Differences between 2012 and 2008r2

[MattDLEA]

Strange question, but Im just setting up a few Virtualbox's on my home pc to learn and mess about with over summer.

My network was already set up for me when I got there, however we will be going 2012 soon .

Question is I have a configuring windows server 2008 Active directory book that I was going to work through and look at MDT and SCCM is there that much difference in how things are done between 2008 R2 and 2012.

Is most of the things that I will be wanting to do very similar but maybe under a different menu heading etc?

 

ta

[CraigM]

2012 is an evolution of a lot of what was in 2008 R2. For some of the tools like DHCP, DNS, WSUS and some of the Active Directory tools, the screens are basically identical. But Server Manager is way, way better and there are some really interesting new management tools. If you've used 2008 and are comfortable with it, it doesn't take too long to get up to speed on 2012. There's also a lot of new and interesting features in 2012, which can take some time to learn.

 

MDT is basically the same between platforms, but may have some extra abilities on 2012. Same thing goes for SCCM (a product I've never used actually)

[MattDLEA]

So basically if I learn stuff on 2012 I can in theory put that into practice on my 2008R2 live environment with maybe a bit of tweaking ( so like learning to drive in a ford, then moving to a fiat)?

[CraigM]

So basically if I learn stuff on 2012 I can in theory put that into practice on my 2008R2 live environment with maybe a bit of tweaking ( so like learning to drive in a ford, then moving to a fiat)?

Pretty much yeah, though some things you learn about in 2012 obviously won't work in 2008. I think you'll find quite quickly that there are lots of little features and stuff you'll end up missing lol.

 

My only issue with 2012 is due to some sort of bug in the SMB protocol that causes file sharing issues when multiple people access the same file. Once that gets sorted out, I'll declare 2012 to be the best thing since sliced bread.

[MattDLEA]

Can I ask when would the next lot of server software be out?

[CraigM]

I'm not sure, but I think the next Server release will be next year, when Windows "Threshold AKA 9" is out. No clue about Exchange, SCCM, MDT and so on. SQL Server 2014 just came out, so that one is done. I think if one scoured the TechNet blogs, you could probably get an idea of Microsoft's future roadmap.