Microsoft Training Blog

Windows Server Training: Upgrading to Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1

Many of our Windows Server Training students at QuickStart have questions about the improvements to the Windows Server 2008 operating system with the latest release.  Among them Hyper-V and virtualization got many improvements in the R2 release.  For those of you interested in further Windows Server Training, here is a brief list of some of the important improvements to Hyper-V and virtualization:

• Live Migration. With Hyper-V version 1.0, Windows Server 2008 was capable of Quick Migration, which could move Virtual Machines (VMs) between physical hosts with only a few seconds of down-time. Still, those few seconds were enough to cause difficulties in certain scenarios, especially those including client connections to VM-hosted servers. With Live Migration, moves between physical targets happen in milliseconds, which means migration operations become invisible to connected users.
• Live Migration leverages Windows Clustering Services and the Cluster Shared Volumes technology to transfer VMs in milliseconds. That means no dropped connections and a much more dynamic data center management environment. We’ve also added Live Migration features to System Center Virtual Machine Manager, including the ability to perform migrations based on policy.
• Dynamic Memory. Dynamic Memory enables customers to better utilize the memory resources of Hyper-V hosts by balancing how memory is distributed between running virtual machines. The benefits of Dynamic Memory include higher virtual machine consolidation ratios and increased flexibility for managing virtualized workloads.
• System Center Virtual Machine Manager for Hyper-V will also enjoy additional management and orchestration scenarios, including a new VM-oriented Performance and Resource Optimization feature and updated support for managing failover clusters.
• Hyper-V also has core performance enhancements, including the previously mentioned ability to take advantage of up to 64 logical processors and to beef up that CPU performance with host support for Second Level Translation (SLAT). Finally, VMs can also add and remove storage without requiring a reboot and also boot from VHD as well.
• Data centers have gone virtual with a speed that’s surprised even the experts. But although the technology’s potential is easily realized, tools to effectively manage large pools of virtualized resources have been slower to emerge. Windows Server 2008 R2 helps fill that void with a slick update to Hyper-V™.
• The new Hyper-V™ sports numerous improvements over the old, including support for both 32- and 64-bit VMs, larger memory support (up to 64GB per VM), pass through disk access, and new hardware sharing architectures for resources like disk, networking, and video. But Hyper-V™ hasn’t left managers out in the cold—it includes new consoles for Live Migration and high-availability clusters, support for WMI management extensibility, and day-to-day tools to make life easier such as Virtual Machine snapshots. And last (but definitely not least), Hyper-V™ also sports a host of new support from PowerShell 2.0 with a slew of new dedicated cmdlets.
• Windows Server 2008 R2 Remote Desktop Services extends the functionality of Session Virtualization from delivering session-based desktops and applications to also enabling the delivery of virtual desktops in a virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI). With Remote Desktop Services, both virtual and session-based desktops and applications are now available on the Windows 7 Start menu right alongside programs that are installed locally.
• The Hyper-V server virtualization feature is only half of the virtualization message in Windows Server 2008 R2 with SP1. Desktop and application management has always been a troublesome task because of the distributed nature of its targets. With Windows Server 2008 R2 with SP1, however, Microsoft presents a centralized solution to many of these difficulties via Remote Desktop Services.
• The new Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) in Windows Server 2008 R2 figures largely in this vision, and builds on the solid presentation virtualization foundation we built into Windows Server 2008’s Terminal Services. With the advent of Window Server 2008 R2, the Remote Desktop Services functionality expanded to include a Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI); VDI is a centralized desktop delivery architecture that allows customers to centralize the storage, execution, and management of a virtualized Windows® desktop in the data center. This capability gives desktop and application administrators a whole new toolkit for better enablement of flexible work scenarios, including work-from-home and hot-desking as well as increased data security, compliance, and more efficient management of the desktop operating system and applications.
• With the addition of Microsoft RemoteFX in Windows Server 2008 R2 with SP1, flexibility and end user experience for VDI and session virtualization improve significantly to include support for rich media and a broad range of access devices, increasing end user productivity in a remote desktop environment.

And these are only some of improvements via Windows 2008 R2 SP1.  There are many more improvements throughout the operating system.   Powershell improvements, Server manager enhancements, better security among many other improvements to the operating system with R2 SP1… all the more reason to upgrade to 2008 R2 SP1.  As Microsoft continues to make improvements to their operating systems, it is important to stay current with Windows Server Training; from the latest release features to system nuances, at QuickStart we develop curriculum to keep our students up to date with the very latest in Windows Server Training.

Interested in more tips and updates on Windows Server Training and system releases? Check out some of our other blog posts.

Pat Utley, QuickStart Intelligence, MCITP, MCSE, MCT