: What are the versions of Windows Server

2012 and how do they differ?

A: Microsoft has simplified the licensing of Windows Server 2012. It no longer differentiates
versions based on features. As with System Center 2012, licensing now reflects virtual rights
and is based on processor counts:

 Windows Server 2012 Datacenter - High density virtualization with unlimited number of
virtual instances
 Windows Server 2012 Standard - Low density or no virtualization; two virtual instance
rights

Each license for Windows Server 2012 Datacenter and Standard covers two physical processors,
which is the same as for System Center 2012. There are no feature differences between the
Standard and Datacenter editions, which have the same features, memory and processor
capabilities. This means the Standard edition has features such as Failover Clustering.

CALs will still be required to access Windows Server. This now gives a common license model
across Windows Server, System Center, and ECI. Additionally, note the following about these
editions of Windows Server 2012:

 Windows Server 2012 Essentials - No virtual rights and up to 25 user accounts and 50
devices. Replaces Small Business Essentials. Some limitation on features, and supports
up to two processors.
 Windows Server 2012 Foundation - No virtual rights for up to 15 users. An OEM-only
offering for single processor servers.

There is no HPC, Web, or Enterprise edition of Windows Server 2012.

There is also no price change for the Windows Server 2012 Datacenter license ($4,809);
however, the price did increase 22 percent (new price is $882) for Standard. This new price
reflects an increase from one to two virtual instance rights, plus all the premium features that
were previously available only in Enterprise edition.

In terms of license migration, for customers with Software Assurance the following applies:

 Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter (2) -> (1) Windows Server 2012 Datacenter
(as each license now covers 2 processors)
 Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard (1) -> (1) Windows Server 2012 Standard
 Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise (1) -> (2) Windows Server 2012 Standard
(as Enterprise had 4 virtual instance rights and Standard has 2)
  Windows Web Server 2008 R2 (2) -> (1) Windows Server 2012 Standard
(Web Server edition is about half the price of Standard edition; most Web Server edition
deployments are virtualized and Standard gives 2 virtual instance rights, so no drop in
instances)
 Windows HPC Server 2008 R2 (1) -> (1) Windows Server 2012 Standard
(the HPC pack enhancement will be a free download for Windows Server 2012)

Remember that multiple licenses can be applied (stacked) to a single server to give the virtual
rights you need. For example, if a physical server with two processors needed four virtual
instances, then assign that server two Windows Server 2012 Standard licenses.

If six virtual instances were needed, it could be assigned three Windows Server 2012 Standard
licenses. Remember that Standard edition doesn't give the mobility for the virtual instances, but
Datacenter edition has unlimited virtual instance rights. A step up from Standard to Datacenter
will be available.

Windows server 2012 R2 brings many new features and enhancements to windows server world
compared to older version windows server 2012, will discuss major difference between windows
server 2012 and windows server 2012 R2 and some of the very innovative Windows Server 2012
R2 Features and improvements, also see Windows Server 2012 Fetures and Difference between
windows server 2008 and windows server 2012

Windows Server 2012 Schema version is 56 and Windows Server 2012 R2 is 69, schema will be
updated while doing Forest preparation/installing Windows Server 2012 R2

Active Directory comes first when I think about windows server, will start with Active Directory
new features on Windows Server 2012 R2

Active Directory has been enhanced with the following

Join the Workplace (Workplace Join)

SSO Support (Single Sign-On)

Connect from Anywhere with Web Application Proxy

Multi-Factor Access Control (Anywhere-and-on-Any-Device)

Workplace Join

Workplace Join is allows user to connect/join their personal devices with their company’s
workplace network and computers to access resources and services, yes now we can connect our
personal device like mobile phone/tablets and other device(Windows 8.1, iOS 6.0 +, and
Android 4.0 + devices can be joined by using Workplace Join)
It’s not like a Domain Joining, when a device is joined to your workplace, it becomes a known
device and provides seamless second factor authentication through Single Sign On to access the
workplace resources and applications.

Workplace Join through the Device Registration Service, Device Registration Service (DRS) is
part of the Active Directory Federation, creates a device object in Active Directory, and tracks
the associated device’s certificate in order to represent the device’s identity.

