One of our services MS Server Administration
At Unified Technologies, we can implement, configure and manage a Windows Server 2008 infrastructure or desktops and devices within your organisation. Its features can translate to a more secure, efficient, and stable network.
Windows Server 2008 Features: Active Directory: i) Restartable Active Directory Domain Services (RADDS) Essentially, this increases uptime for a domain controller and it’s installed services. Currently, when security patches must be applied, offline defragmentation or authoritive restores must be performed, the entire server has to be rebooted. This equates to significant downtime for ALL the services provided by the server. If this was a heavily used server, such as a file server, a lot of users would end up calling the IT department. This feature therefore Increases Uptime, Simplified restoration of Active Directory objects.
ii) Read-Only Domain Controller (RODC) In Windows Server 2008, there are multi-master domain controllers AND read-only domain controllers. Multi-master replication is useful for Fault Tolerance and Management Simplicity. On the other hand, a Read Only Domain Controller would allow for increased security since the LDAP database can not be tampered with. This Feature is most useful for medium/large businesses with multiple locations.
OS Enhancements i) NTFS Self-Healing As with previous operating systems, when a file on the NTFS file system becomes corrupt, there’s no way to know unless you a) run chkdisk b) try to open the file. Of course, if you periodically run chkdsk to detect corruptions or try to open a corrupt file, you would have to reboot your server to fix it. This is not the case with Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008. In 95% of the cases, it will automatically detect a corruption in your OS. This Feature translates to Higher Uptime, enabling Important Data to be Recovered.
ii) Server-Core Server-Core can provide the following roles: Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS), Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services (AD LDS), DHCP Server, DNS Server, File Services, Print Services, Streaming Media Services, Internet Information Services (IIS), Windows Virtualization. This Feature equates to Increased Security and Performance Gains, and Ease of Deployment due to Low Footprint. It is most useful for medium/large businesses with multiple locations.
iii) Terminal Services Gateway (TS Gateway) A TS Gateway securely proxies applications running the RDP protocol (Remote Desktop, Remote Applications, etc..) through SSL encryption. This negates the typical firewall configurations necessary to allow VPN tunnels to be created. This Feature allows you to access your servers and workstations from anywhere.This is most useful for businesses running Terminal Services or those with lots of servers.
iv) Terminal Services Remote Application (TS Remote Application) Aligned with their virtual application technology, TS Remote Application uses the RDP protocol to allow users access to specific applications stored on a server. Instead of using more computing resources than necessary and providing access to an entire Desktop, users can now be limited only to the capabilities of the application. Moreover, Advance connection policies can be set in place to maintain compliance with security policies set within the company. This Feature allows for Granular access to applications, secure access to network resources, improved capacity and performance for Terminal Services applications. It is most useful for businesses running Terminal Services or those with lots of servers.
v) Windows Deployment Services (WDS) This service allows is the needed replacement for Remote Installation Services (RIS). Windows Deployment Services enables you to deploy Windows operating systems, particularly Windows Vista, using images and PXE booting. This Feature facilitates the setup of new Microsoft workstations in a quick in an automated manner. It is most useful for new businesses or ones that are growing in the near future.
vi) Hyper-V Hyper-V is a hypervisor-based virtualization technology that allows servers to run multiple instances of Microsoft and certain Linux distributions. What is sometimes overlooked when it comes to virtualization is the ease and consistency in obtaining a solid backup and recovery of files using snapshoting technologies. Additionally, the management of these virtual servers are simplified since there is only one platform to work off of. This Feature equates to increased efficiency of resources, increased stability, reduction in cost for new server deployments, High availability, increased security. From consolidation to saving on energy costs, virtualization is beneficial for all businesses.