Windows Server 2012 and Its Hardware Requirements

Transcription

1 CAN MICROSOFT MAP THE FUTURE OF IT? Windows Server 2012 and Its Hardware Requirements Windows Server 2012 is earning rave reviews, and businesses of all sizes are giving the new release a close look. Before you make the switch, be sure your hardware can handle and make the most effective use of all that Windows Server has to offer. BY SERDAR YEGULALP

2 CAN MICROSOFT MAP THE FUTURE OF IT? With Windows Server 2012, Microsoft is targeting a whole range of customers: the small-business owner, the IT planner for major enterprises, the cloud infrastructure architect and the creator of line-of-business applications. All these potential customers face tough decisions about whether to upgrade to Windows Server 2012 or, once they ve established that they will, which edition to purchase. Here we ll look at the value of an upgrade and the challenges you may face along the way to adoption. Woven into every aspect of the evaluation and planning process for a Windows Server upgrade is the importance of hardware. An organization needs to carefully consider how existing hardware will or won t allow it to move forward with a Windows Server upgrade and whether new hardware purchases are necessary to take advantage of enhanced features such as the capability to run more virtual machines (VMs) per host. And, as we will discuss, Windows Server 2012 may perform well with existing hardware; in other cases, hardware upgrades will be unavoidable. 2 WINDOWS AND ITS HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS

3 ? AND WHICH ONE? For many organizations with an existing investment in Windows Server, an upgrade to the newest version isn t an automatic decision. Microsoft tries to make each iteration of the OS a worthy upgrade for all customer segments by adding value on multiple levels. k Virtualization. Some of the most likely candidates for an upgrade to Windows Server 2012 are those using Windows Server as a container for virtualized systems or as a virtualized OS itself. Many new features involve making virtualization easier to work with, as well as giving it an edge over third-party offerings. Windows Server 2012 also makes it possible to use more physical resources up to 4 TB of RAM and 320 CPU cores as part of that mission. Note that virtualization can make use only of what you already have, so a hardware upgrade may be required to fully benefit from virtualizing hardware. For instance, if you have a singlesocket system with four cores and eight threads, you could run two to four VMs on such a system and not encounter too many problems. But if you wanted to run more VMs Many new features involve making virtualization easier to work with, as well as giving it an edge over thirdparty offerings. than you had available threads, then new hardware would be in order. (The Microsoft Virtualization Blog discusses how many VMs you can expect to run with a given configuration.) k Users of native and hybrid cloud technologies. Windows Server 2012 is meant not only to connect to cloud services (e.g., Microsoft Online Backup for server protection), but also to serve via its higher-end SKUs as a way to build clouds for public and private use. Again, making the most of such features may require purchasing more hardware than you already have, depending on your ambitions. k Customers that can be satisfied by one of four basic SKUs. A common complaint with Microsoft, and especially with Windows Server, is how the multiple editions 3 WINDOWS AND ITS HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS

4 of the product (there are six for Windows Server 2008 alone) led to confusion about which version to buy. Microsoft has since cut the number of SKUs to four: k Foundation. Presented as a general-purpose server, this edition has a built-in limit of 15 users and is sold through original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) for newly built server hardware. This makes it a good choice for a single in-house server with very modest needs and as little as one hard drive. k Essentials. As the successor to the Windows Small Business Server SKU, this edition is limited to 25 user accounts and has built-in connectivity to Microsoft s cloud-hosted and backup services. This makes it suitable for an in-house server with more robust needs, sporting multiple drives (but not necessarily in a RAID array, although Essentials will support such an arrangement). Most Windows Server 2012 purchasing will involve the Standard SKU. k Standard. This is the more basic of the unfettered editions of Windows Server 2012, which can be run in a virtualized environment or perform virtualization itself. This is the best starting point for organizations that want to use Windows Server as a building block for infrastructure (e.g., Web and application servers) rather than merely file, print and credentials services. It s also useful in systems with major storage considerations (one or more RAID arrays, storage area networks or network-attached storage, and so on). Most Windows Server 2012 purchasing will involve the Standard SKU. k Datacenter. As the high-end edition of Windows Server 2012, this edition can run in an unlimited number of virtual instances and create sophisticated cloud environments on multiple-socket hardware. It s for organizations that want the most freedom in using Windows Server as an infrastructure element. Getting the most out of Datacenter requires hardware that can make the most of it, so upgrading to it typically involves a concomitant hardware upgrade. A key differentiator between the SKUs is deployment types. Foundation and Essentials are per-server products that do not support being virtualized, which 4 WINDOWS AND ITS HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS

