Welcome to the Server Core blog...

  • Article

Now that Longhorn Server beta 2 is out, I figured I would try this blog thing as a way to share information and answer common questions about Server Core.

 

For my first post I’ll provide a brief summary of what Server Core is and why we are creating it. Server Core is a minimal server installation option for Windows Server "Longhorn". It runs a subset of the server roles included in Longhorn Server, specifically it supports the following:

· DHCP server

· File Server

· DNS server

· Active Directory

Server Core also includes the following optional features:

· Failover Cluster

· Network Load Balancing

· Multipath IO

· Removable Storage

·

Bitlocker Drive

Encryption

· Subsystem for UNIX-based applications

· Backup

 

Server Core is all about letting an administrator run the above roles with less installed, running, and needing to be managed on a server. For example, there is no GUI shell on Server Core, the local interface for managing the server is the command prompt. You can use MMC snap-ins to remotely manage a Server Core installation. All of this provides the following benefits:

  • Reduced maintance
  • Reduced attack surface area
  • Reduced management
  • Less disk space required to install

 

If you have questions about Server Core or how to do things with it, please post them in the comments to this and I’ll try to answer them in future postings. I’ll also try to cover some of the more common questions.

 

Andrew