Windows Server 2008: The Definitive Guide

Realistic Deployment Scenarios

At the most fundamental level, Server Core can only be a file server, print server, domain controller, an Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services (LDS) server, streaming media server, DHCP server, DNS server, or Windows Server Virtualization server. It can participate in clusters and network load-balancing groups, run the subsystem for Unix applications, perform backups using Server Core's improved capabilities, and be managed and report status through SNMP. There are a few other ancillary capabilities, but it's pretty stripped down and only appropriate at this point for the four basic roles I just delineated. Future releases might expand the roles in which core-based operating systems can run, but they are not available yet. Table 9-1 lists the roles and features that are included in the Server Core installation of Windows Server 2008.

Table 9-1. Available roles and features on Windows Server 2008 Server Core machines

Roles available in Server Core	Features available in Server Core
Active Directory and Active Directory Lightweight Domain Services (LDS)	BitLocker Drive Encryption
DHCP Server	Failover Clustering
DNS Server	Multipath I/O
File Services (including DFSR and NFS)	Removable Storage Management
Print Services	SNMP Services
Streaming Media Services	Subsystem for Unix-based Applications
Windows Server Virtualization	Telnet Client
	Windows Server Backup
	WINS Server