Windows Server 2003 R2

Feature Comparison
Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2008 R2, and Windows Server 2012
Feature Comparison
Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2008 R2, and Windows Server 2012



Note: New content developed based on the information in this document should not be made publicly available until after General Availability of Windows Server 2012, targeted for Q1 of FY13. Contactmarioj@microsoft.com for more information.


Contents
Introduction 4
Top Ten Features 5
General Features Overview 9

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Introduction
This featurecomparison guide compares selected features of Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2008 R2, and Windows Server 2012. The “Top Ten Features” section provides an overview of some of the most important features of Windows Server 2012, and the “General Features Overview” section compares a wider-range of features across all three releases. The comparison tables in both sections include comments inregard to each release, as well as notation about how well each feature is supported. The legend for this notation is as follows:
Level of Feature Support
| Feature is supported |
| Feature is only partially supported |
| Feature is not supported |

Top Ten Features
This section provides an overview of the top ten features of Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2008 R2, and WindowsServer 2012.

Features | Windows Server 2003 R2 | Windows Server 2008 R2 | Windows Server 2012 |
Enterprise-class scale and performance | | | |
| Scales to 64 LPs and 1 terabyte (TB) of memory (x64 versions) | Scales to 256 LPs and 2 TB of memory Supports 64 LPs, 1 TB of memory, and 512 active virtual machines on Microsoft Hyper-V hosts Hyper-V guests can access four virtual CPUs,64 gigabytes (GB) of memory, and 2-TB virtual hard disks (VHDs) Clustering support for up to 16 nodes and 1,000 virtual machines | Scales to 640 LPs and 4 TB of memory Supports 320 LPs, 4 TB of memory, and 1,024 active virtual machines with Hyper-V hosts Hyper-V guests can access 64 virtual CPUs, 1 TB of memory, and 64-TB VHDs Clustering support for up to 64 nodes and 4,000 virtual machines |Shared-nothing live migration | | | |
| Not available | Not available | Ability to migrate virtual machines among Hyper-V hosts on different clusters or servers with no storage sharing, using Ethernet connection only—with virtually no downtime |
Hyper-V Network Virtualization | | | |
| Not available | Not available | Ability to isolate network traffic from different business unitsor customers on a shared infrastructure, with reduced need for virtual local area networks (VLANs) Ability to move virtual machines as needed within virtual infrastructure, while preserving virtual network assignments |
Hyper-V Replica | | | |
| Not available | Not available | Storage-agnostic and workload-agnostic solution that replicates virtual machines efficiently, periodically, andasynchronously over networks to a remote site or location for failure recovery |
Low-cost, highly available file-based storage | | | |
| Server Message Block (SMB) 3.0 File Storage not available | SMB 3.0 File Storage not available | New SMB 3.0 protocol enhancements and low-cost, “commodity” hardware with new File Services for storing server application data such as SQL databases andVHDs for Hyper-V on file shares |
Windows PowerShell 3.0 | | | |
| Support for more than 100 cmdlets | Support for more than 200 cmdlets | Comprehensive management platform for datacenter with 2,300+ cmdlets Resilient remote server sessions for withstanding various interruptionsSimplified learning with improved cmdlet discovery and simplified, consistent syntax across cmdlets |...