Microsoft announces four Windows Server 2012 editions

For years, as Microsoft has released new versions of Windows Server, the world has waited with anticipation while Redmond attempted to figure out the exact mix of editions that it would sell to various customer segments. This fragmentation of the Windows Server line has been the butt of jokes and the stuff of confusion as customers attempted to make the best possible economic decision for their organizations while, at the same time, making sure that their needs would be met with whatever edition was selected.

Microsoft announces four Windows Server 2012 editions

This week, Microsoft announced that Windows Server 2012 would be released in just four editions — Datacenter, Standard, Essentials, and Foundation. Note that the previously popular Enterprise edition is one of the editions that didn’t make the 2012 cut.

Each edition brings something different to the table and it’s going to be easier than ever for organizations to pick the best edition to suit its needs. Here’s a look at the four editions:

Edition	Intent	Major feature	Licensing	Clients	List price
Datacenter	Highly virtualized environments	Unlimited virtual instance rights	Processor x 2	Per CAL	$4,809 per 2 procs
Standard	Little virtualization, low density	Two virtual instances	Processor x 2	Per CAL	$882 per 2 procs
Essentials	Small business	Simple administration, no virtualization rights	Per Server	25 accounts	$425
Foundation	Entry level, economy server	General purpose server, no virtualization rights	Per Server	15 accounts	OEM only

It’s important to note that, for the Standard and Datacenter editions, the pricing is based on per two processors, not per processor. Since most servers today are dual processor servers, this licensing strategy makes sense. However, if you do decide to buy single processor servers, understand that you can’t split licenses between servers. You will need to buy two of the dual processor licenses.

On the flip side, if you have an eight processor server, you will need to buy four of the dual processor licenses to cover all eight processors.

You might note that there are no major feature columns listed as there were in older versions of Windows Server. For example, in the past, if you wanted failover clustering, you needed to go with either the Enterprise or Data Center editions of Windows Server. With Windows Server, the only difference between Standard and Datacenter revolves around virtualization rights. Otherwise, both editions have the same exact feature sets and include:

• Windows Server Failover Clustering
• BranchCache Hosted Cache Server
• Active Directory Federated Services
• Additional Active Directory Certificate Services capabilities
• Distributed File Services (support for more than 1 DFS root)
• DFS-R Cross-File Replication

Note that you still need to obtain separate licenses to take advantage of Remote Desktop Services (RDS) and Active Directory Rights Management Service (ADRMS).

You should also take note that there are no more hardware limitation differences between Standard and Datacenter. Standard is no longer limited to 32 GB of RAM, nor is it limited to 4 CPUs. Of course, if you go beyond 2 CPUs, you will need to buy additional processor licenses.

Upgrade license trade in

If you’re a Software Assurance subscriber, and you’re planning to upgrade your licenses to Windows Server 2012, you have a number of items to take into consideration. Further, if you’re concerned that you’re now running an edition of Windows Server 2008 R2 or below that no longer has a corresponding edition in Windows Server 2012, don’t worry. Microsoft has made the following entitlements available in Windows Server 2012.

Old edition	2012 Edition	Information and License Disposition	SA req’d?
Datacenter	Datacenter	Convert every two 2008 R2 DC licenses into one dual processor 2012 license.	Yes
Enterprise	Standard	Replaced by Standard with all former Enterprise features now included in Standard.  You can convert each existing 2008 R2 Enterprise license into two 2012 Standard licenses.	Yes
Standard	Standard	Convert each 2008 R2 Standard license into one 2012 Standard licenses	Yes
Web (no SA)	See notes	No direct replacement, but web workloads running on any Windows Server 2012 edition receive a “CAL waiver.”	No
Web (SA)	Standard	Those with SA are entitled to receive a Standard Edition replacement and can still run the existing workloads on the 2008 Web server.	Yes
HPC editions	Standard	No direct replacement, but Microsoft will be making freely available the HPC Pack 2012 that works with Standard or Datacenter, HPC workloads also receive a “CAL waiver.”  Existing HPC edition users will also receive a Windows Server 2012 Standard license.	Yes
Small Business Server 2011 Essentials	Essentials	Small Business Server has been fully discontinued.  You will receive one Windows Server 2012 Essentials license.	Yes
Small Business Server 2011 Standard	Standard + Exchange	Small Business Server has been fully discontinued.  You will receive one Windows Server 2012 Standard edition license and one Exchange Server Standard 2010 license.	Yes
Windows Small Business Server 2011 Premium Add-on	Standard + SQL Server	Small Business Server has been fully discontinued. You will receive one Windows Server 2012 Standard edition license and one SQL Server 2012 Standard edition license	Yes

Summary

Once the transition to Windows Server 2012 is complete, organizations will be able to simplify their Windows edition strategy in favor of far fewer options. Personally, I believe that Microsoft has taken a great step forward by simplifying their editions structures and that they are being relatively generous with regard to the opportunity for organizations to move away from now-discontinued editions to current ones.

How to Install Windows Server 2012

1. Download Windows Server 2012 -
2. Follow Step-By-Step Instructions to configure BIOS -
3. Press ENTER to boot from DVD.

Files will start loading.

4. Take the defaults on the Language screen, and click Next.

5. Click Install now on the install screen.

6. Click the second line item for the GUI. The default install is now Server Core. Then click Next.

7. Read License Agreement, Turn on Checkbox “I accept the license terms,” and then click Next.

8. Click Custom: Install Windows only (Advanced).

9. The disk you are using should be listed. If not, you will need to Load driver. Select the disk you will be installing on. If you do not want to change drive options (optional), Click Next. If you want to use Dual boot using Native Boot To VHD (Boot2VHD), see below:

10. [Optional:] Click drive options; then you can create custom partitions.

