Symptom: your Windows 8/Windows 2012 system locks and crashes after installing some updates
We are still collecting information and data on this issue, but here’s a word of advice:
Today Windows Server 2012 Essentials has been released to manufacturing (RTM).
A trial copy of Windows Server 2012 Essentials is immediately available for download:
http://blogs.technet.com/b/sbs/archive/2012/10/09/windows-server-2012-essentials-released-to-manufacturing-available-for-evaluation-today.aspx
Windows Server 2012 Essentials will be available for purchase on November 1, 2012.
It was just a few months ago (July) that the beta version of this product was announced. Then just a month ago we had the announcement of the Release Candidate (RC) version of 2012 Essentials.
The news that caught everyone’s attention (both good and bad) was that the name “Small Business Server” (SBS) would not be used by Microsoft as it moved forward with the 2012 era of Microsoft servers.
However, that does not mean that Windows Server 2012 Essentials isn’t jammed packed with features for the small or medium sized business. Here are just a few of those features:
So, what’s changed? I’ll list what I consider are three two of the more important changes:
Windows Server 2012 Essentials (W2012e), in many ways, gathers together some of the best features amongst the Windows Home Server (WHS), Windows Storage Server 2011 Essentials, and Windows Small Business Server 2011 Essentials products.
Those who have grown to love and use WHS over the years know that WHS is not a domain server, and thus there is no need to do a domain join of your workstations. You run the connector software and you’re done.
W2012e, on the other hand, is a domain server. And when you run the connector software from a workstation, your workstation is automatically domain joined to the server, which requires a reboot of the workstation, and then it proceeds through creating a new account on the workstation.
Not that that’s bad … domain-joined workstations can take full advantage of things such as group policy, domain credentials, and VPN.
But what are the options for the WHS users and sites that do not need or want to join workstations to the domain?
Microsoft has released instructions (click here) for a regedit change that will bypass the domain join requirements when deploying a workstation in a W2012e network. Please note that although these instructions were posted on the Microsoft Technet forum site, they should not be considered an “officially supported” setup.
To skip joining the domain during a client deployment
If you are an I.T. person, becoming familiar with Hyper-V is not an option (IMHO). Here are some screen shots of Windows Server 2012 Essentials (based on the Release Candidate version), running as a guest in a 2012 Hyper-V GUI environment — all on an 8GB HP MicroServer system! I will use W2012e to refer to the Windows Server 2012 Essentials platform.
#1 – 2012 Hyper-V Parent Metro Screen – note that after enabling the Hyper-V role, a Metro App is automatically added.
#2 Clicking on the icon starts up the 2012 Hyper-V Manager Window. Note that I have two guest sessions, Windows Server 2012 Essentials (W2012e), and a single Windows 8 client workstation.
#3 Double-clicking on the W2012e guest, will start up the W2012e session, and is ready for me to sign in. One trick to remember: don’t use Ctrl-Alt-Del from a guest session! Instead use Ctrl-Alt-End to logon.
#4 And after logging in,
#5 .. we will see the W2012e Metro-styled Start page. You will see that I’ve added the Dashboard to the main screen.
#6 Clicking on the Dashboard icon will bring up the W2012e Dashboard program, from where we can manage our server, adding users, configuring backups, installing SSL certificates, and more!
More posts to follow on the Windows Server 2012 Essentials product …