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Roger Howorth, IT Week, Friday 29 February 2008 at 00:00:00

The latest version of Windows Server makes for simpler and more flexible deployments, but firms need to plan migration carefully

Windows Server 2008, formerly codenamed Longhorn, is the server counterpart to Microsoft's client-side Windows Vista platform. Based on tests in IT Week Labs, we believe firms will find that this is the most significant Windows Server release to date, with a range of new features that will appeal to small and large IT operations alike. Available from 27 February, Windows Server 2008 is designed to be easier to set up and manage than previous versions. It also has a range of new capabilities that mean many firms will need fewer datacentre software products from third-party suppliers to support security, virtualisation, remote offices and home workers. However, one important feature that is currently lacking is virtualisation. Microsoft's Hyper-V virtualisation technology is to be integrated into Windows Server 2008, but this support is still in beta. We will look at Hyper-V in more detail once it is finished, which is currently set for August 2008. For our tests, we installed several copies of Windows Server 2008 on virtual machines operated using VMware Workstation 6. Having installed the new operating system, we immediately noticed a new emphasis on security. Before we could log into our new servers we needed to set a "strong" password - one that contains numbers and punctuation as well as letters. Although this is a good step forward, firms that have until now standardised on simpler passwords may initially find this change a little irksome. Once logged in, Windows Server 2008 presents a new Initial Configuration Tasks wizard. We found this made it easy to perform the mundane but necessary tasks, such as setting the time zone, allocating a fixed IP address and changing the server's name. As with other versions of Windows, a restart is needed after changing the server's name. We were pleased to find the Windows Firewall ready-enabled and initially configured to allow only core networking functions, such as responding to ICMP "ping" packets and router broadcasts, while allowing outbound connections. We were also pleased to see the Windows update utility needed to be configured by an administrator before it would automatically download or install patches. Windows Server 2008 builds on the concept of server roles that was introduced in the Small Business Edition of Windows Server 2003. In that version, role-based installation tools made it easy for IT managers to configure a system to perform specific tasks without needing to install all the required components individually....

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