The Microsoft Windows Server 8 developer preview, launched during this month’s Build event, has adequate earnest enhancements to practical networking, storage and infrastructure government to aver critical IT seductiveness as a information centre platform.

While most is nonetheless different about Windows Server 8, including when it will be expelled and looseness costs, a pre-beta, developer preview reveals a extended landscape of improvements that — if successfully executed — aver a vital courtesy of IT managers during organisations of all sizes.

Catching adult with VMware?

While VMware and the newly minted vSphere 5 sojourn a undisputed personality of a x86 server virtualization field, Microsoft Windows Server 8 clearly shows signs of charity a rival challenge. eWEEK Labs’ work with a Windows Server 8 developer preview shows that a initial contours of Microsoft’s charity have a right mixture to be a tantalizing challenger to VMware.

I commissioned WS8 on a accumulation of server and modernized workstation hardware during eWEEK Labs, including a Lenovo ThinkServer RD210, ThinkServer TS200v, Acer AR-380 and an HP Z800 workstation. All systems were using Intel Xeon processors and were versed with between 4GB and 24 GB of RAM. Most of a systems had a singular network interface label (NIC), though a Acer and a ThinkServer RD210 had mixed NICs.

Deploying a core

When it ships, Windows Server 8 will be a initial book of a handling complement for that a core installation, rather than a full GUI installation, is recommended. I’ll come behind to a poignant changes in Server Manager, though for now, IT managers should cause in a core server designation in a following ways. Windows Server 8 will be significantly smaller, both in terms of memory distance and confidence footprint.

Windows Server 8 core now has a smallest requirement of 512MB RAM, a same as Windows Server 2008 R2. Unlike a prior version, Windows Server 8 core is designed for remote management. My tests also showed that Windows Server 8 core handles a further and dismissal of server roles most improved than a stream shipping chronicle of Windows Server. Although not tested, a Windows Server 8 Hyper-V purpose will be means to be delivered and run from a peep memory device. [Read more...]