Windows Server 2008

[Quackers]

Does anybody know what the latest release date is for Windows Server 2008? As i'm getting different dates when i google it. There is 1 feature it has i really REALLY want, so i shall buy as soon as it hits the market.

[Quackers]

I've found it now, theres a timer on the MS site counting down the days, only 82 days to go, YEY.

[Domino]

buy it as soon as it hits the market?!?!

 

you must be crackers

[broadcaststorm]

What feature do you really want?

It's just another licence key to learn for me ;-)

[Quackers]

Its the Windows Deployment Services with Multicast, means i can image PC's a hell of a lot faster then i currently can, so it will just be on my RIS/WDS Server.

[richard.thomas]

Or just get Symantec Ghost?

[Quackers]

Or just get Symantec Ghost?

 

That would cost more, plus i know what i'm doing with WDS and RIS.

[Psymon]

Evaluation of RC0 lasts untill April. Not sure if thats going to be the official release date, but considering you cant evaluate after that for more than the standard micro$oft 30day evaluations, im guessing its pretty close to april.

[Geoff]

Remember, wait for SP1.

[Quackers]

Remember, wait for SP1.

 

O i hate that saying 8O XP Service Pack 1 caused me headaches, when XP no Service Pack was working fine. (The clitch where you got access denied, the file is in use when trying to delete a file off a network drive)

 

XP Service Pack 2 had that Applying Personal Settings for an hour clitch, (well not really an hour, but put a 30 second delay on) which MS took over a year from me contacting them to do somthing about it.

 

I've found it does not matter where you jump in, there is a patch needed.

 

With it being just a Deployment box and nothing to mission critical, ie a domain controller, might download the RC1 of 2008 Server and use it in production for pushing images out, if it breaks i will still have my old 2003 RIS/WDS box sitting there to fix things.....

[strawberry]

its the installation of user certs that does it for me!. no more manually exporting from an xp machine for me!

[cookie_monster]

The server products tend to be far more stable on release. I remember being just about to migrate a network from NT4 to 2k server when 2k3 was released, we decided to go for it rather than endure the pain of another major upgrade and it's was plain sailing 2k3 seemed to be very stable from release. The biggest problems are usually 3rd party application compatibility in the early days but if you're using an inbuilt MS technology you should be fine

[ZeroHour]

Server 2008 is due in February 2008 I believe.

[eejit]

Feb 27th is the latest date I believe.

[Michael]

February definitely seems very likely. I've read it so many times now on different sites.

 

I'm in no rush however to buy it, because XP SP3 will only make use of some Server 2008 features and I have no Vista clients either.

 

Just how different/improved Server 2008 will be over 2003 R2 remains to be seen. I guess time will tell and no doubt there will be some early adopters of Server 2008 on here.

[PiqueABoo]

Remember, wait for SP1

 

Yeah I've been arguing that for E2K7 but that was because a) you lost functionality relative to E2K3, b) when Exchange breaks, it sometimes does that rather well. I'm not so sure for Server.

 

W2K3 no SP has been fairly solid e.g. RM skipped SP1 for all their CC3 boxes and went direct to SP2 in early summer. I personally got hurt by that (someone's CC3 box had a very exotic serious issue that took truckloads of time to find and had been [bleeping] fixed by SP1), but as systems go it was well-behaved.

 

The bits of W2K8 you really care about are mature tech not complete rewrites. So far for me, many of the new bits just work and I want them yesterday:

 

- Being able to routinely stop AD to run an integrity check or whatever on the database (as opposed to having to wait until 5PM a week on Tue to restart in AD restore mode).

 

- Task Scheduler - the multiple triggers (inc. Event log events), actions, conditions etc. Serious 2K8 admins, especially those with lots of servers to care for, will be able to do a lot of very useful magic here.

 

- The host firewalling. F/W console looks like a proper one & the holes for different "server roles" not opened until you install the role.

 

- Server Core. Even if that idiot figures out how the talk to the box they still won't be able to install all the usual dross they use to break critical servers (before breaking it even more trying to fix it).

 

- Remote Application talking RDP over TLS into a TS Gateway, subjected to connection & resource policies before being relayed to a TS. Easy to setup, works as advertised.

 

-Server Manager where you're supposed to do pretty much all your routine config/admin (and can do some extremely geeky monitoring/diags) is actually quite good.

 

Vista Explorer and the 57 varieties of Event log is horrible though. Still slowly working through the other bits.

