Managing Windows 2008 Server Core Local SettingsAbout 6 years ago I had the pleasure of a one on one meeting with the director of Microsoft Windows Server development. He was meeting with architects from several Enterprise level customers and taking notes and requests on what we would like to see in future versions of Windows. He also wanted to know key reasons why people did not deploy Windows when there was a choice of Windows and Unix/Linux. I was very impressed with how he handled the interviews and how they sought out the actual workers as opposed to going to management for suggestions. During the interview process he had some of the lead programmers from the Windows Server team on speaker phone so that they could participate in the process. Surprisingly noone from Microsoft were defensive or even agitated when parts of Windows were criticized, they simply wanted to learn as much as they could.
At that time (2000 - 2003) we were heavy in the development and hosting of secure financial systems. We were split about half and half Windows and Solaris (few one off Linux boxes, at that time it was still expensive to run SUN hardware). Even though it was more expensive initially to run Solaris, the ROI was quickly obtained through management and uptime. Our Windows Admins were very good and it was rare we had an unplanned outage on the Windows machines, but the continual need to patch for unnecessary parts of the OS like Windows Media Player or Internet Explorer made 99.9% uptime impossible. My number two complaint was the reliance on the GUI and making it necessary to have a physical keyboard, mouse and monitor on each server was making it difficult to manage as the numbers of systems grew, even when using KVMs to manage multiple systems with a single keyboard, mouse and monitor. I had a few other complaints, but on the number 1 and 2 items Microsoft told me they were being addressed and would be available soon (soon turned out to be about 6 years).
I am happy to see M$ is allowing for minimal installs without the reliance on a GUI. They still have items that need to be addressed, like remote management via a command line login, they are still reliant on RDP (terminal services) to get a remote command line (you can do minimal tasks remotely without connecting to a terminal, but sometimes you have to have a command line). This could be easily overcome by including a SSH server as part of the core install, instead of as an additional download of the Unix tools. If just the minimal (or Core as they call it) install would have been made available sooner; they could have prevented or at least slowed the adoption of Linux by many of their customers.
In many ways Windows Server is better than Linux and Solaris, it still lags in several areas, particularly in remote administration and large multi-processor installs (this still hampers Linux as well). While they have given us a big win with the Core install, the Unix Subsystem in the kernel, an easy to administer firewall, hyper-V virtualization and a host of other items, they are now killing us with hard to administer licensing schemes.
With all of its short comings I still believe Windows is the best choice for most SMBs (Small to Medium Business) with 50 or less servers, but companies with a staff knowledgable in Unix, they will benefit from the implementation of a *NIX OS in their infrastructure, particularly if they are running non DOTNET applications or companies using VLDBs (very large databases, requiring 8 or more processors; there are many considerations when choosing database type and OS). Any company using Java for critical apps, should consider using Solaris, SUN invented Java and from my experience it runs best there, although AIX and Linux is closing in fast. AIX is probably the best choice if the Java or C app is not built from ground up with multi-threading in mind. AIX requires the P processor which has the fastest processor speed allowing for extreme performance on single threads, but if you go that route, be prepared to open your pocketbook WIDE. AIX also has the best hardware based virtualization available.
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