Microsoft has released a free ebook titled:"Introducing Windows Server 2012 R2 Preview Release", the book which contains 108 pages is written by Mitch Tulloch and the Windows Server Team. The book provides a "first look" at the new features and enhancements coming in Windows Server 2012 R2, which Microsoft announced in June this year and for which a Tech Preview is now available. R2 is expected to be released in the last quarter of this year.
The book contains the following chapters:
- Chapter 1: Cloud OS, describing Microsoft’s Cloud OS vision consisting of Windows Server, System Center and Windows Azure
- Chapter 2: Hyper-V, detailing, Generation 2 VMs, Automatic VM activation, Remote access over VMBus, Cross-version live migration, Faster live migration, Online VHDX resize, Live export, More robust Linux support, Hyper-V replica enhancements and more
- Chapter 3: Storage, detailing Microsoft’s storage vision, Storage Management API, iSCSI Target Server enhancements, SMB 3.0 enhancements, Data deduplication enhancements, Storage Spaces enhancements, Storage QoS and more
- Chapter 4: Failover Clustering, detailing Guest clusting using shared virtual disks, CSV and SoFS enhancements, changes to the heartbeat threshold, health detection of VMs and other enhancements.
- Chapter 5: Networking, detailing Virtual RSS, NIC teaming enhancements, IPAM enhancements, Hyper-V Network Virtualization enhancements and more
- Chapter 6: Other enhancements, detailing IIS 8.5, RDS enhancements, Group Policy enhancements, Workplace Join