Microsoft Evaluation Guide Windows Server 2012 8 Windows ServerContents Abstract...... 6 Introduction . Cloud Optimize Your IT with Windows Server 2012.......9 Preview for Windows Server 2012 usec LB Active Directory... Automation and Management . BranchCache.uu...cecccccsssssssesssssssssssssesesnessnetetetseeeseseseeeeesssseee Cluster-Aware Updating .......eeeeeeeeeeecscesscesssssesseesesrenennnnnnnene Data Deduplication............. Datacenter Diskless Boot... Dynamic Access COmtrOl ........seseeseeeseeeseseseseseseeessesese Encrypted Hard Drive.. Failover Clustering... esses . High Availability for DHCP Server Service.. High-Performance, Highly Available File Share storage for Server Applications........... .. 63 .. 68 Hyper-V Automation Support...Hyper-V Dynamic M@MOTY wwe DL Hyper-V Network Virtualization... 13 Hyper-V Offloaded Data Transfer... 19 Hyper-V Replica... eee .. 80 Hyper-V Resource Metering. 81 Hyper-V Support for Large Sector Disks 83 Hyper-V Virtual Fibre Chane | ........:ecsecssseseseeeeeseeeeeneees 89 Hyper-V Virtual Hard Disk Format... 88 Hyper-V Virtual Switch.. cesses veseeeeee 89 Hyper-V Support for scaling Up and scaling O Out........ 94 Nstallation Options .........eeseeeesseeessseeseeseseessesssssssseeee OT P Address Management .........ssssseeeesseesesessssessssssseeee LOB .112 .114 .116 etwork Adapter Teaming ........cseee: LIS iSCSI High-Availability Block Storage .. oving Virtual Machine Storage... ultiple-Terabyte Volumes Performance Offloads for Accelerating Network IO ..122 Quality of Service... veeseeeeeseeeeeeeeeseseesststssstssnssssesssseee LOO Rapid and Efficient Data Movement “Using inteligent StOraGe AM AYS...sscsceeecsssseeesssssnneteessssseesssnnneeees LLO ‘Windows Server 2012: Evaluation Guide | 3Remote ACCESS... LOL Remote Desktop Services... Resilient File System............. Secure Naming SeIViCes «0... esses LOO Server Core and Full Server Integration .0.....:..::e 155 Server for NFS Data Store... L56 Storage ManageMennt .......esessseessssesssssseees LOS StOrAGE SPACES oe. seeeeessseseteeeesssneeeeeeee Thin Provisioning and Trim Storage... Unified Remote Management for File Services..... User-Device AffIMItY 0.2... eeesseseseeteseeeseeeeeeeeeseeeseeeeeeeeees Virtual Machine Live Migration ou... 166 Virtual Machine Import Wizard uu... 170 Windows Server 2012 Edition OvervieW.........ssesssee LIZ List of charts, tables, and fiQUIES «0... LTS ‘Windows Server 2012: Evaluation Guide | 4Copyright Information © 2012 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. This document is provided “as-is.” Information and views expressed in this document, including URL and other Internet website references, may change without notice. You bear the risk of using it. Some examples are for iltustration only and are fictitious. No real association is intended or inferred. This document does not provide you with any legal rights to any intelectual property in any Microsoft product. You may copy and use this document for your internal, reference purposes. Windows Server 2012: Evaluation Guide | 5Abstract This evaluation guide is designed to help you understand the design goals, feature set, and implementation of Microsoft Windows Server 2012. The guide provides an overview of key features and benefits provided by Windows Server 2012. This guide is designed to help you perform a thorough and effective evaluation of Windows Server 2012, and is intended for anyone who is interested in learning more about Windows Server 2012. This guide is not a comprehensive explanation of the capabilities in Windows Server 2012; instead, it highlights the ‘main feature areas that can help you understand and evaluate Windows Server 2012. For the latest information about Windows Server 2012, including a link to the download location for the Windows Server 2012 release, go to http://www.microsoft.comywindowsserver2012/. Windows Server 2012: Evaluation Guide | 6Introduction ‘The goal ofthis guide is to help you understand the value of Windows Server 2012 and to evaluate its features and benefits loud computing can present many opportunities for helping you solve your organization's fundamental business and IT challenges, Adopting a consistent, integrated approach is one of the most effective ways to build a private cloud, offer cloud services, or more securely connect to clouds. Itis also beneficial to take advantage of new applications and services that can be deployed on-premises and in public cloud. environments Windows Server 2012 brings the Microsoft cloud experience to you—from building and operating public clouds to delivering the most dynamic, available, and cost-effective server platform for the private