5 makes them the most economical choice for single-instance servers with little expectation of growth. The Standard and Datacenter editions are licensed per processor and per user, making them better candidates for growth scenarios or multi-server clouds. As you consider an upgrade or a migration to Windows Server, the most critical issues are typically practical ones: whether your existing hardware will work well with the new OS or how the new Windows Server will fare when run alongside earlier versions. k Hardware compatibility. The basic hardware requirements for Windows Server are surprisingly low. You can get away with as little as 512 MB of RAM and 32 GB of hard disk space. It s therefore tempting to say, If it ran the previous version of Windows Server, it ll run this one. That conclusion leaves out the entire question of what the server is actually doing. A server with 512 MB of RAM might work as a file- and printer- sharing box, but not much else. The first key issue with Windows Server 2012 hardware support is whether you re running virtualization on the system in question. If you re upgrading an existing Windows Server system and are not planning to use virtualization or run CPU-intensive tasks (such as databases), anything above a 1.4 GHz processor is acceptable. Any system being used for virtualization As a rule of thumb, consider that the more cores and the more memory, the better you ll fare. should be recent and robust, meaning it s new enough that it supports Second Level Address Translation (SLAT), which is crucial for virtualization, while also being capable of devoting at least one core (not thread) per virtual machine to run with two to four cores for the system itself. As a rule of thumb, consider that the more cores and the more memory, the better you ll fare. Look into the cost of upgrading your current systems to support the needed level of virtualization vs. an entirely new system, to see which would be most 5 WINDOWS AND ITS HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS

6 cost-effective for present and future use. Microsoft has consolidated all its server products from Windows Server through Exchange and SQL Server on 64-bit platforms. At this point, few people are expected to be using 32-bit hardware in a production scenario. Also, with commodity x64 hardware (e.g., the Xeon chipset) eclipsing the more specialized Itanium processor in the marketplace, Microsoft has dropped support entirely for Itanium in Windows Server Existing Itanium systems shouldn t be considered upgrade candidates. Likewise, using 32-bit x86 systems is entirely out of the question. Finally, in the case of the Foundation SKU, note that the software is tied to the hardware either sold with it pre-loaded or sold only on the condition that it be deployed with a specific set of newly assembled hardware. It cannot be transferred to a replacement server. k Interoperability. Whenever they confront a Windows Server upgrade, admins are concerned about cross-compatibility with features in other versions of Windows Server. With clustering, for instance, you can t run a cluster that has a mix of Windows Server 2012 and an earlier version of Windows Server. On the other hand, Server Message Block (SMB)-based file shares to or from earlier versions of Windows Server should continue to work. Be aware, however, that some SMB 3.0 Existing Itanium systems shouldn t be considered upgrade candidates. Likewise, using 32-bit x86 systems is entirely out of the question. features specific to Windows Server 2012 (e.g., transparent failover, multichannel, scale-out) will work only with machines that can support them. k Deprecated features. With new features rolled out in any version of Windows Server, many are also being deprecated or removed entirely. These may create problems for legacy applications that are being redeployed on the new server or that run on other servers and assume the presence of those missing features on the new ones. 6 WINDOWS AND ITS HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS

7 k Limitations of the chosen product s SKU. Another key factor in selecting a server product, especially a specific Windows Server SKU, is whether your chosen edition of the product has needed room for future expansion. The lower and less expensive SKUs (Foundation and Essentials) are less receptive to having their functionality expanded than are the higher ones (Standard and Datacenter), so with the former, there s a bigger risk of outgrowing a chosen platform. OF WINDOWS SERVER The slew of new features in Windows Server 2012 complement most common use cases for the product, but what s most important is larger use cases the stuff important to every modern data center and standalone server. In particular, the improved features bolster an organization s ability to handle virtualization, management and storage. k Virtualization. The native Hyper-V technology, a major cornerstone of Windows Server, has been revised to keep it competitive with rivals such as VMware. It s now easier to migrate storage and live machines, meter resource use, replicate VMs between data centers and virtualize the use of NUMA or Fibre Channel in guests. Windows Server 2012 also allows greater density of consolidation for VMs via better memory management, so that more VMs (especially those with low usage loads) can be run in less RAM. This may allow you to scale back your hardware estimates slightly if you are considering purchasing entirely new servers. k Management and automation. Another selling point for Windows Server has been the gamut of time- and labor-saving features. The PowerShell scripting language is designed to remove the tedium from multistep processes and to provide quick access to buried information. The Server Manager console introduced in Windows Server 2012, meanwhile, allows admins to automate processes and provide command-line users with comfortable work environments. k Storage management. Several significant new features in Windows Server 2012 involve the management of storage volumes. One is storage spaces, which allows the provisioning of drives into elastic storage pools, something that could potentially provide better performance, fault tolerance, inter-system compatibil- 7 WINDOWS AND ITS HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS

