A Look at Server Core in Windows Server 2008

Artikel
10/29/2007

RC0 for Windows Server 2008 is out. If you don’t already have it you can download it from the following link:

https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=0818D425-CD47-4279-BE8D-24ABA14530A3&displaylang=en

You can get more information on RC0 from here: https://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/default.mspx

One of the great new features of Server 2008 is Server Core. Ok you installed Server Core to take a look and all you saw was the command prompt (C:\>) so you say how exciting is that. Not very, but let’s take a look at what is behind the curtain. Many IT organizations have older hardware that they would like to continue using. Sever Core allows me to do that and to dedicate that box to just doing one or two tasks. They may also be looking at keeping their servers more secure by just installing the specific roles that I need on the box. Ok if I have your interest read on, if not feel free to change the channel.

So let’s look at what roles a Server Core Installation supports. Out of the box you can do the following:

· Active Directory Domain Services

· Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services (AD LDS)

· Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) Server

· DNS Server

· File Services

· Print Server

· Streaming Media Services

· Web Server (IIS)

The following optional features are also supported:

· Microsoft Failover Cluster

· Network Load Balancing

· Subsystem for UNIX-based Applications

· Windows Backup

· Multipath I/O

· Removable Storage Management

· Windows Bitlocker Drive Encryption

· Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP)

· Windows Internet Naming Service (WINS)

· Telnet client

· Quality of Service (QoS)

Now all this looks good so there must be a catch. Well there is. Here are some of the limitations.

· No graphical user interface is available

· Dot Net(managed code) Framework (CLR) is not installed

This means that you are very limited in what you can run on a Core installation and how you can manage it. For example because CLR is not installed you will not be able to use IIS to run ASP.Net applications. For management you will either have to use command prompt or remote manage the server. For remote management of a Server Core installation you can use the following:

· Remotely using the MMC

· Terminal Services Remote Desktop

· WS-Management and Windows Remote Shell

· WMI – This includes using PowerShell to call WMI features to remotely manage

I would like to end on a few of the benefits that Sever Core can provide IT departments.

· Reduced maintenance

· Reduced attack surface

· Reduced management

· Less disk space required

If you want to learn more about Server Core take a look at the following links:

https://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/servercore.mspx

https://technet2.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/library/bab0f1a1-54aa-4cef-9164-139e8bcc44751033.mspx?mfr=true