I was wondering if anyone here wants to:

Evaluate Windows Small Business Server 2008 Public Preview today

Published: May 28, 2008

Designed for small businesses, Windows Small Business Server 2008 is an affordable, integrated server solution that helps you protect your business data, increase productivity and present a more professional image to customers – giving you the tools you need to help grow your business capacity. And when you download the latest public preview software, you're automatically registered to access valuable public preview resources assembled in one convenient location.

Please review the Windows Small Business Server 2008 Public Preview system requirements before you proceed. Actual requirements and product functionality may vary based on your system configuration.

Use the following product key to activate your trial of the Windows Small Business Server 2008 Public Preview software.

Windows Small Business Server 2008 Standard Product Key:
YH2BV-9YMTM-MP7DC-KDCH4-FC9C3
Windows Small Business Server 2008 Premium Product Key:
1st Server: YH2BV-9YMTM-MP7DC-KDCH4-FC9C3
2nd Server: 242HC-R6RR6-WM2M8-J4BMK-7VV9R

The Public Preview software is being made available so you may test and explore the software. As this is not final release code, you may not test the software in a live operating environment.

Sign-up & Download Here

*I'm downloading mine right now

Last night I downloaded all 4 .ISO's

Here is some more info.



Windows SBS 2008 is available in two editions: Standard and Premium.

Standard Edition includes the software to install the primary Small Business Server. To install Standard Edition, you will need to download:

• SBS2008_RC0_ENU_DVD1.iso - Small Business Server Installation

Premium Edition includes software to install an additional Windows Server (either x86 or x64) for your domain, with the option of running SQL Server. To install Premium Edition, you will need to download:

• SBS2008_RC0_ENU_DVD1.iso - Small Business Server Installation - 3793.5 MB
• SBS2008_RC0_ENU_DVD2.iso - Additional Server Installation x86 - 1632.6 MB
• SBS2008_RC0_ENU_DVD3.iso - Additional Server Installation x64 - 2215.6 MB
• SBS2008_RC0_ENU_DVD4.iso - SQL Server 2008 for Small Business CTP6 - 2279.2 MB


System Requirements

• Supported Operating Systems: Windows Server 2008

Notes:
Windows SBS 2008 Standard is available only as a 64-bit operating system.
Windows SBS 2008 Premium enables the installation of an additional server in the SBS domain. Both 64-bit and 32-bit operating system software is available for this server.
As this is not final release code, you may not install the software in a live operating environment.

Small Business Server (applies to Standard and Premium editions):
Processor:
• Recommended: 2 GHz x64 or faster
Memory:
• Recommended: 4 GB RAM
• Maximum: 32 GB
Available Disk Space:
• Minimum: 60 GB

Additional Server (applies to Premium edition only):
Processor:
• Recommended: 2 GHz (x86 and x64 processors)
Memory:
• Recommended: 2 GB RAM
Available Disk Space:
• Recommended: 40 GB

Additional system requirement guidance is available here - bad link

I downloaded them this morning, still undecided as to which one to try, SBS server or the Essential Business Server

I'll probably start w/ the SBS Standard x64 edition,
I'm hopeing it'll be easier to install (for me) than the EBS was

Just finished w/ the SBS 2008 Standard edition.
That took awhile to get setup

The installation in total took 1hr, 35 minutes.
There was a 1/2 hr. black screen while the Hdd churned away.

Unlike my Enterprise Server install SBS2008 did find my Ethernet driver when I showed it where it was.
Strange that I chose not to download & install any updates after getting the Ethernet driver loaded, but SBS went ahead & Dl'ed & installed them anyway!!

Here is a screenshot of the SBS Console

Tonight I activated SBS 08 & did a few Server 2008 tweaks from Grav!ty's thread, I couldn't get the sidebar going tho

Here are a few more screenshots of what is included in the Standard Edition.

SBS after some visual tweaks, a untweaked copy in my above post



About Exchange Server 2007


Management Console



About SQL Server Mgmt Studio Express


SQL Server Mgmt Studio Express - System Views



Windows PowerShell



About SBS 2008





*I suppose I should add that there are a few bugs in this build & on this (under RAMed) test rig w/ 2 GB of DDR2 RAM it still takes 5 minutes for the OS, after restarting, to stop the Services & 11 minutes to hit the desktop!

What is your systems specs; how much ram and what CPU etc

yeshuas wrote:

What is your systems specs; how much ram and what CPU etc

System Manufacturer BIOSTAR Group
System Model GF7050V-M7
System Type x64-based PC
Processor Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU E4500 @ 2.20GHz, 2200 Mhz, 2 Core(s), 2 Logical Processor(s)
Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 2.00 GB DDR2

So it will run on less memory than it recommends, cool. I may try to set it up on a Dual Core system I have with 2 GB Ram

Yes it will (or mine does), I shut off (in power settings) all the sleep functions & the screensaver & left it running all night the first night to let the OS get whatever work it needed to do, done.


Since then it runs ok, the SBS Console is slow loading tho, but the rest of what I've tried works ok.


Setting it for best appearance didn't seem to slow it down & the rest of the tweaks didn't appear to cause much slowing either.
Its just the PC restart that takes awhile