Microsoft's Windows Server 2012 has some great new features. The new
operating system is ready to move our networks towards the private
cloud, while still giving us the option to integrate the new features of Windows Server 2012 into our traditional Data Centers.
It is almost impossible to list all the new features of Windows
Server 2012. But some of the most exciting are the new and enhanced
features of Hyper-V, and File and Storage management.
Hyper-V Visualization
Here are just a few updates to whet your appetite:
Hyper-V Replicas: This allows you to replicate
virtual machines between storage systems, Clusters, and Data Centres to
provide business continuity.
Storage Migration: We can now move the virtual hard
disks used by a virtual machine to different physical storage, while
the virtual machine remains running.
Storage on SMB2 file shares: Hyper-V now supports the use of SMB2 file shares as the storage location for your virtual machines.
Virtual Machine Snapshots: Although available in
Windows 2008 we can now delete a snapshot, and make the disk space it
used available for re-use straight away. Without having to shut down the
virtual machine first.
Improved File and Storage Services
Another area that has been massively overhauled is File and Storage Services. This includes:
Data Deduplication: This allows us to save disk space by storing a single copy of identical data on the volume.
Storage Spaces and Storage Pools: These allow you to
group industry-standard disks into one or more storage pools. You can
then create virtual disks known as storage spaces. More disks can be
added to your storage pool, to make that space available without
impacting users. Instead of managing each disk individually, you add
physical disks to one or more pools and create virtual disks from the
available capacity. Virtual disks that you create can also be thinly
provisioned so if a developer asks for 1TB of space, but will only be
initially consuming 200MB, you can create a thin disk that will only use
space based on the size of files saved there.
iSCSI Target Server : With the new iSCSI target
server feature, our server can offer block storage to other servers and
applications on the network using the iSCSI standard.
Finally, a couple more areas that have been improved with new features or enhancements to existing ones:
Domain Controller Cloning
With Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) in Windows Server 2012
we can easily deploy additional domain controllers by cloning an
existing virtual domain controller. This involves creating a copy, and
authorizing the source domain controller to be cloned in AD DS. Cloning
reduces the number of steps and time involved by eliminating repetitive
deployment tasks.
Server Core
One great new feature is the ability to switch between a Server Core
install and a GUI install without the need to reinstall the operating
system. So if you have an application that is easily administered
through a GUI - but can run on Server Core - you can switch to the GUI
and perform the administration, and then switch back to Server Core.
There are many more new features to explore in the new Windows Server 2012.
A great place to research them is TechNet, where you will find all the
information you need to get started with Windows Server 2012:
To find all the information you need about the new MCSA and MCSE tracks:
