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Windows Virtual Servers: New Features



Over the past few months, we have done quite a lot of work to improve the rental services of a virtual server based on Windows. The following innovations are now available for users of our virtual Windows servers:

In more detail about all the changes and new features we will discuss in this article.

Changes in the control panel


The control panel now looks like this:


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Now it displays information about the current use of server resources and the time of its continuous operation (uptime). The administrator password can be changed directly from the panel (the "Change Password" button).

In the lower right corner of the panel a screenshot of the server screen is displayed.

Vhdx support


All virtual machines are now equipped with a virtual hard disk in vhdx format, which allows you to get a number of advantages.

The use of virtual hard disks is fraught with the risk of an unreadable file in the event of a power failure during active metadata updating. The vhdx format solves this problem because it is journaling: all changes in the metadata are recorded first in the static zone of the log, and only then in the metadata table. If a power failure occurs while updating the metadata table, information about pending transactions will be saved in the log, on the basis of which you can return the complete format of the disk.

The block size for dynamic and differential disks is now increased to 4 Kb, which allows for increased performance.

In addition, the vhdx format allows you to create virtual disks of up to 64 TB.

Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard


The edition of Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard was published on October 17, 2013. Compared with the previous edition, it was significantly expanded and supplemented. The main innovations include the following:



New OS templates


We offer all users of virtual Windows-servers a number of OS templates with pre-installed applications designed for various purposes. This innovation will help customers significantly save time on setting up the operating system and installing the necessary software. Consider each of these templates in more detail.

Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard SP1 with CMS Joomla / DotNetNuke / OsCommerce / Wordpress


After the server installation is complete, enter in the address bar of the browser IP- IP- . Installation of all CMS is extremely simple: in most cases you only need to specify the email or administrator login and password. All settings for database connection are set automatically (if necessary, they can be changed).

Other components

FTP

For ease of use, we also set up an ftp server available at ip-__
The user's home directory is the directory where the site files are located.

Database management

PHPMyAdmin is installed and configured on all virtual Windows servers for managing MySQL databases, as well as MSSQL Management Studio for managing MSSQL EXPRESS 2008 R2 databases.

Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 with MetaTrader

A significant number of users of virtual Windows servers are customers of the MetaTrader trading system. Especially for such users, we have created a special template with the MetaTrader terminal pre-installed. By choosing this template, you get full access to the system as an administrator. You can run several terminals at the same time, as well as install additional software:



Windows Server 2012 Standard Russian with NetForge

NET Forge CMS is a site management system based on ASP.NET platform, which has enough capabilities to develop any web projects. CMS is distributed in a free community editorial.
The template may be useful for those who want to learn CMS Bitrix .NET Forge or plans to build a full-fledged project based on it.

The template includes the following software:

To set up a CMS, just go to ip-_ ip-_ and fill in the main fields:



After that, you must click on the button "Start installation".

Windows Server 2012 Standard Russian with WebsitePanel

This template includes Windows Server 2012 with the WebsitePanel hosting control panel pre-installed. WebsitePanel is a multifunctional solution that allows you to manage and use services based on Microsoft products (for example, Exchange, IIS, Hyper-V, DNS, Lync, Sharepoint, etc.). The main control is carried out through the web-interface. It is possible to integrate with other products using a special API.

More information about WebsitePanel can be found here.

The template includes the following components:


After installing the server panel will be available at ip-_:9001
By default, 2 accounts are available:


Windows 2012 Standard Russian with Sharepoint

This template includes the pre-installed Microsoft Sharepoint Foundation 2013 platform, which is ready for use immediately after the deployment of VDS. SharePoint is a set of software products designed to automate workflow and organize collaboration with documents.

SharePoint Foundation is a product distributed as a free application to Windows Server, providing a basic infrastructure for collaboration (editing, document storage, version control, document movement tracking, online discussion support).

The template includes the following components:


After installing VDS portal immediately ready for work. You can access from the external network at ip-_ ip-_ , and from the local network - at localhost localhost .

Authorization is based on Windows authentication.

Windows 2012 Standard Russian IIS MySQL PHP ASP.NET

This template includes a wide range of software for quick deployment of PHP projects:

It is enough to upload your files via a pre-configured ftp and “upload” a dump via phpmyadmin - and your site is ready to go!

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Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/202092/

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