It's time to consider Windows Server 2012 migration

Windows Server 2012 is seen as a key milestone in the development of the data center, after which Microsoft quickly released the R2 version. The speed of release and many of its popular features have undoubtedly contributed to Windows Server 2012. It should be known that Microsoft decided to stop mainstream support for Windows Server 2008 in early 2015.

So it's time to seriously consider the migration of Windows Server 2012. Let's take a closer look at what this means for your organization.

Virtualization Environments

If you plan to deploy a large-scale virtualization environment, the roles and features of Windows Server 2012 such as Hyper-V and failover clustering can help.

Hyper-V integrates many enhancements, such as Hyper-V Replica, to provide business continuity with disaster recovery sites. Virtual Fibre Channel adapters allow guest virtual machines (VMs) to directly access SAN-based storage.

Hyper-V and failover clusters use the Server Message Block 3.0 (SMB 3.0) protocol for performance and reliability enhancements. The extended file server supports clusters of up to 64 nodes and supports up to 8000 virtual machines.

Changes to Windows Server 2012 Releases

Microsoft has revised the Windows Server 2012 release to include Foundation, Essentials, Standard, Datacenter, and Storage Server.

When doing a Windows Server 2012 migration, it's important to understand that the main difference between versions is the virtualization limit for each version. The Datacenter Edition supports an unlimited number of VMs, and the Standard Edition supports only two virtual machines.

There is no Enterprise Edition now, and all of its same features and functionality are available in Datacenter and Standard. The Essentials version replaces the original Small Business Server and provides up to 25 user accounts. The Foundation (OEM) version is an entry level with 15 user accounts.

Hardware support between different versions of Windows Server 2012 is also different. For example, the Datacenter and Standard versions support 64 processor sockets, while the Essentials version has only two and the Foundation version has only one. The maximum physical memory supported by each version is also different. The Datacenter and Standard versions support up to 4TB of memory, and the Essentials and Foundation versions support 64GB and 32GB of memory, respectively.

This is the first part of the Windows Sever 2012 migration. For the second part, see "Key Steps for Windows Server 2012 Migration."