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Release Notes for Windows Media Services 2008

  • Article

Applies To: Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2

This documentation provides late-breaking or other information that supplements the documentation for Microsoft® Windows Media® Services 2008.

  • Decide which version of Windows Server is right for you

    • Windows Server 2008 R2

    • Windows Server 2008

    • Windows Media Services Features

    • Licensing Windows Media Services 2008

  • Installing Windows Media Services 2008

    • Installing Windows Media Services 2008 for Windows Server 2008 R2

    • Installing Windows Media Services 2008 for Windows Server 2008

  • Known issues

    • Running Firewall Client for ISA Server on a Windows Media server

    • Viewing Windows Media Services — Web Administrator in Internet Explorer 8

    • Viewing Windows Media Services — Web Administrator in localhost

    • Accessing the remote Windows Media server by using the Windows Media Services snap-in for MMC

    • Managing server groups

Decide which version of Windows Server is right for you

Windows Media Services provides streaming audio and video over corporate intranets and the Internet. Windows Media Services delivers basic streaming functionality, such as unicast streaming and server-side playlists, when it is installed on the following Windows Server operating systems:

  • Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard and Windows Server 2008 Standard

  • Windows Web Server 2008 R2 and Windows Web Server 2008

  • Windows Server 2008 R2 Foundation

Windows Media Services delivers advanced streaming functionality, such as multicast streaming, when it is installed on the following Windows Server operating systems:

  • Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise and Windows Server 2008 Enterprise

  • Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter and Windows Server 2008 Datacenter

This section helps you determine which version and edition of Windows Server 2008 will best meet your needs.

Windows Server 2008 R2

Windows Media Services 2008 is available as an optional, installable component in the Windows Server 2008 R2 operating system. Some features are not available when Windows Media Services is used with Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard, Windows Server 2008 R2 Foundation, or Windows Web Server 2008 R2. Windows Media Services is not available with Windows Server 2008 R2 HPC Edition or Windows Server 2008 R2 for Itanium-Based Systems.

Note

Windows Media Services 2008 is not included in Windows Server 2008 R2 and must be installed separately. For more information about how to install Windows Media Services 2008, see Installing Windows Media Services 2008 for Windows Server 2008 R2.

Windows Server 2008

Windows Media Services 2008 is available as an optional, installable component in the Windows Server 2008 operating system. Some features are not available when Windows Media Services is used with Windows Server 2008 Standard or Windows Web Server 2008. Windows Media Services is not available with Windows Server 2008 Foundation, Windows HPC Server 2008, or Windows Server 2008 for Itanium-Based Systems.

Note

Windows Media Services 2008 is not included in Windows Server 2008 and must be installed separately. For more information about how to install Windows Media Services 2008, see Installing Windows Media Services 2008 for Windows Server 2008.

Windows Media Services Features

The following table provides an overview of the available features. To get more information about these features, see Windows Media Services Help.

= This feature is included when Windows Media Services is installed on the operating system

= This feature is not included when Windows Media Services is installed on the operating system

= This feature is included only when Windows Media Services is installed on Windows Server 2008 R2

Feature Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard, Windows Server 2008 Standard, Windows Web Server 2008 R2, Windows Web Server 2008, and Windows Server 2008 R2 Foundation Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise, Windows Server 2008 Enterprise, Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter, and Windows Server 2008 Datacenter

Absolute Playlist Time

Advanced Fast Start

Advanced FF/RW

Advertising server support

Broadcast Auto-Start

1 Cache/proxy support

Custom plug-in support

Event-based scripting support

Fast Cache

Fast Reconnect

Fast Recovery

Fast Start

Fast Streaming

Internet authentication method (Digest)

Internet Group Management Protocol version 3 (IGMPv3) support

Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) support

Intranet authentication methods (Negotiate authentication, Anonymous access)

Multicast content delivery

Multiple authorization methods (NTFS ACL, IP Address)

2 Multiple control protocol support (HTTP, RTSP)

Multiple media parser support (Windows Media, MP3)

Multiple playlist parser support (WSX, Directory)

Play While Archiving

RTSP streaming

Robust event notification (WMI, SNMP)

Server-based content repacketization

Unicast content delivery

1 Windows Media Services 2008 contains a new, built-in WMS Cache/Proxy plug-in that you can use to configure a Windows Media server either as a cache/proxy server or as a reverse proxy server so that it can provide caching and proxy support to other Windows Media servers. For more information, see Caching and proxying content with Windows Media Services.

2 The MMS streaming protocol is not supported by Windows Media Services 2008. However, to support the widest range of streaming Players, you should continue to use the MMS URL moniker (mms://) in the connection URL to your streaming content (for example, mms:// Server_Name/File_Name.wma). The MMS URL moniker allows all connecting Players to use protocol rollover to stream the content using the optimal streaming protocol. For more information, see Windows Media protocol reference.

Licensing Windows Media Services 2008

Windows Media Services 2008 is a supplement to the Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows Server 2008 operating systems and licensing for Windows Media Services is covered by the license terms for the server product. A separate client access license (CAL) is not required for Windows Media Services. If you are using Windows Media Services to deliver unicast or multicast streams from a server running Windows Server 2008 R2 or Windows Server 2008, you are only required to license the server product. For more information, see Windows Server 2008 R2: How to Buy.

Installing Windows Media Services 2008

The Streaming Media Services role (which includes the latest version of Windows Media Services) and Streaming Media Services role administration tools for the Remote Server Administration Tools feature in Server Manager are not included with the Windows Server 2008 operating system. You must obtain and run the appropriate Streaming Media Services role installer file on the updated platform.

