What we pay for buying Windows Server 2008 and Vista.
As many know, MS recently released a new server operating system - Windows Server 2008. In Russia, Launch was on March 18th (this is in Moscow, in St. Petersburg - the 19th), in the States - on February 27th. New product - new features, but I would like to know in advance what we are offered, not to buy a cat in a bag. What's new in WS 2008, what are its advantages over WS 2003? What innovations will the user appreciate, and what will be on hand to the administrator? Finally, is it worth buying a new system if everything works fine on the old one and, if so, how to convince management to pay the bill?
If I knew the answers to all these questions, I would have lived in Sochi for a long time. However, I have some thoughts on the subject.
Item 1 st. Terminal Services (TS).
Kant said: “Two things never cease to amaze me: the starry sky above our heads and the moral law inside us.” I will speak in the same vein: two things do not cease to cut the company's expenses - terminal services and virtualization. With virtualization, everything is clear: no money is spent on new servers, old servers are used more efficiently; Clustering increases availability and increases uptime. In the terminal, when processes are executed on the server and not on the client, costs are reduced due to a whole set of factors. Client machines cost you less; at terminal access there is no need to pay for full-fledged winXP professional - put at least win98 (if you will, of course, find it). Moreover, you can even opt for a family of Linux operating systems, which along with windows can act as a terminal client. The possibility of launching applications from a remote office is especially interesting, because buying full-fledged machines there is a pity, but you still need to work. With the help of terminals you can work with the Moscow database given at least from Zimbabwe on the Pentium 233.
Naturally, MS could not get past such a piece, so the terminal server appeared already in NT Server 4.0. Of course, remote Windows sessions are far from seamless integration of Citrix applications, but the money you pay is completely different.
The terminals spread quickly. Now they are in any more or less large company. The guys from 1C themselves recommend using TS, if the number of active users of the database exceeds fifty.
Now that I have described the essence of the question, you can finally move on to the improvements that the new server has brought us.
First place: RemoteApps.
Previously, when the user started the terminal client MSTSC, a session was created on the remote server: the user saw a new desktop, start up, shortcuts. Good administrators limited all possible and impossible rights by politicians, so usually all user efforts were only enough to click on the desired icon, work in full screen mode and disconnect. The disadvantages are obvious: firstly, users do not like to learn new things, and admins do not like to learn; secondly, there were often problems when sessions were duplicated; thirdly, users periodically leave sessions incorrectly, which creates additional difficulties.
MS, thank you, Lord, heed the wishes of the public, which you were crucified on Launch for a very long time. Now we can run remote applications, so they will look almost locally - only the word “(remote)” will appear in the title bar of the window. Moreover, a terminal running Outlook can even display its messages in a tray, like other applications.
I spoke on Launch with a representative of Citrix and asked if they considered the new MS product a problem. I was told that Citrix and MS have always played as partners and have never been competitors. They say that Citrix Metaframe is as convenient for Microsoft services as Mercedes is more comfortable for Zhiguli. At the same time, Citrix requires running a terminal server MS for its work, so that everything benefits. On the other hand, MS representatives, on the contrary, strongly emphasize the advantages of the new TS, opposing them to Citrix solutions. In principle, they can be understood: a license to connect a citrix client costs at least $ 160 + you need to pay, if I'm not mistaken, $ 20 extra for one connection to Microsoft TS. It is easy to calculate that the MS solution is nine times cheaper, even if it is slower and less convenient.
')
Second place: connection encryption.
Previously, terminal services were conveniently considered bundled with a VPN. The connection was made using encrypted PP2P or LP2P virtual private network protocols, already inside which a terminal session was opened. Such tricks complicated both network settings and the connection procedure. Unfortunately, it was not always possible to completely refuse encryption, so you had to put up with difficulties.
The new version of TS, finally, allows you to enable encryption (but only PP2P) without VPN involvement.
Third place: print in a remote session.
In general, printing in Vista and WS2008 has undergone significant changes and deserves a separate topic. Part of the updated print services reached the terminals.
Previously, printing from the terminal was always fraught with headaches. First, the user had to allow his printer to be pulled out into a remote session. Secondly, since everyone was dragging his printer into the terminal, when trying to print something, at first they slightly ran away from the abundance of hp, canon and others.
Now, printing in the terminal is no different from local. As an administrator, you can leave the user only the default printer. In addition, MS insist that the new output circuit has become much less sensitive, for example, to communication breaks.
Fourth place: Session Broker.
Behind the strange name lies, oddly enough, the addition to NLB - load balancing. Full name - Session Broker Load Balancing. Saves us by clustering, and also prevents the disconnection of current connections in case new users connect too often.
And yet in fourth place the list does not end. For example, the new MSTSC client, which is available for XP, has become much more convenient. There are also new clients for RedHat and Novell SUSE.
Terminal services are just one thing for which I would like to switch to WS2008 (especially since you can use the trial version of the new OS for a year). Among the interesting innovations I will mention NAP (Network Access Protection), Hyper-V hypervisor (funny, but in the WS distribution itself this function is in beta status; there is actually the first release candidate), new server roles
Literature:
Blog Performance Team - write a lot of interesting things on different topics.
