WHAT’S NEW IN WINDOWS SERVER 2012

After releasing Windows Server 2012 I was wonder why Microsoft released this server OS so early, as most of the enterprises are yet to upgrade their entire infrastructure to Windows 2008 R2. And no doubt 2008 R2 is so far the best Server OS from Microsoft family.

However, the new Metro UI catches my first attention to look into more, to such Sci-Fi alike system. It’s like your data center now can feel your TOUCH, who knows- may be in future it will start reading your mind.  😉
Though there are some controversy about this new Metro looks, it really have some cool new features.

New Server Manager

The major benefit of this new server manager is – it can create server groups with all of your servers already exists in your network and can be managed from a single interface. You can deploy, manage tasks for multiple server from one interface. All the database servers or IIS server can be managed centrally. This will be beneficial for those who are not using any data center monitoring software.

PowerShell 3.0

Though CMD.exe is still exists in WIN 2012, the newer PowerShell has received a very considerable focus. PowerShell 3.0 has been introduced with more than 2000 new commandlets. Even if you use GUI tool, PowerShell 3.0 can be used to configure and manage your server.
All administrative tool use PowerShell in background. The new editor and shell has the capability to auto-complete the code and typed commands are stored in the history, so you can use those command later without memorizing.

Data Deduplication

Data storage demand is increasing day by day and to align with business demand is challenging. And that’s where the new data deduplication feature in Windows 2012 come in handy.
The system will record redundant data in a separate location in System Volume Information and points to the files that act as a source template. This can free up huge amount of space. If you are facing space problem it could be a killer feature.

Hyper-V 3.0

The new Hyper-V support up to 64 processors and 1TB of RAM per virtual machine, as well as support for up to 320 logical hardware processor and 4TB of RAM per host. Seems like MS is now ready to fight with VMware who is the top player in virtualization platform.

CHKDSK changes

The old CHKDSK took longer time to scan disks. In Windows Server 2012, the new and improved CHKDSK now scan disk in two phases: an online phase that detect error and logs defects and repair phase that does the fixing of corrupted drive data, which can also run in background. It takes less time to scan and repair a disk than the earlier version.

Domain Controller Cloning

With Active directory Domain Services (AD DS) in Windows Server 2012, you can easily deploy additional domain controller by cloning an existing virtual DC. Cloning reduce number of steps and time to promote a new DC.

IIS 8

The new Web Server is only available in Windows 2012 and Windows 8 (Client OS). There are great improvement and very useful new features introduced like Server Name Identification (SNI), Centralized Certificate Store (CCS), Application Initialization, Dynamic IP restriction and FTP 8.

NTFS 4.1

NTFS 4.1 has been introduced in this new OS, it is fast, stable and reliable. For more information please check – http://blogs.technet.com/b/filecab/archive/2012/09/14/server-for-nfs-in-windows-server-2012.aspx

SMB 3.0

SMB 3.0 support multiple simultaneous network interfaces and it has the ability hot-plug new interfaces on the fly.

Surely it is the next generation OS and believe Server 2012 to be worth the cost of the upgrade.

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