Introducing Windows Small Business Server 2011: Why Use Windows SBS 2011?

1. Standard or Premium?

The question of whether to purchase the Premium Add-On for Windows SBS 2011 should be based solely on your need for a second server to run LOB applications. The functionality of the primary server remains identical, so if you do not have any applications that require SQL Server, you are better off with just the standard Windows SBS 2011 product.

The price of the Premium Add-On package is less than if you purchased its two products and the appropriate licenses separately. However, it is possible to install additional servers on a Windows SBS 2011 network that you have licensed separately.

Whichever route you choose, it is important to know that purchasing Windows SBS 2011 does not lock you into a single-server network configuration for the rest of the product’s lifetime.

2. Why Use Windows SBS 2011?

When it comes to networking their computers, small businesses can suffer from a variety of shortcomings. The chief problem, not surprisingly, is a limited budget. Business owners accustomed to purchasing workstation software products for a few hundred dollars might be shocked at the four-figure prices of server software plus the additional cost of licensing the client users.

Another big problem for the small business owner is information technology (IT) staffing. Many small businesses cannot justify the expense of full-time IT employees, which leaves them two alternatives: train someone in the organization to manage the network part-time or hire a freelance consultant as needed.

Windows SBS 2011 addresses both of these problems in various ways, as explained in the following sections.

2.1. Pricing

One of the biggest benefits of Windows SBS 2011, as compared with the Microsoft standalone server products that it replaces, is its cost. Purchasing server operating systems and server applications can be a complicated business. You must consider the hardware requirements, operating system requirements, software interoperability, and other factors for each component. Without careful evaluation, you can end up purchasing products that do not work together or paying too much for more software than you need.

Windows SBS 2011 eliminates many of these worries by bundling together most, if not all, of the server products that a small business needs into a single package, with one set of hardware requirements and one price. Table 1 lists the suggested retail prices for Windows SBS 2011 and its CAL packs, as of May 2011.

Using these prices, the total product cost for a sample network consisting of one Windows SBS 2011 server and 25 client workstations would be US $2,543 (that is, US $1,096 for the Windows SBS 2011 product plus US $1,447 for 20 additional CALs). If you were to purchase the server software products separately, the total cost, based on the current retail prices, would add up as shown in Table 2.

Note:

SharePoint Foundation 2010 and Windows Server Update Services 3.0 are free products, and therefore add no cost to the equation. Because this is an example of a one-server network using Windows SBS 2011, SQL Server 2008 R2 is also not part of the calculations.

Of course, there are additional costs involved in setting up a small-business network, including the client operating systems, the hardware, and various networking expenses. However, a savings of US $1,659 on the server software and client licenses is remarkable, especially when you consider that you are receiving the benefits of the unified installation and administration tools as a bonus.

2.2. System Requirements

The literature for every software product on the market includes a list of the system hardware that you need to run the software. Before you purchase a software product, you must make sure that your computer has a processor of the appropriate type and speed; sufficient memory and hard disk space; and the proper peripherals, as specified by the software manufacturer. However, for a single server running a variety of applications and services, determining exactly what hardware you need can be a problem.

In its system requirements for Windows Server 2008 R2, Microsoft specifies minimum and recommended processor speeds, amounts of memory, and hard disk sizes. However, the actual requirements of a server can vary greatly. For example, a computer running Windows Server 2008 R2 that functions only as a file server requires far less memory and disk space than one that is configured to be a domain controller. And when you install additional roles on the server, even more memory is required. Without actual testing, it would be difficult for a small-business purchaser to estimate exactly what hardware is required for a complex Windows Server 2008 R2 configuration such as the one created by Windows SBS 2011.

Complicating the matter even further are the hardware requirements for all the additional applications that you might want to install on a server. Products such as SharePoint Foundation 2010 and Windows Server Update Services 3.0 have their own requirements, which you must consider cumulatively, along with the hardware needed for the operating system. Exchange Server 2010 is even more of a problem because the hardware resources that it requires depend on the role that the individual server plays in an enterprise Exchange Server deployment.

With Windows SBS 2011, the system requirements for the product account for all the components, including Exchange Server 2010, as installed in the default configuration. You don’t have to consider the roles that will be installed on the server or the additional components included with the product.

The actual process of installing the software for a server is where the question of who will administer the small-business network becomes significant. The process of installing the Microsoft server components individually can be puzzling to an inexperienced administrator.

