Window server is actually the server which is operated, installed and managed by Window Server Family. It is based on Windows NT architecture. Windows Servers are efficient in providing many services like messaging, security, hosting a website, manage resources between application and user. There are many servers released by Windows.
Windows Server 2012 was released on August 1, 2012, but for the customers, it is available from September 4, 2012. This is the fifth release by the Window Server. Its kernel type is hybrid.
Download: Windows Server 2012 R2 ISO Image
It doesn’t support Itanium based computer. It has come with four editions: Foundation, Essentials, Standard and Datacenter,
in which the most expensive is the Datacenter. It added a graphical user interface based which is based on Metro Design Language.
Features of Windows Server 2012
- We can create a clone of the virtual machine between cluster and storage system. This feature is called Hyper-v replicas.
- It can be created with the cloud system and also maintain the classic feature of a local data center.
- The task manager is updated and comes with a yellow and dark shade. The application is displayed and tabs are hidden by default. It can display data for each non-uniform memory access node. It comes with more than 64 logical processors that display data for each logical processor.
- It comes with the IP address management which, monitoring, auditing and managing the IP address of the computer network. This feature is used for monitoring the Domain Name System and Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol server. IPv4 and IPv6 is fully supported
- Active directory has been removed and new server manager and a GUI are added to the Active Directory Recycle Bin.
- No longer Active Directory Federation Service is required during installation. We can set multiple passwords in the same domain.
- The new version of Hyper-V is introduced. Many new features are added like network virtualization, multitenancy, storage resource pools, cross-premises connectivity, and cloud backup. It can access up to 64 virtual processors, up to 1 terabyte of memory. RemoteFX is required for Hyper-V. We can active up to 1024 virtual machine per host and also we can act up to 8000 failover cluster.
- A new feature called Resilient File System(REFS) is also included in this Window Server 2012, which can improve NTFS in some respect. Some new feature of Resilient File System is also available like
- REFS support many NTFS features like BitLocker encryption, USN journal, symbolic links, junction points, reparse point, volume snapshot, file IDs, oplock and access control list. It data mirroring and stripping and also sharing storage pools between machine. It also checks that the mirror copy file is corrupt or not using background data scrubbing process and replace bad copies with good ones. Some of the NTFS is not supported like file-level encryption, user data transactions, hard links, extended attributes, object IDs, short names. Booting from ReFS is supported.
- ReFS support maximum file size of 16 exabyte
- New APIs is not required.
- This server comes with the latest version of internet information services 8.0 (IIS 8.0). This service comes with some new features like support for NUMA, centralized management of SSL certificate, SNI and web socket support.
Minimum System Requirements for Windows Server 2012
For Windows Server 2012, there are some system requirements which are required
- 1.4 GHz processor is required but 2GHz is recommended for a better experience.
- It requires at least 512 MB of RAM but 2GB of RAM gives us a far better experience.
- It requires 32 GB of free space in the hard drive but again for better experience 40GB is recommended.
Edition
It comes with four editions Foundation, Essential, Standard, Datacenter. All of these are different in some aspects like
- Distribution: Foundation – OEM only, Essential comes with retail, volume licensing and OEM, Standard comes with retail, volume licensing, OEM, and Datacenter comes only with volume licensing.
- Licensing model: Foundation offer per server, Essential also offer per server but Standard and Datacenter offer per CPU pair + CAL.
- Processor chip limit: Foundation gives only 1 and Essential provide 2 but Standard and Datacenter provide 64 processor chip.
- Memory limit: Foundation comes with 32GB of limit, Essential comes with 64GB of limit and Standard and Datacenter comes with 4TB of limit.
- Window Server Update Service: Foundation and Essential have no update service but in Standard and Datacenter comes with update service.
- Hyper-V: No Hyper-V facility is available, in Essential R2 onwards and in Standard and Datacenter Hyper-V facility is available.
- Virtualization rights: No rights are available for Foundation, in Essential, either 1 Virtual Machine or 1 physical server but not both, in Standard 2 virtual machine is allowed and in Datacenter unlimited virtual machine is allowed.
Window Server 2012 R2 Edition
It is the sixth version of Windows Server. It is released to manufacturing on August 27, 2013, 5 years ago. It is generally available from October 18, 2013. Its latest release is 6.3 (Build 9600) on October 17, 2013. It is preceded by Window Server 2012 and succeeded by Window Server 2016.
Features of Windows Server 2012 R2
- It has a faster VM deployment.
- It has come with integrated Office 365.
- It has come with UEFI based virtual machine.
- The latest version of Internet Information Service 8.5 is available.
- Window Defender is available.
- Reduction of storage space for VHD files.
- Upgrade of the user interfaces with the visible start button.
- Updated service is also available.
- Driver emulator is updated to synthetic hardware driver to reduce legacy support.
- Transport layer security improves the performance of long-running TLS secure connection.
- Updated Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol is provided which describes new deployment. It reduces the burden of administration and difficulty of configuring a host on a TCP or IP based network.
System requirements for Windows Server 2012 R2
The basic requirements for Windows Server 2012 R2
- Processor: 1.4 GHz is the minimum requirement but 2GHz is recommended for a better experience.
- Memory: 512MB RAM is sufficient but 2GB RAM is recommended to work smoothly.
- Disc space: 32 is the minimum requirement but for better experience, 40GB or more is recommended.
- Optical drive: DVD-ROM drive.
How to download and install Windows Server 2012 :
The ISO file is available at the official website of Microsoft, download it and burn it into some DVD.
Installation process
- Insert the Window Server 2012 DVD, and press Enter to boot from the setup after getting this instruction ‘ Press any key to boot from CD or DVD…’
- It takes a bit of time to load all the necessary file.
- Then after choosing the language according to convenience.
- After clicking next, press the install button.
- Select the Window Server 2012 Datacenter Evaluation. Then click next.
- Accept all the license terms and conditions.
- Then after deciding your partition and press the next button. This will take some time.
- Once all the step is done, it will restart the Window Server.
- Step up the administrator password.
For windows server 2012 R2 :
To download the ISO file go to the official website of Window.
Installation process
- Insert the DVD with Window Server 2012 R2 and boot the PC.
- It takes a bit of time to load all the necessary files.
- Then after press the install button to start the installation process.
- Accept the license agreement and then continue the process.
- Choose the language according to convincing.
- Once all the step should be done then after restarting the computer.
