Thoughts on Windows Server 2008 R2 Foundation?

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nowwhatnapster

Limp Gawd
Joined
Aug 9, 2009
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I would like to hear from anyone that has considered using or is currently using Windows Server 2008 R2 Foundation. Pros, Cons, etc

I am looking to migrate away from Windows Home Server and Foundation looks very attractive, mainly because of the price point. However, I have alot of unanswered questions, and there are very few "reviews" out there.

Some questions i have are:
  • What is the cost to upgrade to the standard edition? I would expect there to be a discount because you already dished out $200+ for foundation.
  • Its OEM, so does that mean it has the same licensing scheme as my windows 7 Professional OEM? No Microsoft support and intended for resale/system builder.
  • Its limited to 1 physical CPU, but can I use a dual socket motherboard with only 1 CPU installed? With the intention of upgrading to the Standard edition at a later date and installing a second CPU.
  • I heard Foundation doesn't support any virtualization. I was hoping to get atleast 1 virtual machine running. Will I need to upgrade to standard edition or are there alternative solutions to virtualization on foundation?

If you happen to know the answer to any of these questions or simply have some good feedback please let me know.
 
Well.... Seeing as no one has piped up yet. I went ahead and made like 6 phone calls today. Turns out you can only get Windows Server 2008 R2 Foundation pre-installed on machines sold by major OEM's. So that is a major deal breaker for me.

On top of that, there is no discount for the standard edition if you own a foundation licence. It makes more sense to save for the standard edition IMO. I didn't bother trying to figure out my other questions after I learning those two facts.

Hopefully this information is useful for other people.
 
just realize that 2008 R2 is not WHS, where everything is automatic. The learning curve is very high. It is not because it is difficult, but more so because of the tons of options available that do not serve much purpose for general home use.

You might want to consider a technet subscription which will give you access to the software and teach you how to use it.
 
caniba said:
just realize that 2008 R2 is not WHS, where everything is automatic. The learning curve is very high. It is not because it is difficult, but more so because of the tons of options available that do not serve much purpose for general home use.

You might want to consider a technet subscription which will give you access to the software and teach you how to use it.
Click to expand...

a significant amount of the complexity is related to maintaining a domain. Creating the domain is easy, properly configuring who gets access to what is a bit more complicated.

R2 allows for many more hardware options Raid 1/5, etc.
 
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