8 ity and manageability than what s seen in hardware-level RAID. Also included is ReFS, an NTFS-successor volume format with greatly improved fault tolerance. Bear in mind, though, that ReFS is designed mainly for data and not boot volumes. Deduplication might well eclipse the functionality in other hardware or software in your organization depending on how it s implemented. That said, its implementation in Windows Server 2012 isn t a magic-bullet solution to wasted storage space. Its effectiveness varies widely depending on the type of data being stored (with VMs, it is quite effective; in Exchange databases, far less so). Depending on the usage scenario, deduplication and storage spaces may allow you to save money on purchasing storage. Most of the mistakes made when transitioning to Windows Server 2012 can be avoided with careful research and planning. It ought to go without saying that new features should be tested in nonproduction scenarios first, but there are other things to keep in mind. k Obtaining the wrong SKU of the product. If you aren t careful, you might buy too much and too little. The Foundation and Essentials editions of Windows Server 2012 have deliberately limited feature sets, but are less expensive and licensed only by processor. The Standard and Datacenter editions are licensed by both processors and number of accessing users, but this may be the wrong pricing model for your needs. Those with Software Assurance subscriptions for previous editions of Windows Server can transition to equivalent products in the new SKUs, but decision makers need to be careful that in doing so they are also not over- or under-buying. k Inadvertently violating product licensing. The most consistent complaint about Microsoft products the licensing restrictions can manifest itself unexpectedly if you re not careful with how the product is deployed. Most of these violations turn out to be more nuisances than anything else (e.g., the server shutting itself down within three days if a violation of user licensing is detected). But they do need to be heeded, and that requires an admin being aware of these issues. 8 WINDOWS AND ITS HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS

9 k The Windows 8/Modern UI interface. Windows Server 2012 now uses Microsoft s new user interface, sometimes called the Modern UI, which is the subject of considerable controversy in Windows 8. Not surprisingly, the new look doesn t appeal to many longtime Windows Server admins. On the one hand, it does make the Start screen that much more configurable as an at-a-glance dashboard, which is useful in a server environment. Even so, it s jarring and distracting to those used to the classic desktop. What s worse, there s no built-in way to disable it. That means admins need to use third-party technologies or homegrown fixes to put the legacy desktop back in the spotlight. If your organization is considering a Windows Server 2012 addition or upgrade, there are other concerns worth factoring into your preparations. If you deploy Windows Server 2012, bear in mind that only Windows Server 2008 systems can be upgraded in place (that is, by installing the new OS on top of the old). Older editions of Windows Server must be upgraded by installing the OS entirely anew and migrating any needed functionality. Frankly, any editions of Windows Server older than 2008 may be running on hardware that won t be able to make the best use of Windows Server 2012 s feature set specifically, virtualization and so those systems might well need to be replaced entirely. Also, the different SKUs of Windows Server 2008 have varying upgrade paths to Windows Server 2012; not all versions can be upgraded from or to other versions. Finally, you don t have to spend money on a license if you want to evaluate Windows Server 2012 in a nonproduction setting. The Standard, Datacenter and Essentials editions of the product can be run for 180 days in an evaluation setting, are fully functional except for the ability to boot to Safe Mode, and can be converted in-place to their full retail counterparts once you purchase a suitable license key and activate the product. This is also a useful way to test if Windows Server 2012 can perform adequately on the hardware you have in mind for the deployment, and whether bigger iron is needed to complement your ambitions. n 9 WINDOWS AND ITS HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS

10 ABOUT THE AUTHOR SERDAR YEGULALP has been writing about computers and information technology for more than 15 years for a variety of publications, including InformationWeek and Windows Magazine. Check out his blog at GenjiPress.com. Can Microsoft Map IT s Future? is a SearchWindowsServer.com e-publication. Margie Semilof Editorial Director Lauren Horwitz Executive Editor Phil Sweeney Managing Editor Eugene Demaitre Associate Managing Editor Laura Aberle Associate Features Editor Linda Koury Director of Online Design Neva Maniscalco Graphic Designer Rebecca Kitchens Publisher rkitchens@techtarget.com TechTarget 275 Grove Street, Newton, MA TechTarget Inc. No part of this publication may be transmitted or reproduced in any form or by any means without written permission from the publisher. TechTarget reprints are available through The YGS Group. About TechTarget: TechTarget publishes media for information technology professionals. More than 100 focused websites enable quick access to a deep store of news, advice and analysis about the technologies, products and processes crucial to your job. Our live and virtual events give you direct access to independent expert commentary and advice. At IT Knowledge Exchange, our social community, you can get advice and share solutions with peers and experts. 10 WINDOWS AND ITS HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS