Windows Server Division WebLog

Lots of activities around the upcoming Small Business Server 2008 and Essential Business Server 2008 here in Houston at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference. On top of the many keynotes, sessions and demonstrations to help partners prepare for the Read More...

Microsoft published a Security Advisory today providing information for developers and Web administrators on ways in which they can mitigate and prevent SQL injection attacks . As you might have seen, there was a spate of such attacks in late April and Read More...

Customers tell us that energy-efficient computing is a top priority for them as they look to control energy costs and reduce their impact on the environment. With Windows Server 2008 we feel we have some very compelling technologies such as Server Virtualization Read More...

After extensive development and private evaluation, I’m pleased to announce that a public preview of Windows Small Business Server 2008 RC0 is now available. Windows SBS 2008 is the next major release in the Windows Small Business Server product family, Read More...

We've blogged about the use of Windows Server within branch offices several times here and here. Many of them kicked off with the introduction of Windows Server 2003 R2. Today Citrix announced Branch Repeater, which they say is a new line of branch office appliances. Here's a description I received from Citrix: Citrix Branch Repeater debuts with the ability to stage, cache, or pre-position content at the branch using technologies such as Microsoft Windows file services and Microsoft Distributed File System (DFS). These technologies allow Citrix Branch Repeater to pre-position XenApp “Portable Application” installation files for rapid update and delivery to branch employees. The Citrix Branch Repeater also uses Microsoft ISA Server 2006 Web caching to accelerate delivery of web content to the branch. But the repeater goes much further. It can accelerate all TCP-based network traffic to and from the branch using Citrix WANScaler technology. And through integration with Microsoft Windows Server 2003 R2, local branch services are consolidated and delivered locally for optimal performance and availability. In essence, Citrix Branch Repeater does three things that can help you provide better services to your remote or branch offices: (1) it stages streamed apps closer to the branch-based employees by using Citrix XenApp; it consolidates Windows-based branch services; and accelerates WAN app delivery. There are three models to choose from: Citrix Branch Repeater 100 - 1 Mbit appliance, $5,500 list Citrix Branch Repeater 200 - 2 Mbit, $7,500 list Citrix Branch Repeater 300 - 10 Mbit, $11,500 list Patrick Read More...

Good news. Today we opened up the Public Preview for Windows Essential Server Solutions - Small Business Server 2008 and Essential Business Server 2008 . Visit here to find out how to download and evaluate the Release Candidate 0 versions of both. EBS Read More...

We announced the new Microsoft Operations Framework 4.0, and the MOF 4.0 online community. Check out Jeff's blog post over on the System Center team blog. Here's an excerpt: Read More...

What a Launch Wave it has been! I've just returned from celebrating Windows Server 2008 with many of you all over the world. It was great to hear your stories and see how Windows Server 2008 will fit into many of your organizations. For those of you who Read More...

Language Code X86 X64 Chinese - Simplified zh-CN Chinese - China Chinese - China Chinese - Hong-Kong zh-HK Chinese - Hong Kong SAR Chinese - Hong Kong SAR Chinese - Traditional zh-TW Chinese - Taiwan Chinese - Taiwan Czech cs-CZ Czech - Czech Republic Read More...

Greetings from Dallas at the SMB Summit , where 400+ channel partners are gearing up for Windows Essential Server Solutions . Small Business Server 2008 is the topic du jour, tomorrow is all about Essential Business Server 2008 for midsized companies. Read More...

Do you want to use the server core installation option of Windows Server 2008, but put off by the command-line? Well, Guy Teverovsky has what you need. He created a GUI for the GUI-less server core of WS08. Download it here. Patrick Read More...

Announcing the Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT) for Windows Vista SP1! Do you remember ADMINPAK.MSI? This has been a staple for many IT Admins for many years. RSAT is an update to ADMINPAK.MSI for the WS08 administration tools to run on Windows Read More...

I’m really pleased to say that the release candidate of Hyper-V is available for download today. You can read the announcement and Jeff’s more detailed post. This milestone is important to the hundreds of customers and partners in the early adopter programs, and those of you trialing Hyper-V on your own, because it’s feature complete, better performing than the beta, and you’ll have a better experience using it. Reports from the Hyper-V early adopter programs have matched some of the third-party reviews and first looks, with comments such as: · “External deployments have exceeded Beta coverage goals” · “External TAP deployments have increased significantly” Amongst the early adopter customers, the three most common Windows Server 2008 roles run within Hyper-V are IIS, application server and Terminal Services. The four most deployed Microsoft applications are SQL Server 2005 and 2008, Exchange Server and Forefront, while more than half of the customers are running an AV/security application, nearly 50% are running a backup appliance at this point, and around 75% of the customers are running Hyper-V with some attached storage. At the same time we’re starting to see more and more and more ISV partners announce plans to support Hyper-V. So overall we’re seeing good enterprise uptake of Hyper-V. I was in France and the Nordics two weeks ago attending launch events for Windows Server, SQL Server and Visual Studio. Lots of the attendees had already started testing the beta of Hyper-V. Several people remarked that they were impressed with early testing of the multi-site clustering capabilities for remote disaster recovery. Beyond the technical capabilities, total cost of ownership was another hot topic. Given that Hyper-V is a role within Windows Server 2008 – the beta of Hyper-V was included with Windows Server 2008 – customers attending the launch were looking forward to having these server consolidation and DR capabilities built into Windows Server 2008. I did have to remind several folks that Hyper-V will be available with three, x64 editions of Windows Server 2008 (the versions of Windows Server 2008 without Hyper-V are $28 less). And I often noted our work on cross-platform interoperability with Citrix/Xen, Novell and Sun, and that we’re opening up APIs to the community. Read More...

Lots happening in Orlando at Convergence 2008 - the Microsoft Dynamics users' conference. Steve Ballmer and vice president Kirill Tatarinov are speaking and the Dynamics team is making a number of announcements , including a partnership with EDS to extend Read More...

The team behind Windows Essential Business Server 2008 for midsized companies (part of the newly announced Windows Essential Server Solutions family and formerly known as "Centro") has launched a team blog here . Group Program Manager Eric Watson provides Read More...