224
Networking: A Beginner's Guide
I
n this chapter, you learn how to install Windows Server 2008. Before you install
Windows Server 2008, however, you first must conduct a variety of preinstallation
checks that prepare the system for the process. Next, you perform the actual
installation, providing information that the installation program needs. Finally, you test
the installation by having a client computer log in to the server properly and perform
some basic network duties. All these steps are described in detail in this chapter.
Understanding Windows Server 2008 Editions
Windows Server 2008 is an entire family of products, all built on essentially the same
programming code, but with significant feature and tuning differences.
Standard Edition is the mainstream server version of Windows Server 2008. It
includes all the power of Active Directory, as well as the following features:
New management tools (compared with those provided with Windows Server
2003) based on the Microsoft Management Console (MMC)
Windows Terminal Services, which allows Windows Server 2008 to host
graphical applications, much like a mainframe hosts applications for dumb
terminals
Internet and web services, including Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol
(DHCP), Domain Name System (DNS), Internet Information Services (IIS), and
Index Server
Remote access and VPN services
Transaction and messaging services
Support for up to four processors
Support for up to 4GB of RAM (32-bit version) or 32GB of RAM (64-bit version)
Support for the latest versions of the standard network protocols
Enterprise Edition is the mid-range offering of Windows Server 2008 products. It
enhances the features of Windows Server 2008 by adding the following:
Support for up to 64GB of installed RAM (32-bit version) or 2TB of RAM (64-bit
version)
Network load balancing (for example, Enterprise Edition can share a heavy
TCP/IP load among a number of servers and balance their loads)
Windows Server 2008 clustering
Support for up to eight processors
Support for 16-node clusters
Datacenter Edition is the most powerful version of Windows Server 2008. This
version is used when extremely large databases need to be hosted for thousands of