Roles of Window Server 2008R2

Active Directory Certificate Services

• Active Directory Certificate Services Active Directory Certificate Services (AD CS) provides customizable services for issuing and managing certificates in software security systems that use public key technologies. You can use AD CS to create one or more certification authorities (CA) to receive certificate requests, verify the information in the requests and the identity of the requester, issue certificates, revoke certificates, and publish certificate revocation data.

• Applications supported by Active Directory Certificate Services include Secure/Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (S/MIME), secure wireless networks, virtual private networks (VPN), IP security (IPSec), Encrypting File System (EFS), smart card logon, Secure Socket Layer/Transport Layer Security (SSL/TLS), and digital signatures.

Active Directory Domain Services

• Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) stores information about users, computers, and other devices on the network. AD DS helps administrators securely manage this information and facilitates resource sharing and collaboration between users. AD DS is also required to be installed on the network in order to install directory-enabled applications such as Microsoft Exchange Server and for applying other Windows Server technologies such as Group Policy.

Active Directory Federation Services

• Active Directory Federation Services (AD FS) provides Web single-sign-on (SSO) technologies to authenticate a user to multiple Web applications that use a single user account. AD FS accomplishes this by securely federating, or sharing, user identities and permissions, in the form of digital claims, between partner organizations.

Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services

• Organizations that have applications which require a directory for storing application data can use Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services (AD LDS) as the data store. AD LDS runs as a non-operating-system service. Therefore, AD LDS does not require deployment on a domain controller. Running as a non-operating-system service allows multiple instances of AD LDS to run at the same time on a single server, and each instance can be configured independently for servicing multiple applications.

Active Directory Rights Management Services (AD RMS)

• Active Directory Rights Management Services is information protection technology that works with AD RMS -enabled applications to help safeguard digital information from unauthorized use. Content owners can define exactly how a recipient can use the information, such as who can open, change, print, forward, or take other actions with the information. Organizations can create custom usage rights templates such as "Confidential – Read-Only" that can be applied directly to information such as financial reports, product specifications, customer data, and e-mail messages.

Application Server

• Application Server provides a complete solution for hosting and managing high-performance distributed business applications. Integrated services, such as the .NET Framework, Web Server Support, Message Queuing, COM+, Windows Communication Foundation, and Failover Clustering support improve productivity throughout the application life cycle, from design and development through deployment and operations.

Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol Server

• The Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) allows servers to assign, or lease, IP addresses to computers and other devices that are enabled as DHCP clients. Deploying DHCP servers on the network automatically provides computers and other TCP/IP based network devices with valid IP addresses and the additional configuration parameters these devices need./these are known as DHCP options, which allow them to connect to other network resources, such as DNS servers, WINS servers, and routers.

DNS Server

• Domain Name System (DNS) provides a standard method for associating names with numeric Internet addresses. This lets users refer to network computers by using easy-to-remember names instead of a long series of numbers. Windows DNS services can be integrated with DHCP services, eliminating the need to add DNS records as computers are added to the network.

Fax Server

• Fax Server sends and receives faxes, and lets you manage fax resources such as jobs, settings, reports, and fax devices on this computer or on the network.

File Services

• File Services provides technologies for storage management, file replication, distributed namespace management, fast file searching, and streamlined client access to files, such as UNIX-based client computers.

Hyper-V™

• Hyper-V provides the services that you can use to create and manage virtual computing environments and their resources. Virtual computers operate in an isolated operating environment. This lets you to run multiple operating systems at the same time. You can use a virtualized computing environment to improve the efficiency of your computing resources by using more of your hardware resources.

Network Policy and Access Services

• Network Policy and Access Services delivers many different methods to give users local and remote network connectivity, to connect network segments, and to allow network administrators to centrally manage network access and client health policies. With Network Access Services, you can deploy VPN servers, dial-up servers, routers, and 802.11-protected wireless access. You can also deploy RADIUS servers and proxies, and use Connection Manager Administration Kit to create remote access profiles to let client computers to connect to the network.

Print and Document Services

• Print and Document Services enables you to centralize print server and network printer management tasks. With this role, you can also receive scanned documents from network scanners, and route the documents to a shared network resource, a Windows SharePoint Services site, or to e-mail addresses.

Remote Desktop Services

• Remote Desktop Services provides technologies that enable users to access Windows-based programs that are installed on a remote desktop server, or to access the Windows desktop itself, from almost any computing device. Users can connect to a remote desktop server to run programs and to use network resources on that server.

Web Server (IIS)

• The Web Server (IIS) role in Windows Server 2008 R2 lets you share information with users on the Internet, an intranet, or an extranet. Windows Server 2008 R2 delivers IIS 7.5, a unified Web platform that integrates IIS, ASP.NET, and Windows Communication Foundation.

Windows Deployment Services

• You can use Windows Deployment Services to install and configure remotely Windows operating systems on computers that have Pre-boot Execution Environment (PXE) boot ROMs. Administration overhead is decreased through the implementation of the WdsMgmt Microsoft Management Console (MMC) snap-in that manages all aspects of Windows Deployment Services. Windows Deployment Services also provides end-users an experience consistent with Windows Setup.

Windows Server Update Services

• Windows Server Update Services allows network administrators to specify the Microsoft updates that should be installed, to create separate groups of computers for different sets of updates, and to obtain reports on the compliance levels of the computers and on the updates that must be installed.