Configuring roles using Windows Server 2008 Server Manager

Overview:

The difference between roles and functions

What can I do with Server Manager

Using wizards

Managing roles and features from the command line

One of the themes that runs through Windows Server 2008 is simplicity. This does not mean removing some functionality unnecessarily. Instead, this is a strategy to simplify and clarify roles and tools so that you can install only what you need, and not install anything extra. Server Manager

is an important part of this concept in Windows server®2008.

It contains two things. The first is the most important concept of server roles and functionality, which are building blocks of Windows Server 2008. The second is the Server Manager tool itself. This tool will not only replace the multiple tools used in Windows Server 2003, but also introduce multiple features in one place, making it easier and easier for busy administrators like you to do more work.

Roles and Features

If you have read articles about Windows Server 2008, you will most likely encounter some terms that you have not heard in the Windows® context, such as workload and roles. First I'll explain what these terms mean for IT pros.

At the beginning of the Windows Server 2008 development cycle, we spent a lot of time trying to understand how users use our server products. (By the way, this effort is still continuing.) In general, we find that people deploy our servers in general to do certain things. This may not sound like hard to understand, but for some of us, it would be amazing to learn that people don't make the server they're buying work for. More importantly, they do not deploy servers to accomplish a large number of tasks. Instead, they want a server to perform only specific tasks. There are, of course, some exceptions, but in most cases a server is provisioned to perform certain functions.

For these experiences, we classify "specific things" into broad categories called workloads. For example, there is a database workload and an application server workload. Because the workload is extensive and sometimes ambiguous, we create subcategories in the workload and call them roles. A role is a single, very specific thing that the server needs to do. Think about how you (and the users in your organization) refer to servers on your network. If you are like most users, you might consider them as file servers, domain controllers, print servers, WEB servers, and so on. Because people are always used to looking at servers like this, Windows Server 2008 uses the same approach to handle roles.

In general, Windows Server 2008 includes three main categories of roles: Identity and access management (roles as part of Active Directory®), infrastructure (including file servers, print servers, DNS, and so on), and applications such as Web Server roles and Terminal Services).

Windows Server 2008 is accompanied by approximately 17 server roles, such as Active Directory Certificate Services, network policy and access services, and Windows Server virtualization. Other additional roles (the streaming media service role) are likely to be available by downloading.

Each role needs to be described in detail. Some of the roles have been discussed in detail in this issue of TechNet magazine, some of which have already been talked about and some are about to be launched. Start with the information in technet2.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/servermanager/default.mspx and explore each role individually.

When you start deploying Windows Server 2008, you need to choose which roles to install on each server. This role-based deployment is a very important concept that focuses on how to effectively use Windows Server 2008 and how to make deployment of resources more flexible.

The role list does not include content such as "Bitlockertm Drive Encryption" and "Network Load Balancing" (NLB). This is because these are functional, though very exciting, but they are not the real reason for users to buy the system. In contrast, a role is a task that needs to be performed after the system is purchased. For example, a user will not buy a server just to implement load balancing. However, they buy servers to provide Web services. In addition, although NLB may be an essential aspect of a purpose (such as a WEB server), it is not intended for server existence.

Instead of installing all the features of the server and activating it, the administrator chooses the features that need to be installed. (The list of features that Windows Server 2008 contains is shown in Figure 1.) Because it contains only the roles and features that are required, stability and security are improved. You no longer have to consider the resources that are consumed by roles or features that are not installed. You do not have to consider troubleshooting or security settings for features or roles that are not installed.