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Building a Server Appliance Based on Server Core

  • Article

6/22/2010

This section provides information about using the Server Core installation option for Windows Server as the operating system for a server appliance. This information can help you determine if your server appliance can be built using Server Core.

Running Server Core on a server appliance can be beneficial for the following reasons:

  • Server Core installs a subset of the Windows Server operating system and runs a subset of the server roles and optional features for Windows Server, which means that updates are less frequent than on a full installation of Windows Server. Having less-frequent updates is beneficial for any server appliance that must maximize uptime and reliability.
  • Less management is required because Server Core is a subset of the full installation of Windows Server. Less management is beneficial for a server appliance because typically a server appliance only provides one management interface.
  • The attack surface is smaller because there is less running on Server Core than on a full installation of Windows Server. The attack surface is the code that is available to run on the server appliance. Having a smaller attack surface is beneficial to a server appliance that is constantly connected to the Internet; for example, a firewall appliance or storage server.
  • Server Core requires about 3.4 GB to install, which is less disk space than is required for a full installation of Windows Server. Using less disk space is beneficial for a server appliance that requires a smaller operating system partition or uses flash memory.

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