With over 300,000 downloads of Beta 3 already under our belt, there is a lot of excitement here in Redmond as we get closer to our release candidate milestone for Windows Server 2008.  Customers and partners are very impressed with what they see, and the number of servers deployed in real production environments at our Technology Adoption Program (TAP) and Rapid Deployment Program (RDP) customers increases week to week. From these pioneering customers and from our own internal deployment efforts, we continue to get great feedback on the product. In fact, this very web site (assuming you’re reading the original blog on microsoft.com) has been running entirely on Windows Server 2008 since before Beta 3.

 

You know, one of the reasons that we have  this blog is  to tell you about the cool stuff we are working on, but also to provide a place to have an open and honest dialogue about the development process of a product of this magnitude. So this seems like the best place to let you know that Windows Server 2008, which we have been saying would Release to Manufacturing (RTM) by the end of the calendar year, is now slated to RTM in the first quarter of calendar year 2008.  Why?  Well, as you know, Microsoft’s first priority is to deliver a great product to our customers and partners, and while we’re very happy with the feedback we’re getting and the overall quality of the latest product builds, we would rather spend a little more time to meet the high quality bar that our customers and partners  deserve and expect.  As one of our leading program managers, Alex Hinrichs, told me, “”it’s like a brisket I it just needs a little more time to bake.” And you should try his brisket!

 

So you might be wondering how this affects our launch event, which is scheduled for February 27, 2008 in Los Angeles. The answer is simple: it doesn’t. We’ll be there in LA on February 27 and at venues around the world in the following days and weeks.  The launch event will feature Windows Server 2008, Visual Studio 2008 and SQL Server 2008.

 

We have a busy schedule ahead of us and I look forward to speaking with and seeing many of you in the months to come.  Look for more from the Windows Server 2008 team soon and check out the Windows Vista Blog for more info on Windows Vista SP1.

-Helene

 

Transforming ServerManagerCmd query xml to input xml

 

Hello, my name is Travis Nielsen and I’m a developer on the Server Manager team. Among other things, I have worked on the ServerManagerCmd.exe tool for command line installation.

 

One of the most common requests I have heard from customers is that they want to detect what roles and features are installed on one machine and automate installing the same set of roles and features on another server. To make this work, users typically envision that something like the following would work:

1.       On the original server, query what roles and features are installed and save to xml format:

a.       ServerManagerCmd.exe –query Master.xml

2.       On the target server, use the xml file output by the previous query in order to install the same set of roles and features:

a.       ServerManagerCmd.exe –inputPath Master.xml

 

However, this approach will not work since the xml output by the -query option has a different schema than the -inputPath xml. While the differences in the xml look insignificant at first glance, there are enough differences that this will not work.  Identifying the differences is left as an exercise for the reader.

 

Luckily, all hope is not lost. There is a way to convert the xml from the query output into the xml input file used to install or remove the same set of roles and features. Below are instructions for using xslt (XML transforms) to convert the xml query output to the proper xml input format.

 

1)    Download the conversion tool

 

Download the command line transformation utility and save to a folder on your computer: msxsl.exe

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=2FB55371-C94E-4373-B0E9-DB4816552E41&displaylang=en

2)    Save the transform files

 

An xsl transform will take an xml file and transform it into another format. There are three transforms provided that you may find useful: Install.xsl, Remove.xsl, and View.xsl.

·         Install: This transform will create an xml file to use with ServerManagerCmd.exe -inputPath for installing roles and features that were detected on a server. See Appendix A.

·         Remove: This transform will create an xml file to use with ServerManagerCmd.exe -inputPath for removing roles and features that were not detected on the master server.  See Appendix B.

·         View: This transform will create an html file that will display which roles and features are installed on the master server.  See Appendix C.

 

These three xsl files can be found at the end of this article in appendix A, B, and C. Using copy and paste with your favorite text editor (ie. Notepad), save these files to your machine. Note that you won’t want to use a fancier word processor that preserves html formatting tags.