SSO Support (Single Sign-On)

Effectively using Single Sign-On (SSO), user no needs to provide their user name and password
while accessing the different application event the outside the office network, again this uses the
Device Registration Service and Active Directory Federation roles allows claims-based
authentication to occur based on trusted certificates

Web Application Proxy

Remote Access role service is replaced by web application proxy in Windows Server 2012 R2,
this will provide access to a sample web application by using claims-based authentication using
Active Directory Federation authentication

Company application can be accessed anywhere with the help of Web Application Proxy in a
secured way

Multi-Factor Authentication

Multi-Factor Authentication is nothing but the authenticating user and the device used by the
user, user and user personal device joined through Workplace Join are authenticated

New DNS Features on windows server 2012 R2

DNS Logging and Diagnostics

Unlike the older windows versions, enabling DNS logging will not degrading the server
performance through enhanced DNS logging and diagnostics feature, this will provides
extremely detailed data about all DNS related information that is sent & received by the DNS
server, similar to the data that can be gathered using network packet capture tools such as
Netmon, this included the DNS Audit events and DNS Analytic events very helpful for
troubleshooting

New Group Policy Features in Windows Server 2012 R2

Policy Caching

Policy Caching is newly introduced In Windows Server 2012 R2, when Group Policy gets
updated, client gets the latest version of a policy from the domain controller, and writes the
policy to a local store. Next time the computer restarted, it reads the most recently version of the
policy from the local store, instead of downloading it from the domain controller. This reduces
the time it takes to update the policy. Most important the boot time is reduced in synchronous
mode

New DHCP Features in Windows Server 2012 R2

DNS PTR registration options

Now you can configure the DHCP scope to r register only address (A) resource records of DHCP
clients with the DNS server. This can be helpful when a reverse lookup zone has not been
configured on your DNS server and that causing attempts to register pointer (PTR) resource
records to fail.

And most important, PowerShell commands will be available for DHCP servers

Also Windows PowerShell for Certificate Services and Many new Features in Remote Desktop
Services in Windows Server 2012 R2

Other than the Active Directory Features on windows server 2012 R2

Work Folders

You can store and access work files on your personal computers and personal device, similar to
Dropbox, this role only available on Windows Server 2012 R2, it’s like an offline file with your
personal device and it get replicated to company network, Access your office files while offline
from personal device, and then sync with the central file server when the PC or device next has
Internet or intranet connectivity, see Microsoft page

Windows PowerShell Desired State Configuration

It’s cool new features from Windows Server 2012 R2, to replace the Group policy (GPO)

Yes, it’s similar to Group policy, enables deploying and managing configuration data like
registry settings, Enabling or disabling server roles and features, Managing files and directories,
Starting, stopping, and managing processes and services, Managing groups and user accounts,
Deploying new software, Managing environment variables, Running Windows PowerShell
scripts and Discovering the actual configuration state, see Microsoft page

Storage Tiering

If you are a storage admin then you know Storage Tiering, yes it’s been there for long time and
now this feature available on Windows Server 2012 R2 operating system, this is the first time
available at the operating system level. Microsoft uses a heat-map algorithm to determine which
chunks of data are seeing the most activity and automatically moves the “hottest” data to the
fastest disk. You can adjust the settings using PowerShell.
RRAS Multitenant Gateway

Now you can deploy RRAS as a virtual machine (VM)-based software gateway and router that
allows Cloud Service Providers (CSPs) and Enterprises to enable datacentre and cloud network
traffic routing between virtual and physical networks

Each site-to-site network connection require a separate gateway in Windows Server 2012, this is
impacting both cost and ease of implementation when more than a few connections are required
for a single application. Windows Server 2012 R2 does away with this limitation, this can reduce
their capital expenditure and operation expenditure

Windows Server Essentials role

Windows Server 2012 R2 Essentials vision is bundled all the required features for small
businesses with up to 25 users and 50 devices, when you install the Windows Server Essentials
Experience role on other Windows server version, you can take advantage of all the features that
are available to you in Windows Server 2012 R2 Essentials without the locks and limits enforced
in it.

And many more new features like, De-duplication on running VMs, Parallel rebuild and shared
virtual hard disk in Hyper-V for Windows Server 2012 R2, also see Windows Server 2012
Fetures