WINDOWS SERVER 2012

An IT manager would have to be severely off the grid to have missed Microsoft’s plans to release the Windows 8 operating systems for end-user devices this fall. But he or she could be excused if the signifi cance of Windows Server 2012, released late this summer, didn’t fully hit home. IT analysts say organizations may be glossing over some of the groundbreaking elements in the fi rst major upgrade of the server operating system (OS) in the last three years.

“Some may see this as just another evolutionary release of Windows Server, but there’s so much more to it than that,” says Greg Schulz, senior analyst for the Server and Storage I/O consulting fi rm. “At the heart of what’s new is how Windows Server has been extended in terms of feature functionality, scalability and performance — whether for traditional server environments or for private and hybrid clouds.”

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WINDOWS SERVER 2012

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COMMAND CENTRALTh e latest version of Microsoft’s PowerShell scripting environment off ers something Windows Server has never had before: a command-line interface.

IT analysts say command lines are the tools of choice for administrators who must manage large volumes of servers, Windows operating systems, storage resources and networking components throughout a data center. Th e reason? An administrator can write one script for reconfi guring servers or for performing weekly backups, for example, and then run it on any number of systems.

Alternatively, someone would have to click through multiple menus in a graphical user interface. Th e latest edition of PowerShell also lets administrators manage multiple server roles from a single, central console.

“PowerShell is the way to go if you need to manage hundreds or thousands of servers in your data center,” says Mitch Tulloch, author of Introducing Windows Server 2012. “Th e key here is automation that saves you time and, of course, money. So if you need to manage 100 Hyper-V hosts in a hosting environment, use PowerShell.”

Some analysts note that PowerShell’s command line isn’t only for large organizations with hundreds of servers. “It may also be important for small and mid-sized organizations, which tend to have limited resources, because it eases the desk-side management burden,” says Anil Desai, an independent IT consultant.

Windows Server 2012 continues to off er management options via a GUI for IT departments that prefer it.

Analysts say the biggest changes to Windows Server come in four key areas:

• CLOUD COMPUTING: IT managers have new options for quickly launching private clouds and connecting with public clouds for hybrid implementations.

• VIRTUALIZATION: Microsoft’s Hyper-V virtualization platform has been beefed up to run signifi cantly meatier virtual machine workloads.

• SERVER MANAGEMENT: Administrators now can launch and maintain their environments using either a graphical or command-line interface.

• NETWORKING AND STORAGE MANAGEMENT: Updates to the Windows fi le-sharing protocol and new storage management tools improve the reliability and availability of important resources.

Because of the breadth of new features, IT chiefs may evaluate the new release according to diff erent criteria and unique challenges in their IT environments. “Th ere are more features for automating the common pain points in the typical data center, whether than means managing physical servers or virtual machines, or managing the infrastructure that supports these servers,” says Anil Desai, an independent IT consultant.

Multiple EditionsMicrosoft released two versions

of Windows Server 2012 in September. Th e Standard edition accommodates organizations that primarily use dedicated, physical servers to support proprietary applications or databases.

Alternately, administrators in highly virtualized environments can opt for the Datacenter edition.

Microsoft also is releasing Windows Server 2012 Essentials, a version tailored for smaller organizations.

Th e Standard and Datacenter versions each provide a foundation for running more processors, higher volumes of memory and greater storage reserves than the existing Windows Server 2008 Release 2 edition. For example, the OS now supports twice as many CPU cores — a total of 320 — than in the early release. Th e new version also handles 4 terabytes of memory, again twice the old maximum.

Th e tech specs may sound impressive, but what do these changes mean for the day-to-day requirements of IT managers? Here’s a closer look.

Cloud CapabilitiesClouds, whether private, public

or hybrid, are on the IT roadmaps of most organizations these days, and Windows Server 2012 provides appropriate underpinnings for bringing those plans to life.

“All of the key capabilities of cloud computing are found in the new release as defi ned by the National Institute of Standards and Technology,” says Mitch Tulloch, author of Introducing Windows Server 2012. “In other words, you've got broad network access, on-demand self-service, resource pooling, measured service, rapid elasticity — the whole nine yards.”

Th ese capabilities mean the OSs can take IT managers a step closer to achieving the cloud ideal of making an entire data center look like one large pool of computing and storage capacity, Desai adds. “Rather than requiring an administrator to do a lot of work, you have systems that automatically manage the infrastructure.”

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In addition, Windows Server 2012 can be optimized for hybrid clouds by accessing public cloud services, including Microsoft Azure. “Th is allows the Windows platform to run in a traditional data center architecture or as a guest in a cloud provider in a hybrid manner,” Schulz says.

Other features important for cloud environments include security enhancements in Windows Server 2012. For example, IT managers can connect to cloud services using a common identity and management framework.

With identity federation, the OS maintains security for applications that reside either on premises or in the cloud with consistent, centrally managed authentication and authorization services, according to Microsoft. In addition, virtual private networks (VPNs) secure communication between data centers and cloud providers.

Server manufacturers are taking notice of the various cloud options now available in Windows Server 2012. HP announced an expansion of its Converged Cloud portfolio, which off ers pre-integrated confi gurations of Windows Server 2012, Microsoft System Center 2012 and other HP and Microsoft technologies. Th e package is designed to make it easier for organizations to launch private and hybrid cloud environments, according to HP.