3)    Query the “Master” Server

 

Given that you have the tools needed for the transform, you are ready to proceed. First, you will need to query a server for the roles and features that are installed. The server where this query is run will be referred to as the “master” server since it will essentially provide the list of roles and features that will potentially be installed on other servers. From an elevated command prompt on the master server, execute:

 

ServerManagerCmd.exe -query Master.xml

 

4)    Generate the Install xml input file

 

Now that we have the xml from the query of the master server, we will generate the xml that can be used to install all of the roles and features that were detected on the master server as installed. The xml generated will be a list of all the roles and features that should be installed, but will not contain a list of the roles and features that should be uninstalled to match the set exactly on the target server.

 

Run the xsl tool to generate the input xml that will install all the roles, role services, and features that are installed according to query.xml

 

msxsl.exe Master.xml install.xsl -o install.xml

 

If you view Install.xml in a text or xml editor, you will notice a couple of things:

·         There are a lot of blank lines in the file that can be ignored.

·         The set of roles and features that are listed in the xml are not exactly what you see installed on your master server. The difference is that roles, role services, and features that contain other role services and features are not listed. At install time, they will automatically be included by Server Manager with the install. It is not possible to install a role service or feature without its parent.

5)    Generate the Remove xml input file

 

Next, we generate the xml that can be applied to remove all the roles and features that were not detected as installed on the master server. This would not be necessary if you are mirroring the roles and features to a machine where there are not any roles or features installed yet. Neither will you need this if you only want to use the previously generated Install xml to add roles and features instead of removing as well.

 

Run the xsl tool to generate the input xml that will remove all the roles, role services, and features that are not installed according to Master.xml

 

msxsl.exe Master.xml remove.xsl -o remove.xml

 

As with the Install.xml, you may notice that Remove.xml does not contain an exact mapping of what to uninstall. The reason is that if you request to uninstall a root role or feature, all sub role services and subfeatures will also be installed. Therefore, root nodes are not included in the list unless they don’t have any children installed.

6)    Use the Install and Remove xml input files

 

Now you’re ready to perform the installation of desired roles and features on a target server. First, run the following command (from an elevated command prompt) to add the desired roles and features.

 

ServerManagerCmd.exe -inputPath Install.xml

 

If some of the roles or features are already installed on the target server, there is no need to remove them from the install xml. Requesting to install a role or feature that is already installed will not have any effect. An informational message will simply be displayed to indicate that the role or feature did not need to be installed.

 

Finally, if you desire to remove roles or features that should not be present according to the master server, run the following command (from an elevated command prompt) to remove the extraneous roles and features. Again, if they are already not detected as installed on the target server, this will have no effect on the server.

 

ServerManagerCmd.exe -inputPath Remove.xml

 

Note that neither of these commands will have any effect of installing or uninstalling when run on the master server where they were generated.

7)    Generate the View html file

 

The last transform will convert the query xml into a friendly html file to view the available roles, role services, and features, with installed roles/features highlighted in green.

 

msxsl.exe Master.xml View.xsl -o View.html

 

Now open the View.html in your favorite web browser.

 

Appendix A: Install.xsl

 

<xsl:stylesheet

xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"

xmlns:sm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sdm/Windows/ServerManager/Configuration/2007/1"

version="1.0">

 

  <!-- Transform to xml that can be used to install all roles, role services, and features that were discovered as installed in the output query. -->

 

  <xsl:output indent="no" />

 

  <xsl:template match="/">

    <xsl:apply-templates/>

  </xsl:template>

 

  <xsl:template match="sm:ServerManagerConfigurationQuery">

    <xsl:element name="ServerManagerConfiguration" namespace="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sdm/Windows/ServerManager/Configuration/2007/1">

      <xsl:attribute name="Action">Install</xsl:attribute>

      <xsl:apply-templates/>

    </xsl:element>

  </xsl:template>

 

