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.
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