11. [Optional:] Add a drive using Native Boot To Vhd: SHIFT-F10 to open a command prompt window; Find installation drive (dir c:, dir d:, dir e:, etc). Diskpart to open the Disk Partition Utility (the first four lines below are all the same command and must run on the same line, separated here to make it easier to read).Create vdisk file=e:\BootDemo.vhd type=expandable maximum=40000. Attach disk. Exit. Then Refresh.



12. It will then start copying files. This will take a while (could be 20 mins or so depending on hardware performance).It will reboot a couple times (automatically). After the first reboot, it will no longer be running off of the DVD.

13. In the Password box, enter a new password for this computer. It must meet complexity requirements. Re-enter the password in the second password box, and then click Finish.

14. Press Ctrl-Alt-Delete at the same time to get the login screen

15. Enter password and press enter.

The Desktop will be displayed and Server Manager will be opened automatically.

16. Pressing Windows Key on the keyboard will bring up the start screen (formerly known as Start Menu). If you Right-Click on Computer, you will see the new right-click menu is on the bottom of the screen instead of in a dropdown box. Select Properties.

17. You will see that the System Properties screen looks almost identical to prior versions of windows. We can now change the computer name by clicking on Change Settings.

18. Type new computer name you would like to use and click OK.

19. Click OK on the information box. Click OK to allow a restart.

20. Then click Restart Now on the final dialog box.

21. When the computer restarts it will have the new name, just login.

The Differences between the NetBIOS Naming System and DNS

The Differences between the NetBIOS Naming System and DNS

                                                                                                      The naming system used by DNS is a hierarchical namespace, called the DNS namespace. The DNS namespace has a unique root. The root can contain numerous subdomains. Each subdomain also can contain multiple subdomains. The DNS namespace uses a logical tree structure wherein an entity is subordinate to the entity which resides over it. Each node in the DNS domain tree has a name, which is called a label. The label can be up to 63 characters. Nodes that are located on the same branch within the DNS domain tree must have different names. Nodes that reside on separate branches in the DNS hierarchy can have the same name.

Each node in the DNS domain tree or DNS hierarchy is identified by a FQDN. This is a DNS domain name that specifies the node.s location in relation to the DNS domain tree/hierarchy. A domain name can be defined as the list of labels along the path from the root of the DNS domain tree/hierarchy to a particular node. The FQDN is the entire list of labels for a specific node.

Each domain registered in DNS is connected to a DNS name server. The DNS server of a domain provides authoritative replies to queries for that particular domain.

Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) manages the DNS root of the Internet domain namespace. ICANN manages the assignment of globally unique identifiers which are key to the operation of Internet. This includes the following components:

• Internet domain names
• IP addresses
• Port numbers
• Protocol parameters

Below the root DNS domain are the top-level domains. These top-level domains are also managed by ICANN. The top-level domains managed by ICANN are:

• Organizational domains: Organizational domains have the following characteristics:
• Organizational domains can be used globally.
• They are named via a three-character code.
• The code defines the main function of the organizations of the DNS domain.
• Geographical domains: Geographical domains have the following characteristics:
• Geographical domains are usually used by organizations not residing in the United States.
• They are named via a two-character country and region codes.
• The codes were established by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 3166.
• The codes identify a country, such as .uk for the United Kingdom
• Reverse domains: These domains are used for IP address to name mappings. This is called reverse lookups.

The additional top-level domains defined by ICANN in late 2000 are:

• .aero; for the air transportation industry
• .biz; for businesses
• .coop; for cooperatives
• .info; for information
• .museum; for museums
• .name; for individual names
• .pro; for credentialed professions such as attorneys.

The common top-level domain names used are:

• .com; commercial organizations
• .edu; for educational institutes.
• .gov; for government.
• .int; for international organizations.
• .mil; for military organizations
• .net; for Internet providers, and networking organizations
• .org; non-commercial organizations
• .uk; United Kingdom
• .us; United States
• .ca; Canada
• .jp; Japan

Troubleshooting DNS Errors

Troubleshooting DNS Errors

Users may sometimes try to connect to a system by name and get a DNS error because the name did not resolve to the proper IP address. There are several causes for this:

• The DNS server is down
• IP connectivity gets lost and thus the DNS cannot resolve it
• DNS cache poisoning
• Update and zone issues
• The DNS server does not have network connectivity to the root servers

There are a number of ways to find out whether a system is resolving properly, nslookup can be used to verify name resolution. The nslookup command can be used to find various details relating to a particular DNS (Domain Name System) such as IP address, MX records, etc.

Go to the command prompt and type in nslookup host_name server_IP_address. Replace the actual host name to be resolved for host_name and the IP address of the DNS server for server_IP_address then press enter.

This allows the user to verify if an error is on the server, if there is a widespread resolution error, or if the server is possibly down. Nslookup will also display the various types of DNS records, not just primary (A) records, or all records for a domain. Users can then ping with the switch to also verify if DNS resolution is working fine.

Troubleshoot the dns client since most problems start with failed queries at the client. If a dns server provides incorrect data to queries that it successfully answers, then the most likely causes are:

• Resource records (RRs) were not dynamically updated in a zone.
• An error was made when manually adding or modifying static resource records in the zone.
• Stale resource records in the DNS server database left from cached lookups or zone records not updated with current information or removed when they were no longer needed.

If the DNS server does not resolve names for external networks, then the possible causes could be:

• The recursive query times out before it can be completed.
• A remote DNS server fails to respond.
• A remote DNS server provides incorrect data.

• DNS server recursion has been disabled.

Also troubleshoot the connectivity to the root servers. Verify that the DNS server used in a failed query can ping its root servers by IP address. If a ping attempt to one root server fails, it might indicate that an IP address for that root server has changed.