In this Analysis assessment I'm going to explain some advantages and disadvantages of windows server 2008 server core and virtual servers. What environments windows server core installation ideal, and I will explain if the security benefits of a core server outweigh the lack of a Graphical User Interface (GUI). I also will go through some advantages and disadvantages of implicating a virtual server in a live network. Finally I will be giving my response to this statement “The drawback of virtual servers is the loss of a physical machine that can lead to the loss of numerous virtual servers and numerous services on the network.
Some advantages of a Windows Server 2008 Server Core installation is, greater stability, with less resources taken up versus a full server installation you have more resources for your server to manage only things you need it to manage. Simplified management, compared to a full server installation you have much less installed on your server. This makes it much easier to manage and configure. Reduction in maintenance, this means fewer hot fixes for roles/services you aren’t using so this means theirs much less to maintain. The reduction in the amount of memory and hard disk requirements, install what you need and leave out what you don’t need. You don’t want anything to take up your precious resources that you’re not even using in your server. Finally reduced attack surface, with less installed on your server there are less services to be targeted to an attack. Now for the disadvantaged are the lack of a GUI, so if an administrator is not familiar with the command environment it will make it that much harder to maintain. I see a lot of griping about it not supporting .Net Frameworks and there’s also no support for the managed code. There also seems to be limited amount of roles and features in a server core installation.
Now we will get to some