Controller is perfect for branch offices,
where servers are typically maintained less stringently and are more vulnerable
to physical theft. With a Read-Only Domain Controller, replication is unidirectional
only, and directory passwords aren't stored locally. If the server is stolen,
the thieves can't get at sensitive corporate data.
Longhorn Server is on track to ship by the end of 2007, Microsoft says. A Beta
3 release should be available in February 2007.
Windows Server Virtualization
Due within 180 days of the release of Longhorn Server, Windows Server virtualization
will be a free add-on for Longhorn Server that dramatically increases the capabilities
and performance of a virtualized environment running on Windows Server. Windows
Server virtualization is essentially a hypervisor environment that runs on Intel
or AMD-based hardware, along with a Windows Server Core–based Longhorn
role that runs in the primary, or parent partition. Users install and run virtualized
environments in child partitions.
Windows Server Virtualization will support x64 host and guest OSs and is compatible
with today's Virtual Hard Disk (VHD)–based virtual environments, which
you might have created in Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 or Microsoft Virtual Server
2005 R2. In addition, Windows Server virtualization will natively support multiple
processors, functionality that, when combined with the memory possibilities
on x64 systems, will provide dramatic scalability benefits.
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