cloud. It provides solutions to help you optimize your IT for the cloud so you can fully meet your organization's unique needs. Windows Server 2012 delivers value in four key ways: It takes you beyond virtualization. By offering a dynamic, multitenant infrastructure that can help you scale and secure workloads and cost-effectively build a Microsoft private cloud, Windows Server 2012 can help you provide: ‘+ A complete virtualization platform — A fully isolated, multitenant environment features tools that can help guarantee service level agreements (SLAs), enable chargebacks through usage-based billing, and support self-service delivery. + Increased scalability and performance - A high-density, highly scalable environment can be modified to perform at the optimum level based on your needs. + Connectivity to cloud services — A common identity and management framework enables highly secure and reliable cross-premises connectivity. It delivers the power of many servers, with the simplicity of one. By integrating a highly available and easy-to-manage multi-server platform, Windows Server 2012 can help you provide: + Continuous availabilty - New and improved features offer cost-effective, high IT service uptime. They are designed to endure failures without disrupting services to users. ‘+ Management efficiency - The automation of an even broader set of management tasks and the simplified deployment and virtualization of major workloads offer a path to full lights-out automation, + Cost efficiency - The use of commodity storage, networking, and server infrastructure and increased power efficiency offer improved acquisition and operating economics. Windows Server 2012: Evaluation Guide 7It opens the door to every app on any cloud. By offering a broad, scalable, and elastic server platform that gives you the flexibility to build and deploy applications and websites on-premises, in the cloud, and in a hybrid environment, Windows Server 2012 can help you deliver: ‘+ Flexibility to build on-premises and in the cloud ~ Developers can use a consistent set of tools and frameworks to build symmetrical or hybrid applications between the datacenter and the cloud. + Asscalable and elastic infrastructure ~ Windows Server 2012 offers service providers new features to increase website density and efficiency, and provides frameworks, services, and tools to increase scalability and elasticity for multitenant-enabled applications. Windows Server 2012 enables service providers to more effectively build, provision, and manage hosting environments. ‘+ An openweb and application development environment - Windows Server 2012 enables mission- critical applications and enhanced support for open standards, open source applications, and various development languages. Modern workstyle, enabled. By empowering your IT professionals to provide users with flexible access to data and applications while simplifying management and maintaining security, control, and compliance, Windows Server 2012 can help you offer: ‘= Access to applications and data from virtually anywhere on nearly any device ~ Easier, on-demand access to virtualized work environments is available from virtually anywhere, including branch locations and public connectivity services. + Amore full Windows experience from virtually anywhere ~ A personalized and rich user experience is enabled from virtually any device, while adapting to different network conditions more quickly and responsively, ‘+ Enhanced data security and compliance - Granular access to data and corporate resources is enabled by central audit and access policies based on strong identity, data classification, and simplified administration for remote access. Converging business needs and technology innovations have opened the door for cloud computing—the on-demand delivery of standardized IT services running on shared resources. Cloud computing takes virtualization to the next level by treating compute, network, and storage resources as a flexible pool that can be allocated to any workload. By providing the ability to increase and decrease usage based on demand, cloud computing can give you greater elasticity and scale at lower cost and with greater reliability. In addition, IT can empower your Users to use self-service support, which frees up IT resources and gives users faster results IT professionals from organizations of all types and sizes—a small company, a government agency, a hosting provider, or a large enterprise—recognize that they need a cloud-optimized server platform that helps them implement these innovations so they can meet business requirements. That platform is Windows Server 2012. Windows Server 2012: Evaluation Guide 8