  <xsl:template match="sm:Role">

    <xsl:if test="@Id and @Installed='true' and count(sm:RoleService) = 0">

      <xsl:element name="Role" namespace="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sdm/Windows/ServerManager/Configuration/2007/1">

        <xsl:attribute name="Id">

          <xsl:value-of select="@Id"/>

        </xsl:attribute>

      </xsl:element>

    </xsl:if>

    <xsl:apply-templates/>

  </xsl:template>

 

  <xsl:template match="sm:RoleService">

    <xsl:if test="@Id and @Installed='true' and count(sm:RoleService) = 0">

      <xsl:element name="RoleService" namespace="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sdm/Windows/ServerManager/Configuration/2007/1">

        <xsl:attribute name="Id">

          <xsl:value-of select="@Id"/>

        </xsl:attribute>

      </xsl:element>

    </xsl:if>

    <xsl:apply-templates/>

  </xsl:template>

 

  <xsl:template match="sm:Feature">

    <xsl:if test="@Id and @Installed='true' and count(sm:Feature) = 0">     

      <xsl:element name="Feature" namespace="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sdm/Windows/ServerManager/Configuration/2007/1">

        <xsl:attribute name="Id">

          <xsl:value-of select="@Id"/>

        </xsl:attribute>

      </xsl:element>

    </xsl:if>

    <xsl:apply-templates/>

  </xsl:template>

 

</xsl:stylesheet>

 

Appendix B: Remove.xsl

 

<xsl:stylesheet

xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"

xmlns:sm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sdm/Windows/ServerManager/Configuration/2007/1"

version="1.0">

 

  <!-- Transform to xml that can be used to uninstall all roles, role services, and features that were not discovered as installed in the output query. -->

  <xsl:template match="/">

    <xsl:apply-templates/>

  </xsl:template>

 

  <xsl:template match="sm:ServerManagerConfigurationQuery">

    <xsl:element name="ServerManagerConfiguration" namespace="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sdm/Windows/ServerManager/Configuration/2007/1">

      <xsl:attribute name="Action">Remove</xsl:attribute>

      <xsl:apply-templates/>

    </xsl:element>

  </xsl:template>

 

  <xsl:template match="sm:Role">

    <xsl:if test="@Id and @Installed='false'">

      <xsl:element name="Role" namespace="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sdm/Windows/ServerManager/Configuration/2007/1">

        <xsl:attribute name="Id">

          <xsl:value-of select="@Id"/>

        </xsl:attribute>

      </xsl:element>

    </xsl:if>

    <xsl:if test="not(@Id) or @Installed='true'">

      <xsl:apply-templates/>

    </xsl:if>

  </xsl:template>

 

  <xsl:template match="sm:RoleService">

    <xsl:if test="@Id and @Installed='false'">

      <xsl:element name="RoleService" namespace="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sdm/Windows/ServerManager/Configuration/2007/1">

        <xsl:attribute name="Id">

          <xsl:value-of select="@Id"/>

        </xsl:attribute>

      </xsl:element>

    </xsl:if>

    <xsl:if test="not(@Id) or @Installed='true'">

      <xsl:apply-templates/>

    </xsl:if>

  </xsl:template>

 

  <xsl:template match="sm:Feature">

    <xsl:if test="@Id and @Installed='false'">

      <xsl:element name="Feature" namespace="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sdm/Windows/ServerManager/Configuration/2007/1">

        <xsl:attribute name="Id">

          <xsl:value-of select="@Id"/>

        </xsl:attribute>

      </xsl:element>

    </xsl:if>

    <xsl:if test="not(@Id) or @Installed='true'">

      <xsl:apply-templates/>

    </xsl:if>

  </xsl:template>

 

</xsl:stylesheet>

 

Appendix C: View.xsl

 

<xsl:stylesheet

xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"

xmlns:sm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sdm/Windows/ServerManager/Configuration/2007/1"

xmlns:html="html"

version="1.0">

 

  <!-- Display the roles, role services, and features that are available for install.

