Windows Server 2008 (longhorn) Review

Ok, so I finally bit the bullet and scheduled some time to sit down and take a look at Microsoft's up and coming server platform currently code-named Longhorn.  I almost exclusively use Virtual PC 2007 for this type of testing, and this was no exception.  The OS gave me no issues installing in this environment and greeted me after a few reboots with a healthy logon screen that is similar but somewhat less decorated than the Windows Vista logon screen.

There's a new configuration screen that replaces the old HTA of Windows server 2003, and genuinely provides good information and resources for getting you're new server up and running and performing the tasks you have slated for it.

Running anything in the Update This Server section will net you with 0 results, which is expected for a beta version.

The new Add Roles Wizard is very nice as well, allowing a user to choose precontrived scenarios for server usage and implement them in a wizard based format. 

To test the wizard I went ahead and installed a DHCP and DNS server - two very common tasks for a new server implementation, or migration.  Selecting roles enables the walk-through steps on the left of the window to enable.

Walking through a few steps to configure my DNS and DHCP I'm greeted with a friendly message that everything worked out ok. :)

A quick visit to the Computer management portion reveals they've included the reliability and performance monitoring section that windows vista improved upon.  I REALLY like this system, here's a limited screenshot below of the two cool sections:

The new server manager is also very nice allowing you to view in a glance, various running services, server roles, and critical components of your running environment.

My next plan is to configure and get an IIS 7 server running in my virtual environment, and provide a walk-through for those of you that want to test the new features of ASP.NET 3.0+ on IIS 7 for the full experience.