With SharePoint SP1, SharePoint 2007 supports Windows Server 2008. The MOSS & WSS evaluation guides have been updated with installation instructions for Windows Server 2008. We also published a Resource Center on TechNet with information for WS08 & SharePoint @ http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/office/sharepointserver/bb735844.aspx.

Recently, we released a whitepaper that does a great job highlighting the benefits of WS08 w/ SharePoint @ http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=116395&clcid=0x409. It's new and a great, quick read. Here's a table from the whitepaper that summarizes some of the benefits that can be achieved when you deploy SharePoint on Windows Server 2008: 

 

Functional Area

Feature

Notes

Manageability

IIS 7.0
  • New IIS Manager with improved and simplified task-oriented work flow and increased functionality
  • New Command-Line Interface (CLI) to configure IIS from command prompt or batch files
  • New .NET Windows Management Interface (WMI) that allows for IIS configuration from PowerShell scripts or custom .NET Framework applications
  • Request Tracing features to improve diagnostics
  • Improved availability through immediate configuration changes without requiring site downtime
  • Modular Architecture where only those modules required by the applications are actually present – reduces maintenance complexity

 

Custom Event Log Views
  • Create custom views of logged events to automatically filter events (by source, severity, and more) to speed up troubleshooting
  • Assign tasks to events (for example, notifications and custom program actions) when specific events occur, prompting timely action on problems

 

Hyper-V
  • Advanced virtualization technology for hosting multiple logical platforms under a single, minimally-configured server
  • Consolidated environment, specifically for development and testing of multi-server SharePoint farms
  • Reduce resource costs by reducing the number of physical servers required for development

Security

Roles and Features
  • Minimizing the deployment footprint by tailoring roles, services and features installed. This reduces the attack surface
  • New Windows Firewall, increasing individual server security
  • New Security Configuration Wizard (2.0) that enables role- and feature-based security hardening, simplified from earlier versions
  • Enhanced Group Policy Management by using wizards to simplify the creation and maintenance of group policies

Reliability & Performance

Roles and Features
  • Customized configuration by using required roles and features reduces overall footprint and makes sure that nonessential services and processes are not present. This guarantees that resources are dedicated exclusively to required services

 

New TCP/IP Stack
  • Support for IPv4 and IPv6
  • Improved performance for high-latency networks

 

IPsec Enhancements
  • Improved performance almost to level of unprotected traffic

 

Reliability & Performance Manager
  • New console for monitoring performance and reliability both in real time and historically
  • Set thresholds for performance metrics that result in custom actions (for example, alerts)
  • Stability index correlates significant system events with server reliability as an help in troubleshooting problems that evolve over time