By Michael Cherry [bio]
Posted: Apr. 7, 2008

The following is a sidebar accompanying an article published by Directions on Microsoft, an independent research firm focused exclusively on Microsoft strategy & technology. More samples of our content, as well as a list of upcoming articles and reports are also available.

The new Server Core installation of Windows Server 2008 installs only a minimal set of components for network infrastructure functions, such as file or domain name services. The Server Core mode reduces server maintenance and improves security for these server roles, but these advantages may be offset by the lack of an ASP.NET-capable Web server role and the requirement to manage the server by remote management consoles or a command line and VBScript.

Server Core was not designed to be a complete application platform; therefore, developers will have to ensure that a Server Core installation includes the necessary services and components for their applications.

In particular, Server Core does support the execution of applications such as management tools and agents, which can be divided into two categories:

Remote management tools. Typically, developers will not have to modify these tools to run on Server Core, provided that the tools use one of the protocols supported in Server Core, such as remote procedure calls, to communicate with the remote management workstation.

Local management tools and agents. If these tools use managed code or have any shell or user interface dependencies, they will have to be rewritten to work with Server Core. Microsoft's own management agents can run on Server Core, although documentation for configuration on systems without a graphical interface is scarce.

The Windows Server 2008 SDK includes a list of APIs that are supported on Server Core. Developers need to verify that all APIs called by their code are available on Server Core, and they will also have to test each application to ensure they can install in a quiet (no user interface) mode.