  Default role services and subfeatures will be in bold. -->

 

  <xsl:output method="html"/>

 

  <xsl:template match="/">

    <xsl:apply-templates/>

  </xsl:template>

 

  <xsl:template match="sm:ServerManagerConfigurationQuery">

    <html:html>

      <body>

        <h2>Server Roles and Features</h2>

        <xsl:apply-templates/>

      </body>

    </html:html>

  </xsl:template>

 

  <xsl:template match="sm:Role">

    <xsl:if test="@Installed='true'">

      <B>

        <Font color="#00AA00">

          <xsl:value-of select="@DisplayName"/>

        </Font>

      </B>

    </xsl:if>

    <xsl:if test="@Installed='false'">

      <xsl:value-of select="@DisplayName"/>

    </xsl:if>

    <UL>

      <xsl:apply-templates/>

    </UL>

  </xsl:template>

 

  <xsl:template match="sm:RoleService">

    <xsl:if test="@Installed='true'">

      <B>

        <Font color="#00AA00">

          <xsl:value-of select="@DisplayName"/>

        </Font>

      </B>

    </xsl:if>

    <xsl:if test="@Installed='false'">

      <xsl:value-of select="@DisplayName"/>

    </xsl:if>

    <BR/>

    <UL>

      <xsl:apply-templates/>

    </UL>

  </xsl:template>

 

  <xsl:template match="sm:Feature">

    <xsl:if test="@Installed='true'">

      <B>

        <Font color="#00AA00">

          <xsl:value-of select="@DisplayName"/>

        </Font>

      </B>

    </xsl:if>

    <xsl:if test="@Installed='false'">

      <xsl:value-of select="@DisplayName"/>

    </xsl:if>

    <BR/>

    <UL>

      <xsl:apply-templates />

    </UL>

  </xsl:template>

 

</xsl:stylesheet>

 

Lots of movement within the virtualization industry this week.  From  monitoring the chatter, I’m reminded again of the dynamic nature of this market, and the significant opportunities for customers to gain cost savings and IT gains from incorporating the technology into their business. I  foudn  Larry Orecklin’s blog posting this morning offered a for a look at how Microsoft is preparing customers to take advantage of virtualization from the desktop through to their datacenter.  CNET also posted a well rounded look at the market that I found interesting.

Also, if you are interested in Virtualization, I'd sign up for the Virtualization Team Blog-

 http://blogs.technet.com/virtualization/  my colleague Jeff Woolsey is a regular  there and he's one of the many contributors to the blog.

Happy reading.

Helene

Things have been a little quiet around here since we released Windows Server 2008 Beta 3 (over 250,000 downloads so far and counting!), so I wanted to take this chance to let you know about something that you'll soon be able to take advantage of in Windows Server 2008. The DFS Namespaces team has let me know that they are adding support for domain-based namespaces that exceed the previous size recommendation of 5,000 folders with targets in a namespace. Starting in Windows Server 2008, you will be able to use the DFS Management snap-in to create a new domain-based namespace in one of the following modes:

• Windows 2000 Server mode provides the same functionality and scalability currently available in namespaces hosted on servers running Windows 2000 Server or Windows Server 2003.
• Windows Server 2008 mode provides increased scalability and support for access-based enumeration, which will be configurable using Dfsutil. There are now no hard limits to the size of the namespace – however, we are currently running performance tests to determine guidelines for sizing these new domain-based namespaces for practical performance considerations.

To create a domain-based namespace in Windows Server 2008 mode, your servers and domain will need to meet the following requirements:

• The domain functional level must be Windows Server 2008
• All servers hosting the namespace must run Windows Server 2008

Stand-alone namespaces will also benefit from the underlying DFS Namespaces changes made in Windows Server 2008, allowing stand-alone namespaces hosted on servers running Windows Server 2008 to support access-based enumeration.

Pretty cool, no? Stay tuned for more feature update news as we get ready for our next big milestone release :-)

David.