The
Microsoft Windows Server 8 developer preview has enough promising enhancements
to virtual networking, storage and infrastructure management to warrant serious
IT interest as a data center platform. While much is yet unknown about Windows
Server 8, including when it will be released and license costs, the pre-beta,
developer preview reveals a broad landscape of improvements that—if successfully executed—warrant the strategic
attention of IT managers at organizations of all sizes.
While VMware and the newly minted vSphere 5 remain the undisputed leader of the
x86 server virtualization field, Microsoft Windows Server 8 clearly shows signs
of offering a competitive challenge. eWEEK
Labs’ work with Windows Server 8 developer preview shows that the initial
contours of Microsoft’s offering have the right ingredients to be a tempting
challenger to VMware.
I installed WS8 on a variety of server and advanced workstation hardware
at eWEEK Labs, including a Lenovo
ThinkServer RD210, ThinkServer TS200v, Acer AR-380 and an HP Z800 workstation.
All systems were running Intel Xeon processors and were equipped with between 4GB
and 24 GB of RAM. Most of the systems had a
single network interface card (NIC), but the Acer and the ThinkServer RD210 had
multiple NICs.
Deployment—Server Core
When it ships, Windows Server 8 will be the first edition of the
operating system for which a core installation, rather than a full GUI
installation, is recommended. I’ll come back to the significant changes in
Server Manager, but for now, IT managers should factor in the core server
installation in the following ways. Windows Server 8 will be significantly
smaller, both in terms of memory size and security footprint.
Windows Server 8
core currently has a minimum requirement of 512MB RAM, the same as Windows Server 2008 R2.
Unlike the previous version, Windows Server 8 core is designed for remote
management. My tests also showed that Windows Server 8 core handles the addition
and removal of server roles much better than the current shipping version of
Windows Server. Although not tested, the Windows Server 8 Hyper-V role will be
able to be delivered and run from a flash memory device.
Further, the core installation strips off the traditional
Windows GUI and Explorer. At this RAM size,
it is reasonable for IT managers to consider that Windows Server 8 core could
be installed on an SD card or other solid state memory device in the server
hardware, similar to how VMware’s vSphere ESXi can be installed today.
Microsoft’s move to recommending a core—as opposed to full GUI installation—carries a significant
strategic impact for how IT should approach server management.
Management—Server Manager, Multimachine
At first glance, Windows Server 8 has a substantially different Server
Manager than previous versions of the operating system. The redesigned Server
Manager fully embraces a multimachine management approach that is far different
from the traditional one-machine-at-a-time view that is available today.
The management tools are intended to run from a Windows client system.
Microsoft officials went out of their way to state that a Linux system with the
WS-Management (a DMTF, SOAP-based protocol
for system management) stack could use the Server Manager tools to manage
Windows Server 8 systems.
I was able to easily add Windows Server 8 systems along with existing
Windows Server 2008 R2 and 2003 systems to Server Manager. I was able to group
systems, see alerts based on individual systems or by server role and act on
error conditions. One substantial change in Server Manager—aside from the adoption of
the stark Metro interface—is
that the familiar Task Pane has been replaced with a right mouse click. This is
a much more intuitive way to work, and IT managers should expect this will ease
adoption of the new Server Manager by experienced data center operations staff.
As I have held for many years, effective management of the virtual
infrastructure will distinguish successful implementations from those that
fail. It’s interesting to note that Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine
Manager (SCVMM) already supports managing both Hyper-V and vSphere
environments. Further, Microsoft has substantial operational experience from
running Hotmail, Bing and its MSDN properties. It seems clear that lessons from
the System Center
team and Microsoft operations have had a positive influence on the management
design of Windows Server 8. Organizations should now begin to see how existing
third-party management tools interoperate, or are made redundant, by the System
Manager changes.
Network
Windows Server 8 substantially expands the role the
operating system can play in organizations, especially those with a modest
number of IT staff. I was able to use Windows Server 8 DHCP and DNS roles to
provide redundancy in the case of DHCP, and eased operations, in the case of
DNS. While I don’t see a similar move to include Cisco networking, as VMware
did with the Cisco Nexus 1000v, there are improvements to the virtual switch
infrastructure in Windows Server 8.
I was able to use new virtual machine network
isolation and bandwidth policy features in Windows Server 8 to enforce
“you-get-what-you-pay-for” multitenancy networking in Windows Server 8. I was
able to use a virtual network port access control list (ACL) to
control network access. There also are private VLAN capabilities and
minimum/maximum bandwidth throttling capabilities that I used to provide basic
controls on how much network capacity my virtual machines were able to use.
While this is new in Windows Server 8, these capabilities, as I saw them, do
not set any new benchmark for virtual network switch functionality. Even so,
there are substantial changes that enhance the basic functionality of the virtual
network switch in Windows Sever 8. This is an area of the product that IT
managers should mark for substantial investigation. In particular, capturing
and filtering extensions along with an API
that enables the virtual switch to make network traffic available to third
parties for traffic inspection. There will be a logo program to certify third-party
products that use the virtual switch API.
I was able to use Windows Server 8 to create NIC teams
on my server systems. NIC teaming is already available in competitive products.
NIC teams can be created using cards from different vendors. IT managers should
consider that NIC teams of nearly any size can be created. This physical
networking enhancement removes a major roadblock to placing performance-sensitive
workloads on Windows Server systems.
Subsequent reviews will look in greater detail at the
substantial storage changes that are included in Windows Server 8. For now, I
can say the new Storage Spaces should make it significantly easier for IT
managers to administer virtual disks, both when provisioning and for improved performance.
Windows Server 8 will also include NFS
4.1 support file access for UNIX clients.
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