TS Team Blog .
TS Home Page .
UPD: thanks to bsider, he pointed me to an error with the prices for TS CALs (client access license). 1 TS CAL (less than five you can not buy) - ~ $ 150; Source - http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/howtobuy/licensing/pricing.mspx .
If I knew the answers to all these questions, I would have lived in Sochi for a long time. However, I have some thoughts on the subject.
Item 1 st. Terminal Services (TS).
Kant said: “Two things never cease to amaze me: the starry sky above our heads and the moral law inside us.” I will speak in the same vein: two things do not cease to cut the company's expenses - terminal services and virtualization. With virtualization, everything is clear: no money is spent on new servers, old servers are used more efficiently; Clustering increases availability and increases uptime. In the terminal, when processes are executed on the server and not on the client, costs are reduced due to a whole set of factors. Client machines cost you less; at terminal access there is no need to pay for full-fledged winXP professional - put at least win98 (if you will, of course, find it). Moreover, you can even opt for a family of Linux operating systems, which along with windows can act as a terminal client. The possibility of launching applications from a remote office is especially interesting, because buying full-fledged machines there is a pity, but you still need to work. With the help of terminals you can work with the Moscow database given at least from Zimbabwe on the Pentium 233.
Naturally, MS could not get past such a piece, so the terminal server appeared already in NT Server 4.0. Of course, remote Windows sessions are far from seamless integration of Citrix applications, but the money you pay is completely different.
The terminals spread quickly. Now they are in any more or less large company. The guys from 1C themselves recommend using TS, if the number of active users of the database exceeds fifty.
Now that I have described the essence of the question, you can finally move on to the improvements that the new server has brought us.
First place: RemoteApps.
Previously, when the user started the terminal client MSTSC, a session was created on the remote server: the user saw a new desktop, start up, shortcuts. Good administrators limited all possible and impossible rights by politicians, so usually all user efforts were only enough to click on the desired icon, work in full screen mode and disconnect. The disadvantages are obvious: firstly, users do not like to learn new things, and admins do not like to learn; secondly, there were often problems when sessions were duplicated; thirdly, users periodically leave sessions incorrectly, which creates additional difficulties.
MS, thank you, Lord, heed the wishes of the public, which you were crucified on Launch for a very long time. Now we can run remote applications, so they will look almost locally - only the word “(remote)” will appear in the title bar of the window. Moreover, a terminal running Outlook can even display its messages in a tray, like other applications.
I spoke on Launch with a representative of Citrix and asked if they considered the new MS product a problem. I was told that Citrix and MS have always played as partners and have never been competitors. They say that Citrix Metaframe is as convenient for Microsoft services as Mercedes is more comfortable for Zhiguli. At the same time, Citrix requires running a terminal server MS for its work, so that everything benefits. On the other hand, MS representatives, on the contrary, strongly emphasize the advantages of the new TS, opposing them to Citrix solutions. In principle, they can be understood: a license to connect a citrix client costs at least $ 160 + you need to pay, if I'm not mistaken, $ 20 extra for one connection to Microsoft TS. It is easy to calculate that the MS solution is nine times cheaper, even if it is slower and less convenient.
')
Second place: connection encryption.
Previously, terminal services were conveniently considered bundled with a VPN. The connection was made using encrypted PP2P or LP2P virtual private network protocols, already inside which a terminal session was opened. Such tricks complicated both network settings and the connection procedure. Unfortunately, it was not always possible to completely refuse encryption, so you had to put up with difficulties.
The new version of TS, finally, allows you to enable encryption (but only PP2P) without VPN involvement.
Third place: print in a remote session.
In general, printing in Vista and WS2008 has undergone significant changes and deserves a separate topic. Part of the updated print services reached the terminals.
Previously, printing from the terminal was always fraught with headaches. First, the user had to allow his printer to be pulled out into a remote session. Secondly, since everyone was dragging his printer into the terminal, when trying to print something, at first they slightly ran away from the abundance of hp, canon and others.
Now, printing in the terminal is no different from local. As an administrator, you can leave the user only the default printer. In addition, MS insist that the new output circuit has become much less sensitive, for example, to communication breaks.
Fourth place: Session Broker.
Behind the strange name lies, oddly enough, the addition to NLB - load balancing. Full name - Session Broker Load Balancing. Saves us by clustering, and also prevents the disconnection of current connections in case new users connect too often.
And yet in fourth place the list does not end. For example, the new MSTSC client, which is available for XP, has become much more convenient. There are also new clients for RedHat and Novell SUSE.
Terminal services are just one thing for which I would like to switch to WS2008 (especially since you can use the trial version of the new OS for a year). Among the interesting innovations I will mention NAP (Network Access Protection), Hyper-V hypervisor (funny, but in the WS distribution itself this function is in beta status; there is actually the first release candidate), new server roles
Literature:
Blog Performance Team - write a lot of interesting things on different topics.
TS Team Blog .
TS Home Page .
UPD: thanks to bsider, he pointed me to an error with the prices for TS CALs (client access license). 1 TS CAL (less than five you can not buy) - ~ $ 150; Source - http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/howtobuy/licensing/pricing.mspx .
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/22125/
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