Installing Windows Media Services 2008 for Windows Server 2008 R2

For more information about how to install the Streaming Media Services role on the full and Server Core installation options of the Windows Server 2008 R2 operating system, see How to install Windows Media Services for Windows Server 2008 R2.

For more information about how to install a snap-in for Microsoft Management Console (MMC) on a remote computer to manage Windows Media Services running on Windows Server 2008 R2, see How to install Windows Media Services Remote Server Administration Tools for Windows Server 2008 R2.

Note

New features in Windows Media Services 2008 cannot be managed in earlier versions of the MMC snap-in for Windows Media Services; therefore, we recommend that you install the latest version.

Installing Windows Media Services 2008 for Windows Server 2008

For more information about how to install the Streaming Media Services role on the full and Server Core installation options of the Windows Server 2008 operating system and about how to install the MMC snap-in on a remote computer to manage Windows Media Services running on Windows Server 2008, see How to install Windows Media Services in Windows Server 2008.

Note

New features in Windows Media Services 2008 cannot be managed in earlier versions of the MMC snap-in for Windows Media Services; therefore, we recommend that you install the latest version.

Known issues

Running Firewall Client for ISA Server on a Windows Media server

If you install Microsoft Firewall Client for ISA Server on a Windows Media server, the server may not be able to stream content to IPv6 addresses. For this reason, we recommend that you do not install Firewall Client for ISA Server software on the Windows Media server computer. If you are required to have the Firewall Client installed on the server, configure the IP address list for the Windows Media Services control protocol plug-ins that are enabled to only allow IPv4 addresses to be used when streaming content. For more information about how to configure the IP address list, see Control protocol.

Viewing Windows Media Services — Web Administrator in Internet Explorer 8

The Web-based Administration role service for the Streaming Media Services role provides support for administering a Windows Media server from a Web browser on a remote computer. When you use Server Manager to install this role service, the Windows Media Services — Web Administrator Web site is added to Internet Information Services (IIS) 7 on the Windows Media server. You can access the Web site from any Web browser that supports Active Server Pages (ASP).

When you use Windows Internet Explorer 8 to view the Windows Media Services — Web Administrator site, the Web browser may be incorrectly identified as a Netscape Web browser and Web site pages cannot be viewed. This occurs because the Browscap.ini file for IIS 7 is not updated for Internet Explorer 8.

To view the Windows Media Services — Web Administrator site in Internet Explorer 8, you can enable the Compatibility View feature in the Web browser. You can also modify the Browscap.ini file to enable script-based detection of Windows Internet Explorer 7 and 8 from an IIS Web page.

Viewing Windows Media Services — Web Administrator in localhost

The Web-based Administration role service for the Streaming Media Services role provides support for administering a Windows Media server from a Web browser on a remote computer; however, it is also possible to use the Web browser on the local server computer to access the Windows Media Services Web Administration site hosted in IIS. You can access the site by doing the following:

  1. Open Internet Explorer as an administrator. (Click Start, point to All Programs, right-click Internet Explorer, and then click Run as administrator.)

  2. In the Internet Explorer address bar, enter the path to the Windows Media Services — Web Administrator site: https://localhost:8080/default.asp.

Accessing the remote Windows Media server by using the Windows Media Services snap-in for MMC

After installing Remote Server Administration Tools for Windows Media Services on Windows Vista or Windows 7, the Windows Media Services snap-in for MMC may not be able to access the remote Windows Media server. You may encounter one or both of the following error messages:

Error Code: 0x80070005

Error Text: The account that you are using to run Windows Media Services requires access to the directory or file. Verify that the Network Service account has permissions to access the directory or file.

-Or-

Error Code: 0x800706BA

Error Text: The RPC server is unavailable.

Access permissions for Remote Server Administration tools may not be configured correctly on the Windows Media server. In addition, Windows Firewall may not be configured to allow Windows Media Instrumentation (WMI) to communicate through the firewall. Perform the following procedures on the Windows Media server computer to correct these issues:

To create access permissions for Remote Server Administration Tools

  1. Open Component Services. (Click Start, click Run, and then type dcomcnfg.)

  2. In the Component Services console tree, under Component Services, right-click the local computer (My Computer), and then click Properties.

  3. On the COM Security tab, in the Access Permissions area, click Edit Limits.

  4. In the Access Permission dialog box, on the Security tab, click ANONYMOUS LOGON.

  5. In the Permissions for ANONYMOUS LOGON area, make sure that the Allow Remote Access check box is selected.

To enable an exception for WMI in Windows Firewall

  1. Open Windows Firewall. (Click Start, click Run, and type firewall.cpl.)

  2. In Windows Firewall Settings, on the Exceptions tab, select the Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) check box.

Managing server groups

You can use the Windows Media Services snap-in for MMC to manage multiple Windows Media servers more effectively by organizing them into related groups. However, several feature buttons that were available in the group details pane in Windows Media Services 9 Series for performing common group tasks are not available in Windows Media Services 2008, including:

  • Remove Server. To remove a server from a group in Windows Media Services 2008, in the console tree, under the group name, right-click the Windows Media server that you want to remove, and then click Remove.

  • View properties. This feature is not available in Windows Media Services 2008.

  • Refresh list. This feature is not available in Windows Media Services 2008.

For more information about how to manage groups of Windows Media servers in Windows Media Services 2008, see Managing groups of servers.