Productive Corporation

Foundation

• Initial Configuration Tasks moves interactive elements of setup to after installation, eliminating the need for the administrator to interact with the installation of the operating system.
• Server Manager, the expanded Microsoft Management Console (MMC), provides a one-stop interface for server configuration and monitoring with wizards to streamline common server management tasks.
• Windows PowerShell, a new optional command-line shell and scripting language, enables administrators to automate routine system administration tasks across multiple servers.
• Windows Reliability and Performance Monitor provides powerful diagnostic tools to give you ongoing visibility into your server environment, both physical and virtual, to pinpoint and resolve issuesquickly.
• Optimized server administration and data replication for increased control over servers located in remote locations, such as a branch office.
• Componentized Server Core installation option allows minimal installations where only the server roles and features you need are installed, reducing maintenance needs and decreasing the available attack surface of the server.
• Windows Deployment Services (WDS) provides a simplified, highly secure means of rapidly deploying Windows operating systems to computers by using network-based installation.
• Failover clustering wizards make it easy for even IT generalists to implement high-availability solutions, Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) is now fully integrated, and geographically dispersed cluster nodes no longer need to be on the same IP subnet or configured with complicated Virtual Local Area Networks (VLANs).
• Network Load Balancing (NLB) now supports IPv6 and includes multiple dedicated IP address support which allows multiple applications to be hosted on the same NLB cluster.
• WindowsServer Backup incorporates faster backup technology and simplifies data or operating system restoration.

Virtualization

• Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V allows you to virtualize server roles as separate virtual machines (VMs) running on a single physical machine, without the need to buy third-party software.
• Multiple operating systems-Windows, Linux, and others -can be deployed in parallel on a single server using Hyper-V.
• New deployment options allow you to deploy the most suitable virtualization methods for your environment.
• Support for the latest hardware-assisted virtualization technologies allows virtualization of very demanding workloads.
• New storage features, such as pass-through disk access and dynamic storage addition, allow VMs more access to data, and give external programs and services more access to data stored on VMs.
• Clustering of Windows Server virtualization (WSv) hosts or VMs running on WSv hosts and backup of VMs while they are running keep your virtualized servers highly available.
• New management tools and performance counters make the virtualized environment easier to manage and monitor.
• Terminal Services (TS) RemoteApp and TS Web Access allow programs that are accessed remotely to be opened with just one click and appear as if they are running seamlessly on the end user's local computer.
• TS Gateway helps provide secure remote access to Windows-based programs through firewalls - without the need for a virtual private network (VPN).
• TS Licensing Manager adds the ability to track the issuance of TS per User Client Access Licenses (CALs). Built into Windows Server 2008, TS Licensing is a low-impact service the enables centralized administration, tracking, reporting, and efficient purchasing of TS per User CALs.

Web

• Modular design and installation options allow installation of only the features needed, reducing attack surfaces and making patch management easier.
• IIS Manager, a new task-based management interface, plus a new appcmd.exe command-line tool make administration easier.
• Cross-site deployment allows you to easily copy Web site settings across multiple Web servers without additional configuration.
• Delegated administration of applications and sites lets you give control to different parts of the Web server to those who need it.
• Integrated Web server health management with comprehensive diagnostic and troubleshooting tools allow easy visibility and tracking of requests running on the Web server.
• Programmatic access to configuration stores through WMor Microsoft.Web.Administration, a new management API that enables editing the XML configuration files for your Web server, sites, or applications.
• Enhanced application pool isolation keeps sites and applications isolated from each other for greater security and stability.
• Fast CGI support to reliably run PHP apps, Perl scripts, and Ruby applications.
• Tighter integration with ASP.NET features and one configuration store for all Web platform configuration settings across IIS 7.0 and ASP.NET.
• A flexible extensibility model enables customization such as the addition of new modules using either native or managed code.

Security

• Security Configuration Wizard (SCW) helps administrators configure the operating system for the server roles being deployed to reduce the attack surface area, resulting in a more robust and more secure server environment.
• Integrated Expanded Group Policy enables efficient creation and management of Group Policies while expanding the number of areas that can be securely managed with policy.
• Network Access Protection helps ensure your network and systems aren't compromised by unhealthy computers, isolating and/or remediating those computers that don't comply with the security policies you set.
• User Account Control provides a new authentication architecture for protection against malicious software.
• Cryptography Next Generation (CNG) , Microsoft's new core cryptographic API, provides better cryptographic flexibility by supporting standard as well as customer-defined cryptographic algorithms, and enables more efficient creation, storage, and retrieval of cryptographic keys.
• Read Only Domain Controller (RODC) allows a more secure method for local authentication of users in remote and branch office locations using a read-only replica of your primary AD database.
• Active Directory Federation Services (AD FS) enables trust relationships to be more easily established between partners with different identity and access directories running on different networks, enabling secure single sign ons (SSOs) to each other's networks.
• Active Directory Certificate Services (AD CS) delivers several enhancements to the Windows Server 2008 Public Key Infrastructure (PKI), including PKIView for monitoring the health of Certification Authorities (CAs) and a new, more secure COM control for certificate Web enrollment in place of ActiveX.
• Active Directory Rights Management Services (AD RMS) together with RMS-enabled applications helps you safeguard your company's digital information from unauthorized users more easily.
• BitLocker Drive Encryption provides enhanced protection against data theft and exposure of server hardware if lost or stolen, and it provides more secure data deletion when your servers are eventually decommissioned.

* Actual requirements will vary based on your system configuration, and the applications and features you choose to install. Processor performance is dependent upon not only the clock frequency of the processor, but the number of cores and the size of the processor cache. Disk space requirements for the system partition are approximate. Itanium-based and x64-based operating systems will vary from these disk size estimates. Additional available hard disk space may be required if you are installing over a network.

Installation and Activation

Evaluating Windows Server 2008 software does not require product activation or entering a product key. Any edition of Windows Server 2008 may be installed without activation and evaluated for an initial 60 days.

If you need more time to evaluate Windows Server 2008, the 60 day evaluation period may be reset (or re-armed) three times, extending the original 60 day evaluation period by up to 180 days for a total possible evaluation time of 240 days. After this time, you will need to uninstall the software or upgrade to a fully-licensed version of Windows Server 2008.
Note: If you are evaluating and testing Windows Server 2008 and plan to install the software on your primary machine, it is recommended that you back up your existing data prior to installation.