Windows Server 2008 R2 Developer Training Course

Windows Server 2008 R2 represents the latest evolution of the Windows Server operating system and corresponding support for high-end hardware systems with large numbers of microprocessors. Windows Server 2008 R2 is the first release of Windows to scale beyond 64 Logical Processors (LP) on a single computer and has been tested on systems with 256 LP's. R2 features enhanced support of Non-Uniform Memory Access (NUMA) computer architectures along with new User-Mode Scheduling (UMS) technology. UMS enables custom thread-level scheduling within your own application. For certain categories of computing scenarios, this avoids the overhead of thread kernel transitions and context switching. Why is this important for Application Developers? New commodity computer systems will soon be available that leverage many-core architectures. Application Developers will want to ensure that their applications perform well on this new generation of high-performance commodity systems. Developers will appreciate that the new C++ Concurrency Runtime along with the .NET Parallel Extensions encapsulate much “many-core” programming complexity while Visual Studio 2010 includes new tools for debugging and profiling parallel computing applications.

The Windows operating system features built-in infrastructure services (Service Control Manager and Task Scheduler) that help manage background processes. Windows takes advantage of the built-in services to provide system management, device management, and system maintenance functionality. Significant improvements have been made to this infrastructure for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. Developers can use these improvements to develop Windows services that are efficient and that contribute to overall system performance and security. For example, a service can register to be started or stopped when a trigger event occurs. This eliminates the need for services to start when the system starts, or for services to poll or actively wait for an event; a service can start when it is needed, instead of starting automatically whether or not there is work to do.

Server Core is a minimal installation option for Windows Server and is available with the following Windows Server editions: (1) Windows Server 2008 R2 Web Edition (2) Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard Edition (3) Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise Edition (4) Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter Edition Server Core system deployments provide significant benefits including: (1) Reduced Server Attack Surface (2) Reduced Management and Patching Requirements Windows Server 2008 R2 Server Core introduces support for subsets of the 2.0/3.0/3.5 .NET Framework in addition to a number of other new optional features and roles. These additions extend the role of Server Core system deployments to not only enterprise network service hosting but also to application hosting. The Framework additions make it possible to host The Web Platform including ASP.NET web applications. Windows PowerShell is available along with the integrated IIS Provider. Application Developers should ensure their new and existing Enterprise Solutions integrate well with the Server Core deployment environment.

The Windows Server 2008 R2 Web Server (Internet Information Services, IIS 7.5) is built with a completely modular architecture on top of rich extensibility APIs. This enables developers to easily add, remove, and even replace built-in IIS components with hand-crafted ones specifically suited for any given Web site. It is now easy to plug code deep into the IIS core pipeline and extend IIS in ways that were previously impossible. In addition to exceptional modularity and extensibility, the Web Platform enables a myriad of Web Development scenarios including ASP.NET, PHP, FastCGI, Web Services, improved FTP services, as well as integrated media solution scenarios. New Modules, Extensions, and Utilities are published regularly online. For example, the new Web Platform Installer (WPI) utility enables seamless deployment and configuration of the Microsoft Web Platform, including IIS, SQL Server Express, .NET Framework and Visual Web Developer, as well as custom extensions and reusable application-templates from the online Web Gallery. Learn more about the Microsoft Web Platform and IIS Extensibility.

The WS-* web services industry standard protocols are widely accompanied by managed-code end-point implementations. With the Windows Web Services API (WWSAPI), you can now connect your C/C++ client applications with web services as well as implement C/C++ web services. WWSAPI, new with Windows 7 (client) and Windows Server 2008 R2 (server), is an implementation of the WS-* family of protocols for SOAP based web services. It enables several solution scenarios including: (1) The ability to build web services in native C/C++ code on both Windows client and server. (2) Achieve interoperability with web services implemented using Windows Communication Foundation, ASP.NET XML Web Services, and even services implemented using non-Microsoft implementations of WS-* protocols. (3) The ability to build web services with minimal service startup time and minimal working-set dependencies. (4) The ability to use web services in resource-constrained deployment environments. (5) Avoid costly managed-native inter-op scenarios and achieve high performance web service end-point implementations.

Managing storage is no longer simply about volume and availability; organizations need to manage their data more effectively and more efficiently. Only by gaining insight into their data can companies reduce the cost of storing, maintaining, and managing data. Only by enforcing company policies and knowing how storage is utilized can administrators efficiently use their storage and mitigate the risks of data leakage. The next frontier for administrators is to be able to manage data based on business value. Windows Server® 2008 R2 File Classification Infrastructure (FCI), a built-in solution for file classification, enables manual processes to be automated with predefined policies based on the data’s business value. FCI also provides an extensible API upon which developers can build end-to-end solutions that enable organizations to perform advanced classification and data management, thus enabling Microsoft partners to deliver rich classification solutions. FCI’s out-of-the-box functionality includes the ability to define classification properties, automatically classify files based on location and content, apply file management tasks such as file expiration and custom commands based on classification, and produce reports that show the distribution of a classification property on the file server.

Windows PowerShell is a Windows command-line shell designed for ease-of-use not only by system administrators but also for application and system developers. The shell includes an interactive prompt and a scripting environment that can be used independently or in combination. PowerShell V2 is available by default with both R2 and Windows 7 and, via an optional update, previous versions of Windows. For Developers specifically, Windows PowerShell in combination with the Windows Management Infrastructure (WinRM, WS-Management, WMI) provides a great way to automate server hosted solutions. For example, if you implement all your administration logic via PowerShell, then layer the MMC GUI over the top (i.e. MMC calls PowerShell to get the work done) - you will have given your Enterprise customers the absolute best of all worlds; GUIs, scripting, and delegated, remote automation. Version 2 of Windows Powershell introduces an array of new features including remote sessions, an integrated script environment, debugging tools, and much more.

Although VHD files are closely associated with virtualization products like Hyper-V, the VHD file format is actually a stand-alone technology useful beyond just virtualization solution scenarios. With Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7, VHD files attain "volume" status thus enabling scenarios such as "mount a VHD drive", "boot to a VHD", or "create static, dynamic, or child VHDs". Developers may also integrate such VHD usage scenarios within their applications using new VHD API's. Hyper-V exposes WMI APIs to create, manage, monitor, and configure virtual resources. Developers can use Hyper-V WMI APIs in a variety of ways including: (1) By management software vendors who write tools to manage virtualization environments. (2) By enterprise developers who may seek to integrate heterogeneous virtualization technologies within line-of-business solutions. (3) By developers who want to automate virtualization in test or development environments through scripts or custom utilities.