[john]

The server products tend to be far more stable on release. I remember being just about to migrate a network from NT4 to 2k server when 2k3 was released, we decided to go for it rather than endure the pain of another major upgrade and it's was plain sailing 2k3 seemed to be very stable from release. The biggest problems are usually 3rd party application compatibility in the early days but if you're using an inbuilt MS technology you should be fine

I did exactly that, was about to order the 2000 media, and though oh what the heck, go straight to 2003, and it was perfect, worked flawlessly.

[cookie_monster]

2k3 server is the best Windows version by far IMHO.

[Michael]

I would agree with you cookie_monster

[torledo]

Server 2008 is due in February 2008 I believe.

 

That february date is going to be a RTM release announcement at most.

 

Agree with other comments that server releases are normally fairly reliable straight off the bat, particularly with 2008 which will be available after the release of SP1 and in all likelihood after XP SP3 (which is to have some server 2008 specific features).

 

What news of the built-in virtualization features ? Is that now to be a seperate product released at a later date ?

[torledo]

I would agree with you cookie_monster

 

tbh I didn't see server 2003 as a massive improvement over win2k. w2k3 with R2 added some xp sp2 specific features and a few other things but they were mainly small incremental improvements.

 

win2k server I also found very reliable.

 

With win2008 and the new deployment and thin client features they're really throwing down the gauntlet to the likes of symantec and citrix by saying to users, look you don't need thirdparty apps like ghost solutions suite or citrix presentation server, we now do that out of the box.

 

Ofcourse they'd also like to do the same to the 800-pound vm gorilla EMC but VI3 is just to mature a product to displace with some vague promises of a virtualization bolt-on. They've already failed miserably with Virtual Server. But let's wait and see what comes out of redmonnd. I personally think 2008 is going to be overall a timely improvement on w2k3 which has been starting to show it's age in some areas. There's no way they can get 2008 as wrong as they did with Vista. With Vista they tried to appease all camps, home user, power user, business user, entertainment user. The result was a hideous interface, more features left out than in, and more product versions than anyone needs. They can't make the same mistakes with 2008 because no-one gives a toss about the bells and whistles and there's only the sysadmin community to appease. And that means, shock horrow, they've announced some useful features of the new OS.

[cookie_monster]

Hyper-V has been held off but i think it might arrive before SP1, it certainly will be an SP1 feature. There will also be a standalone product aparently for only $30.

 

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/default.mspx

[localzuk]

Server 2008 is due in February 2008 I believe.

 

That february date is going to be a RTM release announcement at most.

 

Agree with other comments that server releases are normally fairly reliable straight off the bat, particularly with 2008 which will be available after the release of SP1 and in all likelihood after XP SP3 (which is to have some server 2008 specific features).

 

What news of the built-in virtualization features ? Is that now to be a seperate product released at a later date ?

 

Which means it will become available for business and agreement customers. Thats what happens normally...

[torledo]

Hyper-V has been held off but i think it might arrive before SP1, it certainly will be an SP1 feature. There will also be a standalone product aparently for only $30.

 

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/default.mspx

 

Thanks for the info, but if you at the comparison page it appears they'll be nine different versions of 2008. Four of the say 'without Hyper-V'. The whole thing is laughable, and I can't believe they're revisting the idea of a 'web server edition'. Why do they need a sepeate edition ? I thought that was the purpose of server core.

 

They just have no clue how to best package their products. They need two or three versions at most. Windows Standard, Windows Enterprise and Windows for Itanium. Not even sure we need Windows standard anymore.

 

I have difficulty believing people are still buying datacenter edition. Windows doesn't scale well beyond 8 sockets, and I'm not even sure there was anyone left selling 8+ processor boxes that couldn't also run Unix. You'd have to be insane to devote more than 8 processors of your expensive itanium refridgerator to a single instance of Windows!!!!!

[torledo]

Server 2008 is due in February 2008 I believe.

 

That february date is going to be a RTM release announcement at most.

 

Agree with other comments that server releases are normally fairly reliable straight off the bat, particularly with 2008 which will be available after the release of SP1 and in all likelihood after XP SP3 (which is to have some server 2008 specific features).

 

What news of the built-in virtualization features ? Is that now to be a seperate product released at a later date ?

 

Which means it will become available for business and agreement customers. Thats what happens normally...

 

Is that what Manufacuring means in Microsoft world ? Why can't they just use the term RTB (oh wait, that has a different connotation that microsoft might not be all to pleased about )