At the recent Minasi Forum 2007 conference, Mark Minasi briefly spoke about Windows Server 2008 (formerly Longhorn) Core. Core? What the hell is Core?
Core is a stripped down version of Windows Server that only installs those components that are necessary for roles that you define. The most noticeable feature is that there is no GUI. Anyone who has fired up Windows PE will know that all you get is a command prompt. It’s the same with Core. It’s going to be quite attractive for anyone who needs maximum performance, a minimal attack surface or minimised complexity. Your administration has to either be done via command line (eek!) or by using remote consoles. Note that there’s no support for DCOM so local stuff like Powershell is not an option.
Of note, today Microsoft announced that Server Core will now support a role for IIS 7. This means you can run stripped down IIS7 servers. This will be quite attractive to organisations with a large Microsoft based web presence.
Update:
I got a message from Dmitry Sotnikov last night. He informed me that although we cannot install Powershell on a Server Core installation, we can still manage those servers remotely using the new scripting language. This makes sense … MS are pushing Powershell and it’s management capabilities are excellent.