“As customers move to private clouds, they are looking for a simplifi ed approach that minimizes risks, increases their fl exibility and allows for greater cost savings,” says Stephen DeWitt, senior vice president for HP’s Enterprise Group. “Th rough this relationship with Microsoft, we’re providing customers with a trusted, single-source experience to provide them an easy on-ramp to cloud.”

“Th e HP Converged Cloud solutions with Windows Server 2012 give organizations a clear path to go beyond virtualization and accelerate their journey to

the cloud,” adds Michael Park, corporate vice president of Windows Server marketing at Microsoft.

Hyper-V Bulks UpMicrosoft added new capabilities to

its virtualization platform, Hyper-V, which analysts say makes it more competitive with alternatives such as VMware vSphere. For example, the latest iteration of Hyper-V signifi cantly increases support for host processors, memory volumes and virtual machine (VM) workloads. Th e platform can now accommodate up to 32 virtual processors and one terabyte of memory for Hyper-V guests, while a new virtual hard disk format supports capacities up to 64T.

Windows Server 2012 also off ers new features for managing virtualized environments. With Microsoft’s Share-Nothing Live Migration, IT managers can create or copy a VM on one Hyper-V host and migrate it to another Hyper-V host without interrupting service to end users. Windows Server 2012 accomplishes this by mirroring writes to the source and destination storage while the move is occurring.

“Th is off ers the ability to move live, running virtual machines using nothing but the software and the networking stack that ships with Windows Server 2012,” Desai says. “As a result, organizations can use just the built-in fi le server to do automated live migrations of virtual machines to set up clusters and to migrate between storage resources. In the past, managers needed shared storage using, for example, storage area network technology and all the necessary hardware to support it.”

More Choices for Server Management

Some IT managers may see benefi ts in new tools for managing physical and virtual servers. “Th e ability to make IT more effi cient is a particularly important aspect of Windows Server

13% TECHNOLOGY DECISION-MAKERS IN NORTH AMERICA WHO SAY THEY’RE CURRENTLY TESTING WINDOWS SERVER 2012 (WITH 26% PLANNING TO DEPLOY THE NEW EDITION WITHIN TWO YEARS)Source: Windows 8 Survival Guide, Server 2012, InformationWeek, September 2012

TRAINING KEYTh e breadth of the new features in Windows Server 2012 may present a challenge for some organizations: training their IT staff s to understand what’s under the hood.

“I fear that a lot of organizations will spend money for Windows Server 2012 and not take full advantage of it,” says Don Jones, a principal technologist with the consulting fi rm Concentrated Technology and an instructor with CBT Nuggets, an IT training company. “Th ey will treat the new operating system just like the old version, but there’s so much more value that’s now available.”

For that reason, he strongly encourages IT shops to invest a little extra in training up front. In the long haul, it will pay off in gained effi ciencies in their IT environment, he says.

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2012 because it is so much more automation friendly,” says Don Jones, a principal technologist with the consulting fi rm Concentrated Technology and an instructor with CBT Nuggets, an IT training company.

Th e biggest news for server management is that the latest edition of Microsoft’s PowerShell scripting framework now enables IT managers to control their server environments exclusively through command-line instructions.

Windows Server 2012 also continues to off er Server Manager for less complex server environments and for IT administrators who prefer a graphical user interface (GUI) to command-line instructions to launch and maintain servers. Tulloch says the new Server Manager is the right option for managing a few dozen servers.

“If you want to deploy Remote Desktop Services or DirectAccess, the new Server Manager guides you through the process, making it a lot easier than before,” he says.

Unlike with previous versions, administrators can now use it to control multiple servers at once. “I can see all the servers I manage within a single console,” Desai says. “In the past, I could manage more than one server but only by manually connecting to each server as I needed to make changes.”

Enterprise-Class File SharingAnother update that is getting

attention is Windows Server 2012’s expanded Server Message Block network communication protocol. Known as SMB 3.0, the updated Windows fi le sharing protocol can encrypt information to secure data transmission. It also supports Remote Direct Memory Access, which means two properly confi gured servers can establish memory-to-memory data transfers to reduce transmission overhead.

“Microsoft is scaling Windows fi le sharing to be more of an enterprise play, on a par with NFS — the Network File System, an open industry standard,” Schulz says.

He adds that SMB 3.0 has also been beefed up to provide better data protection and resiliency. For example, IT managers can use SMB to group multiple network interface cards together for load balancing and failovers if one of the units runs into trouble. Also known as NIC Teaming, this strategy could be performed in the past if Windows Server users added third-party tools rather than those found within the OS itself.

Microsoft says IT decision-makers can now use Windows Server 2012 to store application data on continuously available SMB fi le shares. Known as Storage Spaces, the feature allows IT managers to use commodity-priced hard disks to create resilient pools of storage, Tulloch says. Th is might alleviate the need for expensive SAN devices in some cases. Microsoft

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says that Storage Spaces provide storage virtualization capabilities for single-node and scalable multinode implementations.

Other new storage optimizations provide other benefi ts. “Th ere are some small improvements that can make a huge diff erence, such as not needing to take a large volume offl ine to run CHKDSK on it to detect and repair fi le system problems,” Tulloch says. “Th at small change can save organizations hours, maybe days, of downtime for their servers.”

According to industry insiders, Windows Server 2012 represents a giant step forward for Microsoft. Whether a single server for a small offi ce or a new data center environment, it can help IT managers meet an organization's unique needs.

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