Randy Muller

Windows Server 2012 Features: Server Manager and Groups, ReFS, and Storage Spaces

March 4, 2013 Randy Muller Cisco, Cloudera, Featured, Professional Development, Project Management, Routing & Switching, Technology, Training in Business

The Server Manager in Windows Server 2012 has been redesigned, received a new interface, and has new and increased functionality. With Server Manager, you can easily manage multiple remote servers. Using Windows Server 2012 Server Manager, you can remotely provision roles and features quickly on a server from a central computer. You can use the new Server Manager dashboard to view, install, and remove server roles and server groups (or you can use PowerShell Install-WindowsFeature or Remove-WindowsFeature. Prior to this you had to either use a Remote Desktop Connection or physically access the computer to provision new roles. You can also install the Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT) for Windows 8 and use a Windows 8 computer to manage Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2008, and even Windows Server 2003.

Windows Server 2012 Features: Remote Access, Core Server, and New Roles

February 25, 2013 Randy Muller Cisco, Cloudera, Featured, Professional Development, Project Management, Routing & Switching, Technology, Training in Business

New in Windows Server 2012 is the Unified Remote Access (URA) role. In Windows Server 2008 R2, DirectAccess and Routing and Remote Access Service (RRAS) were two separate roles. In fact, they could not be co-located on the same server. In Windows Server 2012, DirectAccess and RRAS can be co-located, allowing for what is now legacy remote access VPN client connectivity (L2TP/IPsec, PPTP, and SSTP). This means that the Unified Remote Access provides DirectAccess, Remote Access VPN, and site-to-site VPN and can now serve as your complete remote access solution.

Windows Server 2012 Features: SMB and DAC

February 18, 2013 Randy Muller Cisco, Cloudera, Featured, Professional Development, Project Management, Routing & Switching, Technology, Training in Business

New to Server 2012 is the Server Message Block (SMB) 3.0 protocol. The SMB 3.0 protocol provides access to files, printers, and serial ports, as well as handling the transfer of files between different systems. SMB is not backwards-compatible – the best performance obtained is between Windows Server 2012 servers or with Windows 8. One great feature of SMB is when using it with clustering and replication. Clustering in Widows Server 2012 can now be done with SMB which means you no longer have to use a Storage-area Network (SAN).

Windows Server 2012 Features: Hyper-V Replicas and Live Migration

February 11, 2013 Randy Muller Cisco, Cloudera, Featured, Professional Development, Project Management, Routing & Switching, Technology, Training in Business

Hyper-V Replica provides asynchronous replication of virtual machines (VMs) from a Hyper-V host or cluster to a remote Hyper-V host or cluster to provide business continuity and fail-over recovery. This new, built-in feature tracks write operations on the source Host or cluster and replicates them to the destination host or cluster so that both VMs are in constant lockstep. If the local VM fails (or if an administrator manually fails-over) the remote replica assumes its place. All of this happens without having any specialized storage or networking hardware requirements.

Windows Server 2012 Features: PowerShell 3.0 and Hyper-V

February 4, 2013 Randy Muller Cisco, Cloudera, Featured, Professional Development, Project Management, Routing & Switching, Technology, Training in Business

The latest, and perhaps the most significant, version of Windows Server was released in September 2012. What makes this release so significant is not just the new interface and default installation, but the enhanced Windows PowerShell, support for new hardware (which means increased performance, reliability, scalability, security, and storage options). The new virtualization enhancements have greatly increased not only the scalability of Hyper-V but performance and enterprise adoptability as well. In short, Windows Server 2012 helps you transform your IT operations to reduce costs and deliver a whole new level of business value has hundreds of new features and enhancements spanning networking, storage, user experience, cloud computing, and more. This six part series will look at twelve fantastic features of Windows Server 2012.