Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Barrie Sosinsky is a Boston-based author who has written over 30 books on computer technology and many articles in leading journals. He has an interest in operating systems, servers, networks, storage, and enterprise applications. He currently works as a senior technical writer for a company that creates automation software for large enterprises.

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Make the move to Windows Server 2008 with this practical guide
 
If you're preparing to move to Windows Server 2008, this book is for you. It bypasses common concepts you already know and concentrates on the essential information you need to migrate quickly and successfully.
 
You'll get a thorough look at what's new in Windows Server 2008, including the redesigned architecture and improvements in features such as user services, graphics, virtualization, and the new TCP/IP protocol stack and boot environment. This book takes you under the hood and shows you key technologies and functions that are not visible at first glance--and offers step-by-step guidance to help you make a smooth transition to Windows Server 2008.
 
With coverage of everything from deployment to PowerShell to the latest security features, new performance monitoring, and remote access management, this book has what you need to take control of and secure your Windows Server 2008 network.
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Set up, configure, and deploy Windows Server 2008
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Explore the new architecture, including kernel modifications, the new Windows PE boot environment, and the Hyper-V hypervisor
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Review the major overhaul of Active Directory and how it affects identities and rights management
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Learn new policy management tools, settings, and policies
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Master PowerShell cmdlets, syntax, execution, and scripts
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Implement and enforce IPsec, DHCP, and VPN security
*
 
Explore Windows Server 2008 compatibility with Windows Server 2003 R2, Macintosh, and Unix
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Monitor server status, identify critical events, and troubleshoot your Windows Server 2008

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Microsoft Windows Server 2008

John Wiley & Sons

Chapter One

Any server operating system version upgrade involves changes to nearly every subsystem, and Windows Server 2008 is no exception. There have been kernel changes to allow for better processor virtualization, driver model changes to make drivers more stable and secure, a completely new TCP/IP protocol stack for better performance, a new graphics engine, and very significant changes to the Windows Class Libraries that give access to the Windows .NET Framework and Network Class Library. To a user learning Windows Server 2008, these changes underpin all of the new procedures that differentiate Windows Server 2008 and Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) from the previous versions of Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP. So in order to provide a framework for our discussions in future chapters, this first chapter explains the Windows Server 2008 architectural model, along with the changes that they portend.

There have been enormous changes in the Windows Server architecture for this release of Microsoft's flagship product. As Microsoft's desktop OS and Microsoft Office slow down in revenue growth, Windows Server has become particularly important to Microsoft's fortunes. Microsoft Windows Server 2008 continues Microsoft's push to integrate web-based services into its server product. There are now strong links to the .NET Framework, both programmatically as well as in the look and feel of applications that will take advantage of the architecture that is described in this chapter. While Microsoft emphasizes the new modules that affect what the user can see, there are plenty of architecture changes to basic systems such as the kernel, memory, services, and many more. In this chapter, you will read about the most significant architectural goals of this release and how you can get even more value out of your investment in Windows Server.

Understanding the System's Roots

Writing an operating system for a new computer system has always been something of a heroic effort. In 1981 Tracy Kidder won a Pulitzer Prize and an American Book Award for his book The Soul of a New Machine, in which he describes the creation of the 32-bit Eclipse MV/8000 mini-computer at Data General. The company Data General was competing with at the time was Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), their computers were the PDP-11 series, and that operating system was VAX (short for Virtual Address Extension).

The early history of Windows NT as documented in G. Pascal Zachary's Showstopper! The Race to Create Windows NT and the Next Generation at Microsoft (1994) was similarly chaotic. NT started as a co-development project between IBM and Microsoft; it was to be version 3.0 of OS/2, both companies having worked on versions 1 and 2. Windows 3.0's success led Microsoft to develop OS/2 API into an extended Windows API, at which point the joint project fell apart. IBM would go on to release OS/2 3.0 as their "Warp" version, which although something of a success in the business world never caught on with the general public. Microsoft chose another direction.

When DEC canceled the PRISM project in 1988, Microsoft was able to hire away many of the team members working in DEC West in Seattle. Systems architect David Cutler, who had experience with Virtual Memory System (VMS) and Reduced Instruction Set Computer (RISC) architecture, became the head of the development team that rewrote the Microsoft version of OS/2. The concepts of a microkernel, protective mode, an executive program, device drivers, and hardware abstraction all arise from the work of Cutler's group and the heritage that they brought to Microsoft. The basic idea behind Windows Server was that Microsoft (being a software company) should create an operating system that was portable from one hardware platform to another with a straight-forward recompile.

The original NT project targeted development of IA-32 (Intel Architecture), MIPS (Microprocessor without Interlocked Pipeline Stages), Alpha, PowerPC, SPARC, and Intel i860 and i960. Microsoft released the first version of NT on July 27, 1993. Indeed, the multiplatform heritage of Windows Server is supposedly the origin of the NT name, as initial development of OS/2 3.0 was for the i860 processor code named N10, or "N-Ten." It is speculated, but not confirmed, that Microsoft replaced the NT name (which they marketed under "New Technology") with the year designations because of a trademark issue with Nortel Networks, whose Northern Telecom owns the NT trademark.

Today the Windows operating systems in general, and the Windows Server systems specifically, owe much of their success and many of their shortcomings to the design decisions made by the original NT team for Windows NT. There isn't space here to expound on why many of the technical features in Windows are a little goofy (you can take the Windows Registry as an example), but any reader interested in software history from a technical viewpoint should take a look at Raymond Chen's The Old New Thing: Practical Development Throughout the Evolution of Windows (2006).

System Overview

Windows Server is an example of a preemptive, multitasked, multithreaded operating system. The term preemptive means that the Windows operating system can switch the order of tasks held in memory based on a set of scheduling policies and priorities, a process commonly referred to as context switching. Windows can perform a context switch because it recognizes that a process has ended, that a process is blocked by a shared resource, or that the process has been switched to another processor. This behavior (which is a software version of a system interrupt) is performed by the kernel, and is different from a system in which tasks are scheduled through time sharing or through a system of hardware interrupts. There are many advantages to preemption, but the most important are that preemption uses resources more efficiently and that it can remove many instances of processes that are either CPU bound or input/output (I/O) bound, waiting for other processes to finish.

A process or task is the execution of program or service. You can see processes executing in Windows Server 2008 or Vista in the Task Manager, where the consumption of memory and CPU is given for each. Figure 1.1 shows the Process page of the Task Manager.

Although the Task Manager got an upgrade in Vista so that it shows more information and actually describes what each process is, it does not offer the most complete description you can get on your system. That honor belongs to the service- and process-related commands you can enter into PowerShell, which is discussed in Chapter 8, "PowerShell."

You can get to the Task Manager by doing any of the following: * Right click the Taskbar and select the Task Manager from the context menu. * Click an empty area of the desktop and press Ctrl+Shift+Esc. * Click the Start menu, enter TASKMGR into the Search text box, then press the Enter key.

* Press Windows+R to open the Run dialog box, then enter TASKMGR and press Enter. * Press Ctrl+Alt+Del and select Start Task Manager from the menu on the Login/Logoff screen.

Windows gives you so many different ways to get to the Task Manager because the Task Manager allows you to kill errant processes and bring a server back...