The main versions of Windows Server 2008 R2 include Windows Server 2008 R2, Standard Edition Windows Server 2008 R2, Enterprise Edition Windows Server 2008 R2, Datacenter Edition Windows Web Server 2008 R2 and Windows Server 2008 R2 Server Core. Windows Server 2008 R2 comes in the same release versions as the more recent server version releases from Microsoft with the addition of a Server Core version that provides a lighter GUI-less version of Windows Server 2008 R2. Have you had time to explore the Windows Server 2008 R2 RC yet? Talk Back and Let Me Know.Learn More Buy Versions of Windows Server 2008 R2 I'm looking forward to really putting this release through its paces over the next several weeks, including 2008 R2's Active Directory and networking enhancements, so stay tuned for the follow-ups. Be sure to check out my screen shot gallery for some more in-depth drill down.
So far, given the limited time I've been able to explore the broad feature set of the Server 2008 R2 Release Candidate, I'm awfully impressed with what the product can do. Physical Boot from VHD file - While not specifically a Hyper-V feature, this allows a physical Windows 2008 R2 server to boot from a VHD file (Virtual Hard Disk format used by Hyper-V and Virtual PC) stored on a Windows Server's NTFS. The primary benefit of this function is that the virtual host no longer has device DMA data in its own buffer, which results in a shorter path length for I/O and greater network performance gain. This allows the virtual NIC on the VM to appear as multiple NICs on the physical host. Virtual Machine Queuing (VMQ) - Network Interfaces can now have direct memory access ( DMA) into the allocated RAM of a Virtual Machine. To use this feature, you need Chimney compatible hardware, which I believe is equivalent to Intel's VT-D extensions in the newest Xeon chips. This reduces the burden on the CPU, and is fully supported by Hyper-V's Live Migration. VM Chimney/TCP Offload - TCP/IP traffic can be offloaded from a VM to a physical NIC instead of a virtual network, for network intensive apps that use large data transfers and pre-posted buffers. Hot Add/Removal of VM Storage: LUNs and File Systems avaliable to Hyper-V can be removed and added to the system without rebooting the physical host. So far, this type of shared NTFS LUN clustering is specific to Hyper-V, but if you read the tea leaves, I expect this support to become available to other Microsoft technologies, such as SQL Server and Exchange. From a fault tolerance perspective if a Hyper-V host goes down, another Hyper-V host can reboot the VM and bring it back up, just like VMWare 3.5. This allows the live migration to function in exactly the same way VMWare 3.5 does. With Server 2008 R2, NTFS file systems can now be clustered in the same fashion, using shared NTFS LUNs across a fiber-optic SAN using HBAs or iSCSI initiatiors. NTFS File System Clustering for Hyper-V - One of the biggest complaints about the initial Hyper-V was that it had no true fault tolerance like ESX 3.5 did, which features a clustered locking file system known as VMFS.
With Server 2008 R2, Hyper-V is now truly ready for prime time, with a number of major enhancements listed below (as well as a few that I'm not allowed to talk about yet): In the general release of Server 2008, it was a beta, which was later patched with the final version. Server 2008 R2 also includes the Hyper-V Type 1 Hypervisor virtualization out of the box. I have a somewhat selfish reason for wanting this because I have a bunch of 32-bit systems that I'd love to refresh with this software, including an older laptop. Instead, these boxes are likely to be used for Linux or Server 2003 or Server 2008 SP2. In some sense, I can agree with this in that Microsoft finally wanted to leave that generation of equipment behind, but I think re-purposed 32-bit systems could have benefited greatly from the refresh. That means it only runs on the latest Xeons and Opterons (and Itaniums, for those of you who care) and desktop chips with 64-bit architectures. That's right people, Server 2008 R2 is 64-bit only. It should be noted right off the bat that Server 2008 R2 has one major difference from its predecessor, in that the 32-bit version of Server is now extinct.
#Windows server 2008 r2 64 bit windows 7#
Both Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7 share the same core OS, so a lot of the improvements you've been hearing about with Windows 7 are in 2008 R2, whether it be UI changes or under the hood resource allocation and performance improvements. Whatever this product release is called, it is a major, not a minor refresh. Some of the major technology areas which received focus during Windows Server 2008 R2's Development.