WSS 3.0 on IIS 7 in Windows Server 2008 is HOT!!!
I did a session last week at TechReady 5 talking about how WSS 3.0 on Windows Server 2008 is hotness. It's the shizzle as Richard Riley would say. Before I post my findings on the SharePoint team blog, I thought I'd share my findings and see what resonates. If you are looking for content on installing, I did a post on Windows Server 2008 and WSS 3.0 installation on the SharePoint team blog. You won't look at Windows Server 2008 just because it's so much easier to install WSS 3.0 or because of what new features there are (there aren't any.) There are reasons in the platform that lends itself to making WSS 3.0 and MOSS 2007 an even more strategic investment. Here's what "POPs" for me so far...
Security
- Minimal footprint- The install will come up in multiple areas, but how cool is it that only the required components of IIS, .NET, etc... are installed when you install the Windows SharePoint Server role?
- IIS 7 URL filtering - I use to enjoy URLScan. I thought it was sad that IIS 6 just "had that functionality" where you wouldn't need it. Now right in the IIS 7 interface I can configure my verbs and filters for saying what is allowed. Obviously there will be a great need to share what verbs and requests look like.
- SCW - Security Configuration Wizard take 2. It's great so see an app that locks things down with a template that secures things the way it should. The test team will as well sign off that it does things the right way. Wizards like this will make it easy to lock down your servers. I don't know why we don't promote this more. I think people are afraid it will break things.
- Core - SharePoint isn't supported on Core, but how cool for a host machine that has images to run on core for both minimal footprint and minimalist from a resources standpoint. Look at NAP as well.
Management
- Powershell - easily the coolest scriptable interface ever. Unix guys will gawk, but windows people should listen up. This is so powerful it will change your techy lifestyle. Don't expect any WSS commandlets, but you will see how easy it is to start automating things and building commandlets that you can use. Any time you spend learning this stuff will NOT be wasted.
- Troubleshooting and Tracing - IIS 7 gives you SO MUCH visibility into your worker processes and tracing into the w3wp WAS stack. This makes my mouth water, I have to see it again and again. It's so fun to see what's connected to your worker process, not in a command line or log, but in a realtime MMC in IIS. Love it. I do think this stuff will sell Windows Server 2008. You have to see this if you see nothing else. This will be something I get screenshots on to show you in a whitepaper.
- Server Manager - this interface is hot! Server roles in the past were a joke. I admit I hated that screen that would come up after a 2003 install. What a waste. Server Manager is more than worth a second look, it will govern your windows life. It will help you organize and view your administrative life. The query and answer will make setting up and getting consistency so easy, administration and management will take a step toward the easy train. Looking at your server role with a quick overview of events, services, with the ability to change things on the fly make it nice and managable.
- Event Viewer - If troubleshooting was a pain in Windows 2003 trying to find relevant events and tracking what has happened when, you'll LOVE the new event viewer. At a glance you can understand the health of the system over time. Looking at events by role or grouped and customized into your own views will make you enjoy troubleshooting even more. Imagine that, enjoyable troubleshooting. Visbility, awesome views and essentially reports.
- WinRM/WinRS - think remotability. With everything being so easy to manage either locally or across server you'll find both server manager and especially powershell will help you feel that remote server management is truly seemless. These interfaces and listener will make it easy to run things remotely including powershell... you'll see the power.
- Task Manager - the new task manager puts the old one to shame. I don't mean to bash, since the new one is so nice, it's tough not to laugh at the old one and what we did with it. Starting with notification of failures, the new task manager is truly your friend. It will save your bacon. Execution history, import/export, triggers, and password resilience! We're talking full on app!
- Uptime and reliability - Hot replace memory, Hot replace processors, process crash recording with Windows Hardware error reporting for reliably reporting, and reduced almost eliminated reboots for patching. Now that will save tons of time on planned and unplanned downtime.
Performance
- TCP optimization - Vista and it's sliding TCP windows take another step in Network optimization with Windows 2008 TCP optimization. In initial tests I've heard 30% optimization with even better optimization in higher latency scenarios. I plan to do some perf tests to let you see this. This is another area that will sell Windows Server 2008. Imagine how much more farm and server consolidation you can do if you get 30% more optimization than Windows Server 2003. Virtualization is only getting bigger and better. I'm not mentioning much here, but I see this as another huge separate selling point.
- IIS 7 - Dynamic and static compression is so easy to configure. With the minimal components and stack that only SharePoint needs I hear that with default IIS 7 with 10% CPU hit you get 50% less network utilization. Microsoft.com is already taking advantage of both IIS 7 and compression, I expect to hear more about this as well.
- Minimal footprint - Less is more. With less in memory, leaner and less processes running, I do expect you'll find a faster slimmer meaner Windows.
If you want to share your Windows Server 2008 and SharePoint related experiences, I am currently "recruiting" for early adopters that are looking to get some visbility and tell their stories. Post your thoughts and feedback in the comments and get on the cutting edge.
