I just downloaded The definitive guide to windows server 2008, and have been reading up on the new IIS 7.0 I am also about to download the trial from microsoft. Just from what I have read it would seem that this would be a much more efficient OS than 2003. Running Faster on a smaller memory foot print. Can anyone from HMS validated this? I have a IIS 7.0 beta, but its not the same as getting root access to IIS. Any feedback would be appreciated.

Whitesites,

I can't speak for HMS for the VPS boxes, although that would be a nice selling point to have 2008, but they sure would have to up their Memory specs. I can't see running Server 2008 with only 512 ram as its minimum required is 1GB, and recommended 2GB. But if you are considering building a server, let me add this..

We recently built a new server for colocation with Windows Web Server 2008, and let me tell you that it is FAST. I can see a big difference over Server 2003. Of course you need beefier hardware and more memory than you would with 2003, but that's expected. Even though its built on the Vista kernel, from what I've read its 15% faster than vista, and I defiantly notice the difference compared to vista. We like IIS7 to. Although we don't program in .NET so we are probably missing out on alot of IIS7's capabilities, but there are still alot of nice perks of using it.

And let me also recommend, that if you are using the server as a web server, and you don't want to spend the $999 on Windows Server 2008 Standard, then web edition is the way to go. At a low cost of only $379, it is more than sufficient for a web facing server (It doesn't have Hyper-V though--probably one of the biggest downsides. Although it does come with a "Virtual License Key").

Microsoft has also eased their licensing restrictions that they had with Windows Web Server 2003. Web 2008 now supports 4 Gigs ram, any database software with unlimited users (including MSSQL, MySQL). Before building the server in past few months we evaluated Server 2008 in a VMWare environment, We thought it was fast in VMWare, but when we had it physically installed on real hardware, it was even faster.

Just be aware of program compatibility. I've found that if it works with vista, it will work with Server 2008. Same goes for hardware drivers. If there are Vista drivers, you will be OK to use them on Server 2008.

(OK, So maybe I went a little off topic on your original question )

Thanks for the in dept explanation. You actually answered alot of other questios I had too. Now here is my delima. My Server is not the latest duel core or quad core machine. Its a little older duel 2.8 Xeon 512K L2 cache with 2 GB Ram and 2 x 146 SCSI 10K on RAID. Its a Dell Poweredge 1750 1U rack server I bought off ebay about a year ago. I installed a trial of serer 2008 on it, and it seemed to run well. When I did the install I did the setup wtih the Standard Edition. I plan on running MySQL, SmarterMail, SmarterStats, Plus IIS 7.0 for static and .NET pages. Does the web edtion of server 2008 have the ability to run these programs? What is the difference between web edtion and standard edtion? Is it just how much ram you can run? Thanks again for the in dept response.

Yes. I am actually running everything you just mentioned, in addition to SQL Server and Coldfusion 8, and it still performs just as quick as its first boot up (Seriously).

You do need a patch from Microsoft to install MSSQL Server Workgroup, Standard, or Enterprise. (KB950636) This patch is specifically designed for "Web Server" edition. If you don't install the patch, SQL Server Setup won't pass the "Minimum Operating System Requirement" (Basically the restriction from Server 2003 Web Edition)

SmarterMail 5x won't run in IIS unless you switch it to the Classic App Pool because it tries to use Integrated Pipeline mode which isn't supported yet.

SmarterStats ran fine without any issues (needs to run on .NET 2.0)

MySQL 5 Installed, and runs great.



You can view the full technical comparison here:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/us/compare-specs.aspx

And Features here:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/us/compare-features.aspx

And Server Roles here:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/us/compare-roles.aspx




I am running 4 Gigs of ram, which is the limit in Standard and Web Edition 32bit. You can go up to 32gb on Standard and Web if you are running 64bit, but HMS Dedicated Department recommended against running 64bit.

Anything else I can help with just let me know.

To answer your question about when you will see 2008 server VPS options from us - it is currently not an option for virtuozzo. Last I checked, we are waiting on them to get us some sort of update so we can do it.

I don't know what the specs will be at this time though.


-Dave

Just curious, why is HMS against 64 bit servers? I am sure there is a good reason. I just want to understand it.

From my understanding, I believe it was because of software compatibility (at least for the software I was inquiring about). I would think that you would only want to run 64bit if all of your software and hardware was true 64 bit (not Windows-on-windows) compatible.