Windows 2008 Core , cool server platform, tiny efficient and secure, all opinions about it are great even from the Linux guys (they love the console).
But now from the application development life cycle what we can deploy on it and how ? that were my questions before hosting and migrate our Fax Services to the new Virtualized Environment.
Benefits of a Server Core installation
The Server Core installation option of Windows Server 2008 provides the following benefits:
- Reduced maintenance. Because the Server Core installation option installs only what is required to have a manageable server for the AD DS, AD LDS, DHCP Server, DNS Server, File Services, Print Services, and Streaming Media Services roles, less maintenance is required than on a full installation of Windows Server 2008.
- Reduced attack surface. Because Server Core installations are minimal, there are fewer applications running on the server, which decreases the attack surface.
- Reduced management. Because fewer applications and services are installed on a server running the Server Core installation, there is less to manage.
- Less disk space required. A Server Core installation requires only about 1 gigabyte (GB) of disk space to install and approximately 2 GB for operations after the installation.
Quick Overview :
Step 1 – Windows 2008 Server Core Configurator
After installation are few task need it ,to get the machine in the network infrastructure and working environment, for who is not used with WSH scripts and command line tools, some guys from Microsoft build an tool : http://blogs.microsoft.co.il/blogs/guyt/archive/2008/03/22/windows-server-core-coreconfigurator-to-the-rescue.aspx
or here http://www.codeplex.com/CoreConfig
Step 2: Application Server hosting set-up
With the upper tool you can install the features of Windows Core (IIS 7) and its components, but for configuration we are back again to command line, using : AppCmd.exe – here is the way to use it to set up IIS web server
http://learn.iis.net/page.aspx/114/getting-started-with-appcmdexe/
Now comes the funny part – Installing .NET framework 2.0 and 3.5 on Windows Core. follow up in part 2 of this post
full installation guide : http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc753802.aspx