The Windows Server 2008 R2 setup itself is relatively straightforward. Microsoft has streamlined the operating system installation process so that virtually any user familiar with the Windows interface can do it. However, once the operating system installation is completed, the administrator must add more than a dozen roles and features and, in some cases, configure them as well. Following that is the installation of Exchange Server and the other server components, some of which you must download from Microsoft’s website and some of which have software prerequisites that you must install first. Overall, the server installation process is quite complicated when you use the individual software components; it requires a good working knowledge of the Windows Server 2008 R2 tools and components and some background in networking.

With Windows SBS 2011, the installation process for all the server components is performed by a single setup program. The beginning of the process is no different from a standard Windows Server 2008 R2 installation, but once the operating system is installed, the setup program prompts the user for some basic business information and then proceeds to install and configure all the necessary roles and features, as well as the additional server applications included with the product. This integrated setup routine makes it possible for virtually anyone to install Windows SBS 2011.

Note:

The comprehensive, integrated setup routine in Windows SBS 2011 is possible only because the designers of the product have made a great many installation and configuration decisions for the administrator to create a well-integrated, multifunction server platform. One of the big advantages of Windows Server 2008 R2 is the flexibility provided by the roles and features that administrators can install as needed. On a medium-size or large enterprise network, administrators typically use multiple servers to perform different roles. It is therefore not possible to anticipate the roles and features each server needs. Having Windows SBS 2011 is like having a knowledgeable, trustworthy administrator by your side to answer the hard questions for you.

2.4. Administration

Once the installation of Windows SBS 2011 is complete, the server restarts and the user (after logging on) sees the Windows SBS Console. The Home page of this console contains a list of tasks the administrator should perform to get started, and the various other pages contain the most frequently used controls for the product’s various components.

By integrating the most important controls into a single interface and eliminating the more advanced, less frequently used ones, Windows SBS 2011 makes it far easier for the beginning administrator to manage a small-business network.

3. What Can’t Windows SBS 2011 Do?

There are limitations to what Windows SBS 2011 can do compared with the standalone products that comprise it. As mentioned previously, one of the main advantages of Windows SBS is its integrated installation and administration tools, and these tools exist only because the product’s developers have made many important installation and configuration decisions for you. The Windows SBS server environment is carefully designed to provide most, if not all, of the services that a small business needs.

Because this configuration is so carefully wrought, Windows SBS 2011 has some limitations that Windows Server 2008 R2 does not, such as the following:

• Only 75 users Windows SBS 2008 is limited to a maximum of 75 client users, while there is no limit to the number of clients that a computer running Windows Server 2008 R2 can support.

• Only 64-bit processors The Windows SBS 2011 primary server can run only on a computer with a 64-bit processor.

• Only one network interface A Windows SBS primary server can have only one network interface, which means that you cannot configure the computer to function as a router, as you can with Windows Server 2008 R2, or use other technologies requiring two network adapters, such as DirectAccess.

• No Remote Desktop Services The primary server in a Windows SBS 2011 installation cannot function as a Remote Desktop server for any purpose other than administration. Although you can install the Remote Desktop Services role on the computer, attempts to activate the Remote Desktop Licensing server results in errors. You can, however, configure the secondary server in a Windows SBS 2011 Premium Add-On installation to function as a Remote Desktop server.

• No upgrade from earlier versions If you are running an earlier version of Windows SBS, you can migrate your data to a new Windows SBS 2011 server, but you cannot perform an in-place upgrade.

4. What’s New in Windows SBS 2011?

The most obvious differences between Windows SBS 2011 and the previous version, Windows SBS 2008, are the latest versions of the software components. Table 3 lists the versions of the software components included in the two products.

4.1. New System Requirements

Windows SBS 2011 requires a computer with a 64-bit, quad-core processor, running at 2 gigahertz (GHz) or faster. Microsoft has also increased the physical memory requirement to 8 gigabytes (GB), up from 4 GB for Windows SBS 2008. Windows SBS 2011 runs reasonably well with 4 GB of memory, but it runs much better with the minimum recommended 8 GB of memory (although, as always, more is better).

Microsoft has also increased the disk space requirement. Windows SBS 2011 does not install on a disk with less than 80 GB of free space, up from 40 GB in Windows SBS 2008.