Windows Server 8 Preview

The new Server Manager has been completely rebuilt in Server 8. It is now a multi-server management tool, and sports a blocky user interface with tiles inspired by the Metro design first on Windows Phone 7. It is a flexible design, with a grid layout that lets you take a server-centric or role-centric view of the servers you are managing. The dashboard shows tiles for server roles and groups, with a red tile indicating a problem such as a stopped service. For some operations, you can multi-select servers and perform the same action on all of them. There are still wizards for adding roles and features, with a new streamlined look in this version. Microsoft is also talking up its standards support for server management. Server 8 supports the DMTF (Distributed Management Task Force) CIM (Common Information Model) and WS-Management SOAP protocol, as well as SMI-S (Storage Management Initiative Specification) for storage management.