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Summary

Expert guidance on data protection strategies for Windows Server 2008 R2 in physical & virtual environments. Learn how to enhance your disaster-prevention strategies.

The Source of This eBook   

This eBook, “Build for Business Continuity,” is an extract from Microsoft Windows Server 2008: The Complete Reference, published by McGraw Hill, and available in bookstores everywhere. In fact, it is based on the content of Chapter 11 from this book. Unlike other books on Windows Server 2008, The Complete Reference does not expound on each and every feature of Microsoft’s new server OS. Since WS08 is a server operating system, this book is structured around the strategy you would use to build a network from the ground up, relying on the latest and greatest features offered by the new OS. As such, it is divided into seven parts; each focused on one aspect of the implementation of a new server OS or a migration from an existing OS to the new OS.

The seven parts include:

• Part I: Tour Windows Server 2008, which covers the new feature set of Windows Server 2008, as well as the interface changes built into the OS.
• Part II: Plan and Prepare, which helps you plan your network migration and begin the server preparation process through a description of the new imaging and staging capabilities in WS08.
• Part III: Design Server Roles, which provides guidelines for the elaboration of network services, such as Active Directory, Internet, and remote connectivity, as well as outlining how you put these core services in place.
• Part IV: Manage Objects with Windows Server 2008, which outlines the management strategies you should use with WS08 to maintain and offer services to computers, users, and services within your network.
• Part V: Secure Windows Server 2008, which focuses on the critical security elements each network must put in place to protect the assets it contains. Even though this section deals specifically with security, standard network security concepts are used throughout the book.
• Part VI: Migrate to Windows Server 2008, which focuses on how to migrate existing network components to a WS08-based infrastructure.
• Part VII: Administer Windows Server 2008, which provides a comprehensive set of tasks for daily, weekly, and monthly administration of a WS08-based network.

Preparing a network is a complex process—even more so now that Windows is in its third post-NT edition. With Windows NT, decisions were relatively simple because the choices were limited. But with Windows Server 2008, this is no longer the case. It’s not surprising, since the network has evolved from a loosely coupled series of servers and computers to an integrated infrastructure providing and supporting the organization’s mission. This evolutionary process is not unlike that of the telephone. At first, telephone systems were loosely coupled. Today, worldwide telecommunications systems have converged with Internet-based systems and are now much more complex and complete.

Similarly, networks are now mission-critical. The new organizational network has become a secure, stable, redundant infrastructure that is completely oriented towards the delivery of information technology services to its client base. These services can range from simple file and print systems to complex authentication systems, collaboration environments, or application services. In addition, these services can be made available to two differing communities of users: internal users, over whom you have complete control of the PC, and external users, over whom you have little or no control.