Well Anthony and Dugie have already kicked off with initial posts on Longhorn Server. I'm a bit behind unfortunately.

Hopefully I can put together a couple of posts a week on new features and functionality in Longhorn Server that readers may not be aware of (well, you'll probably be aware of some but hopefully not all!)

First up is the new Server Core SKU. Server Core is designed to be a lightweight, reduced functionality server. By reducing the components that can run on the server, administrative overhead can be reduced and security improved. Additionally, there'll be far fewer patches to install (for example, there'll be very few consumer application patches, such as IE or WMP, to install)

The big change that you'll notice first of all is that Explorer.exe isn't the default shell - cmd.exe is.

That's right - you'll need to do everything from a command prompt, or manage the server remotely using MMC snapins from another computer. To provision the server, you'll again need to use command line options (e.g. dcpromo.exe) or configure the server using an unattended setup option.

The roles supported (as of Beta 3) by Core Server include Domain Controller (regular AD), DHCP Server, DNS Server, File/Print Server and Lightweight Domain Controller (the next interation of ADAM - Active Directory Application Mode). Additionally, it's been stated that Viridian (Longhorn Server Virtualisation) and Windows Media Services will also be supported.

If you admin a sizeable environment, or have been in the game for a while (or even if you haven't!), you probably have a large collection of scripts and batch files to automating common tasks. Most of these will still work. On the other hand, if you're not familiar with dcpromo.exe (using an answer file), netsh.exe, dnscmd.exe and dfscmd.exe then this might be a good time to start reading up! Alternatively PowerShell will be included in Server Core, so this might be an alternative command line tool to use.

Other miscellenea - Server Core will support Clustering, Network Load Balancing, Bitlocker, Removable Storage, and Services For UNIX (SFU)

And in breaking news, it appears that Beta 3 may have been released? It appears to be up on MSDN Subscriber Downloads.

Ken