Windows Server 2008 Product Roadmap

Now available, Windows Server 2008 is the next major Windows Server release. Windows Server 2008, with available Web and virtualization technologies, enables you to increase the reliability and flexibility of your server infrastructure. New virtualization tools, Web technologies, and security enhancements help you save time, reduce costs, and provide a solid foundation for a dynamic and optimized datacenter. Windows Server 2008 is currently available for evaluation. The following table summarizes the product roadmap for Windows Server from 2007 and beyond, including service packs, feature packs, update releases, and the next major release:

Windows Server 2003 SP2 (2007) A cumulative service pack that includes the latest updates and provides enhancements to security and stability.

Windows Home Server (2007) Windows Home Server, released on July 16, 2007, is designed to help families centralize and connect their digital experiences, providing a familiar, easy, and reliable way to store, access, share, and automatically help protect what is most important.

Windows Server 2008 (2008 and beyond) Windows Server 2008, released on February 27, 2008, builds on the success of predecessor Windows Server operating systems. Windows Server 2008 is designed to provide organizations with the most productive platform for powering applications, networks, and Web services from the workgroup to the datacenter with valuable new functionality and powerful improvements to the base operating system.

Windows Essential Business Server 2008 (2008 and beyond) Windows Essential Business Server, scheduled to launch on November 12, 2008, is an all-in-one integrated multi-server solution designed and priced specifically for midsize businesses. Windows Essential Business Server provides the essential technology needed for a highly secure and reliable infrastructure.

Windows Small Business Server 2008 (2008 and beyond) Windows Small Business Server 2008, scheduled to launch on November 12, 2008, is an all-in-one server solution designed to help you keep your data more secure and your company more productive.

Windows Storage Server 2008 (2008 and beyond) Windows Storage Server 2008, scheduled for release during 2008, is the next version of Windows Storage Server and will incorporate a variety of new technical enhancements.

Windows Server 2008 R2 (2008 and beyond) Scheduled for release during 2010.

Windows Server 2003 Extended Support Phase On July 13, 2010, Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2003 R2 will transition from the Mainstream Support phase to the Extended Support phase. These support transition dates are in accordance with the Microsoft Support Lifecycle policy.

An Introduction to iSCSI

What exactly is iSCSI? It is not NAS. It does not require SCSI disks. It is not a file sharing protocol like those used by Mac and Windows servers. It is not iFCP, which is a protocol used to connect FC SAN islands across long distances. Nor is it FCIP. iSCSI is extremely close to the Fibre Channel protocol. For those already familiar with Fibre Channel, iSCSI can be very loosely generalized as “Fibre Channel over Ethernet.”

By definition, iSCSI (Internet SCSI or “SCSI over IP”) is a storage networking standard that enables the transport of block I/O data over an IP network. iSCSI replaces SCSI’s direct-attached cabling architecture with a network fabric. Essentially, the protocol works by encapsulating SCSI commands into packets and transporting them via TCP/IP. In other words, your Ethernet network now has the potential to become… a SAN. And as a direct result of this ubiquitous, standardized Ethernet infrastructure come many interesting features and benefits that would otherwise be impossible.

Many would argue that simplicity is a key advantage of using iSCSI versus Fibre Channel to deploy a SAN. The reason – an iSCSI SAN doesn’t necessarily require the specialized hardware knowledge that is perceived to be a prerequisite with Fibre Channel. There is already an inherent level of familiarity with the various Ethernet networking components. Therefore, a company lacking a dedicated staff of storage network technicians should feel more adept at maintaining and troubleshooting an iSCSI SAN.

Although iSCSI can certainly be complementary to many other storage technologies, it is especially well-suited for a large portion of the “middle market.” That is, the mass of users who:
• need considerably more throughput than NAS or Client/Server can provide,
• desire the benefits of a SAN, and
• have determined Fibre Channel is somewhat excessive for their needs.

An iSCSI SAN can be the solution in that it provides comparatively excellent throughput, delivers the benefits of consolidated storage, and requires less resources overall vs. Fibre Channel in terms of people or cost.

Identifying Hyper-V Version

Microsoft’s Hyper-V virtualization was officially RTMed on June 26th, 2008. However, there were several early releases of Hyper-V that made their way into a number of Windows Server 2008 installation since Windows Server 2008 was released back in February 27th, 2008. The original Windows Server 2008 release included a beta version of Hyper-V. Since that time Microsoft release two additional Hyper-V Release Candidates (RC0 and RC1) before the RTM date.

If Hyper-V running on the full version of Windows Server 2008 you can open the Hyper-V manager then select the Help, About Hyper-V Manger. The version number 6.0.6001.18016 should be displayed in the About Hyper-V Manager dialog as you can see in the following Figure.

If you’re running Hyper-V on Server Core then you can run the following command:
C:\>wmic datafile where name="c:\\windows\\system32\\vmms.exe" get version

If you’ve got the current version of Hyper-V then you’ll see the following output:
Version 6.0.6001.18016

If you see something different check the following list for the different Hyper-V version numbers:

Hyper-V RTM - 6.0.6001.18016

Hyper-V RC1 - 6.0.6001.18010

Hyper-V RC0 - 6.0.6001.18004

Hyper-V beta - 6.0.6001.17101