Windows Server 2012 R2

Windows Server 2012 R2

A version of the Windows NT operating system
Windows Server 2012 R2 Start Screen
Developer	Microsoft
Source model	Closed source / Shared source
Released to manufacturing	October 18, 2013
General availability	[1]
Latest release	R2 6.3 (Build 9600) / October 17, 2013[2]
Update method	Windows Update, Windows Server Update Services, SCCM
Platforms	x64
Kernel type	Hybrid
License	Commercial proprietary software
Preceded by	Windows Server 2012
Succeeded by	Windows Server 2016 (Beta testing)
Official website	www.microsoft.com/en-us/server-cloud/windows-server/default.aspx
Support status
Start date: October 18, 2013 Mainstream support: Until January 9, 2018 Extended support: Until January 10, 2023

Windows Server 2012 R2 was released on October 18, 2013.^[3] It was unveiled on June 3, 2013 at TechEd North America.^[4] According to Windows Server 2012 R2 datasheet published on May 31, 2013, there are four editions of this operating system: Foundation, Essentials, Standard and Datacenter.^[5] As with Windows Server 2012, the Datacenter and Standard editions are feature identical, varying only based on licensing (particularly licensing of virtual instances). The Essentials edition has the same features as the Datacenter and Standard products, with some restrictions.^[6]

A further update, formally designated Windows Server 2012 R2 Update, was released in April 2014,^[7] a cumulative set of security updates, critical updates and updates.^[8]

Windows Server 2012 R2 is succeeded by Windows Server 2016.

Changes from Windows Server 2012

Microsoft has confirmed the following changes introduced by Windows Server 2012 R2:

• Automated Tiering: Storage Spaces stores most frequently accessed files on fastest physical media^[9]
• Deduplication for VHD: Reduces the storage space for VHD files with largely similar contents by storing the similar contents only once^[9]
• Windows PowerShell v4, which now includes a Desired State Configuration (DSC) feature
• Integrated Office 365 support (Essentials edition)
• User interface changes from Windows 8.1, including visible Start button.^[10]
• UEFI-based virtual machines
• Upgrades from driver emulators to synthetic hardware drivers to minimize legacy support
• Faster VM deployment (approximately half the time)^[11]
• Internet Information Services 8.5: Support for logging to Event Tracing for Windows and the ability to log any request/response headers. To improve scalability, if IIS is configured with 100 or more web sites, by default it will not automatically start any of them. Alongside this, a new "Idle Worker Process Page-Out" configuration option has been added to application pools to instruct Windows to page-out the process if it has been idle for the idle time-out period (by default, 20 minutes).^[12]
• Server Message Block: Performance and event logging quality improvements, support for Hyper-V Live Migration over SMB, bandwidth prioritization management, and the ability to remove SMB 1.0 support^[13]
• Windows Deployment Services: Support for managing WDS via PowerShell.^[14]
• Windows Defender is available in a Server Core installation, and is installed and enabled by default.^[15]
• IP Address Management (IPAM): Extended to support role-based access control, allowing for fine-grained control over which users can view or change configurations for DHCP reservations, scopes, IP address blocks, DNS resource records, etc. Additionally, IPAM can integrate with System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012 R2 to have coordinated IP policy across both physical and virtual environments. The IPAM database can be stored in a SQL Server instance instead of Windows Internal Database.^[16]
• Group Policy has a new "Policy Cache" setting which allows domain-joined machines to store a copy of the group policy settings on the client machine and, depending on the speed of access to the domain controller, use those at startup time instead of waiting for the policy settings to download. This can improve startup times on machines that are disconnected from the company network.^[17] New Group Policy settings have been added to cover new features in Windows 8.1 and Internet Explorer 11, such as enabling/disabling SPDY/3 support, configuring start screen layouts, and detecting phone numbers in web pages.^[18]
• TLS support is extended to support RFC 5077, "Transport Layer Security (TLS) Session Resumption without Server-Side State", which improves performance of long-running TLS-secured connections that need to reconnect due to session expiration.
• Hyper-V role and Hyper-V management console are added to the Essentials edition.^[19]

References

1. http://blogs.technet.com/b/windowsserver/archive/2012/08/01/windows-server-2012-released-to-manufacturing.aspx
2. http://blogs.technet.com/b/in_the_cloud/archive/2013/08/27/today-is-the-rtm-for-windows-server-2012-r2.aspx
3. Jeff Meisner (August 14, 2013). "Save the date: Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows System Center 2012 R2 and Windows Intune update coming Oct. 18 - The Official Microsoft Blog - Site Home - TechNet Blogs". TechNet Blogs. Retrieved February 10, 2014.
4. Damien Caro (June 10, 2013). "Windows Server 2012 R2–First look - Damien Caro's Blog - Site Home - TechNet Blogs". Blogs.technet.com. Retrieved June 25, 2013.
5. "Cloud Optimize Your Business" (PDF). Microsoft. Retrieved August 2, 2013.
6. Mackie, Kurt (June 20, 2013). "Microsoft Enhancing Windows Server 2012 R2 Essentials for SMBs". Redmondmag.com. Retrieved June 25, 2013.
7. http://blogs.windows.com/bloggingwindows/2014/08/05/august-updates-for-windows-8-1-and-windows-server-2012-r2/
8. https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/download/details.aspx?id=42334
9. Jackson, Joab (June 5, 2013). "Windows Server 2012 R2 bulks up on storage and networking". PC World. IDG. Retrieved September 20, 2013.
10. Sams, Brad (June 25, 2013). "Windows 8.1 Start button revealed in Windows Server 2012 R2". Neowin.net. Neowin LLC. Retrieved September 20, 2013.
11. Tulloch, Mitch (2013). Introducing Windows Server 2012 R2 (PDF) (Preview Release ed.). Redmond, Washington: Microsoft Press. ISBN 978-0-7356-8293-1. Retrieved September 19, 2013.
12. "What's New in IIS 8.5?". Microsoft.
13. "What's New for SMB in Windows Server 2012 R2".
14. "What's New for Windows Deployment Services in Windows Server 2012 R2".
15. "What's Changed in Security Technologies in Windows 8.1".
16. "What's New in IPAM in Windows Server 2012 R2".
17. "What's New in Group Policy in Windows Server 2012 R2". Microsoft.
18. "What’s new in Group Policy in Windows Server 2012 R2". Group Policy Central.
19. Fabritius, David (3 September 2013). "Understanding Licensing for Windows Server 2012 R2 Essentials and the Windows Server Essentials Experience role". The Windows Server Essentials and Small Business Server Blog.