AUTHOR:

Michael Hassan

Product Manager - Managed HostingDate: 29/04/2008

How Windows Server 2008 can optimise your managed hosting platform

Windows Server 2008 - evolution

• Released to manufacturing - February 4 2008• Microsoft official launch - February 27 2008• Successor to:

Windows Sever 2003 released April 2003 Windows Sever 2000 released February 2000

Top 3 features that will enhance your managed hosted platform

Hyper-V (Virtualisation) IIS 7 Enhanced Security

What is Virtualisation?

• Virtualisation allows you to convert the software parts of a server - the application and operating system – into an independent virtual server.

• Allows you to stack multiple virtual servers on to a single physical server and increase the utilisation substantially.

Each Virtual Machine is a complete system encapsulated in a set of software files

Key benefits of Virtualisation

• Rack density is reduced along with power and cooling requirements• Shared hardware – not shared hosting• Time to market – deploy server in minutes• Greatly reduced recovery time • Virtual server image transfered to a new host in a matter of minutes• Security - hardware layer access is locked• Scalability - add more cores, Ram or hard drive space on the fly

Hyper-V - Windows Server 2008 virtualisation

Hyper-V is the virtualisation layer included with Windows Server 2008• What Hyper-V offers:

• All new lightweight hypervisor able to take full advantage of the new hardware assisted virtualisation support built in to the latest AMD-V and Intel V-T enabled servers.

• Vastly improved host scalability• Improved VM guest performance – no need for additional virtualisation

software.

• Availability• Will be available on general release by August 2008• If you are interested in our Pilot Programme please speak to us.

Hyper-V - How does it compare to VM Ware? Hyper-V VM Ware

Management Central control panel for Hyper-V and VMWare with powerful scripting capabilities for mass tasks

Control panel that supports VMWare ESX only

General 512 virtual instances max Supports Geo Clustering

64 virtual instances max Native cluster support only

Licensing Cheaper to scale outA free version for pc’s and non commercial use

Expensive to scale outA free version for pc’s and non commercial use

Migration Uses Quick Migration, not as mature as V-Motion as it is host based clustering. Requires a Downtime for a migration. (Live migration will be a future release)

Uses VMotion which is a live migration tool and requires no downtime.

Storage No equivalent to SVMotion on Hyper-V yet. Storage maintenance will require downtime.

Using SVMotion entire disk files can be moved from one storage array to another with no downtime.

Backups Integrated backup technology using VSS (Volume Snapshot Service)

No integrated backup technology

IIS 7• In the past (Internet Information Services) IIS was affected by a number of

security exposure issues.• Many vulnerabilities improved with IIS6, with the addition of “Web Server

Extensions”• IIS 7 builds on IIS 6 by offering the following advantages:

• Components are modularised • URL filtering• All web server configurations are stored in XML • Native support for PHP• Optimised for Web 2.0

Enhanced security

Server Core• Lean and mean version of Server 2008. It strips away all unnecessary

components, like the graphical shell, IE, .Net Framework and Outlook.4• This improves security and reduces need for patching

Updated version of Windows Firewall• Combines IPsec (Internet Protocol Security) and Windows Firewall in to a

single tool• Supports filtering of both incoming and outgoing traffic• Can be configured using group policies or the new MS Management Console

Server Role Web Server

Standard32/64 Bit

Enterprise32/64 Bit

Web Services (IIS)

Application Server x

Hyper-V* x

Active Directory Domain Services x

Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services x

Active Directory Rights Management Services x

Active Directory Certificate Services x

UDDI Services x

Windows Deployment Services x

Network Policy and Access Services x

Terminal Services x

* For customers that do not need virtualisation, Windows Server 2008 Standard and Enterprise editions are available without Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V Technology

Partial/Limited

About NetBenefit

• One of the UK's most experienced managed hosting providers• Delivering hosting solutions since 1995

• Dual site hosting for high availability

• Solutions tailored to each client’s requirement

• Microsoft Gold Partner

• Part of London listed Group NBT plc which now employs over 250 people world-wide

The NetBenefit / Dell / Microsoft advantage

NetBenefit• One of the UK's most experienced managed hosting providers

Dell• One of the largest resellers of Microsoft / hardware solutions in the UK• Experienced in the virtualisation market, key strategic partner with Microsoft

and EMC (owner of VM Ware)

Microsoft• NetBenefit working with Microsoft in the early adoption program for Hyper- V

Thank you very much

• Any Questions?• Visit us at stand E240• Enter competition to win a Wii console and games!