The description of a "faster" and "slimmer" are not what you would normally consider when you are talking about modern software products - particularly if the software in question is a Mcirosoft Windows operating system.

Yet, Microsoft's Windows Server 2008, which recently went RTM (release to manufacturing), shows that Microsoft is capable of producing a lean, mean server operating system - and doing it on the same code base that underpins the oft-maligned Windows Vista client operating system.

The new Windows Server boasts a set of networking enhancements that dramatically boost file serving performance, and the product can be deployed in a new, stripped-down Server Core configuration, which significantly reduces the attack surface of systems hosting certain Windows Server roles.

As well as all of this, there is a much more modular and securable Web server in IIS (Internet Information Services) 7.0, Microsoft's new hypervisor-based virtualization functionality and a host of management enhancements.

That is not to say, however, that Windows Server 2008 is without its problems. For instance, while it's great to see Windows Server take a page out of Linux's book with support for slimmed-down deployments, Server Core supports only a limited set of predetermined roles, such as those for file or domain services.

What's more, due to its monolithic packaging and broad dependencies, Microsoft's .Net Framework cannot be installed on Server Core instances, which, among other things, bars Microsoft's innovative PowerShell command-line interface from the command-line-centric Server Core.

However, ignoring these small issues, Windows Server 2008 comes with a value proposition that's significantly stronger than that of its client-side partner, Windows Vista, and the product is well worth evaluating both for organizations currently running a Windows environment, and also for those that are not.

Installation

Windows Server 2008 is available in five versions:

All of the information relating to the hardware and software differences among these versions here.

Versions of Windows Server 2008 also are available for x86, x86-64 and Intel Itanium 2 processor platforms.

Performance

Windows Server 2008 ships with an overhauled TCP/IP stack and a new version of its SMB file-sharing service, which together can deliver significant performance gains in file-sharing scenarios, specifically over high-latency connections.

Unlike previous versions of Windows Server, which bound network adapters to a single processor, Windows Server 2008 is able to spread the processing load for incoming network traffic across multiple processors.

Another enhancement to Windows Server's TCP/IP stack is the Receive Window Auto Tuning feature, which determines the optimal amount of data to be sent over a connection at once by measuring the latency of the connection. On low-latency links, larger amounts of data can be sent efficiently at one time, but as connection latency grows, Windows Server sends less data per transmission window.

In previous versions of Windows, administrators could adjust this setting themselves by manipulating registry values. However, Windows Server 2008's ability to automatically adjust these values will make this optimization available to a broader range of sites.

Microsoft's SMB (Server Message Block) 2.0 file services protocol boosts performance over high-latency links by reducing the “chattiness” of the protocol. Rather than wait for receipt acknowledgments before sending more data, SMB 2.0 supports sending multiple SMB commands per packet. This more parallel method of operation can deliver substantial speedups that grow more dramatic as connection latency lengthens.

SMB 2.0 requires Windows Server 2008 or Windows Vista on both ends of the connection; otherwise, Windows Server 2008 or Vista will negotiate down to SMB 1.0.

Management

One of the most immediately recognizable new features of Windows Server 2008 is the Server Manager, which is an expansion of the "Configure my server" dialog that launches by default on Windows Server 2003 machines. However, rather than serve only as a starting point to configuring new roles, the new Server Manager gathers together pretty much all of the operations you'd want to conduct on your server.

Virtualization

One of the most promising new features of Windows Server 2008 is its support for hypervisor-based virtualization. The feature, which Microsoft calls Hyper-V, enables administrators to host x86 or x86-64 operating systems on Windows Server, and compares well to VMware's ESX Server and Citrix's XenEnterprise virtualization products.

Microsoft has designated the version of Hyper-V that ships with Windows Server 2008 as a preview edition, with a final release promised within six months.

In addition to the new work that Microsoft has done around server virtualization, Windows Server 2008 ships with noteworthy improvements to what Microsoft has taken to calling presentation virtualization - better known as "Terminal Services".

One of the Terminal Services enhancements, which Microsoft calls RemoteApp, enables administrators to publish individual applications, as opposed to remote desktop sessions.

IIS 7.0

The modular design exhibited in Windows Server 2008's stripped-down core configuration carries over to Microsoft's Web server, IIS 7.0, which consists of more than 40 separate modules that administrators can install as needed. This modularity helps limit IIS 7.0's attack surface and keeps patching requirements as low as possible.

Also noteworthy in IIS 7.0 is the server's move to XML-based text files for configuration, which can help simplify configuration tasks and broaden the sorts of tools that administrators can use to manage their configuration settings.