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I initially bought a HP Proliant ML 115 server as a cheap test/lab server for VMware vSphere and miscellaneous rollout projects at work, but all of a sudden I needed it for some other project that required that I install Windows Server 2008 directly on the hardware itself.

As is the story with most HP Proliant servers, you should install it with the tools that HP provides. In the case of the ML 115, you can't use the normal SmartStart setup, but it's little cousin Easy Set-up CD.

The installation started fine, after running through the initial HP wizard, but when the time came to actually get the installation started it went all blue screened on me, complaining about nvstor.sys.
I knew that the Windows 2008 installation medium doesn't include support for the built-in nVidia NFP3400 SATA storage controller in RAID mode, but I wasn't running a RAID based setup on it anyway so that shouldn't cause the problem.

Next I tried installing Windows Server 2008 without using the Easy Set-up CD, in other words just plain old booting of the Windows Server 2008 installation CD and initially it seemed like it was running ok. Thats until it just stopped at 0% progress at the "Expanding files" section of the installation.

So, there I was. Using the HP tools, the installation ends in a big old BSOD, using "native" Windows Server 2008 installation it just stops without any indication on what might be wrong.

As it turns out, the solution was pretty weird. The HDD shipped with the server causes the problem (160GB NHP SATA). I have no idea how, but replacing it with another SATA drive and starting the installation again, with the Easy Set-up CD, fixed it.

The HDD shipped with the server makes the installation of Windows Server 2008 crash, replacing it with a "generic" Western Digital AV-GP 1.5TB SATA drive lets me install without problems.

Obviously the nvstor.sys driver shipped with Windows Server 2008 has problems with some drives, but not all. Imagine that a cheap server, that can run VMware ESX/ESXi right out of the box, can't run Windows Server 2008 with the HDD it came shipped with.

Now, how weird is that? Note that that wasn't tested with Windows Server 2008 R2, so the nvstor.sys file shipped with that version might not have the same problem. Also, I did not try loading newer nVidia drivers during the Windows installation procedure, because a) when using the Easy Setup CD you don't get the option to load third party drivers, and b) because after I figured out that changing the HDD helped I didn't want to try another manual installation.

Remind me again, why don't we just virtualize everything? In this instance, it would actually be easier (and quicker!) to install ESXi on the bare metal hardware, create a VM and install Windows Server 2008 in that instead of installing Windows Server 2008 on the hardware directly. How the world has indeed changed.

Update 10. March 2010:

After finishing the installation, I did run into another problem that quite possibly is also related to the nvstor.sys driver. Windows would fail in creating partitions, of the amount of space used by the partitions exceeded approximately 1TB in total.

Upgrading the server to Windows Server 2008 R2 fixed this issue, and I was able to utilize the full disk. This leads me to think that had I installed Server 2008 R2 from the get-go I would not have seen the installation issues with the original drive at all.

I've been running Windows Server 2008 as my main OS for my laptop or a while now and I'm still very happy with it.

Running it as a desktop OS requires a few configuration changes from the default install, and there is now a Windows Server 2008 Workstation Converter application available that does the tweaks for you. I haven't tested it myself yet, but it looks promising. Check it out!

Last night I jumped in and decided to install go forward with my grand plan, namely running Windows Server 2008 as my laptop OS.

Installation

After making sure that I had backed up everything I might be needing
from the old Windows XP install, I basically wiped the whole laptop and
started fresh. A couple of partition deletions later, the Windows
Server 2008 install was underway and on my Lenovo ThinkPad T60 the
installation was pretty much done in 15 minutes.

Thats right, 15 minutes from the install started until I was able to logon for the first time.

No questions are asked during install. No computer name setup, no passwords, nothing. You can pretty much stick the media in the computer, go have a cup of coffee or something, and come back to finalize your installation. Hands off installation at it's very best.

After the first logon, you get presented with the "Server Manager" which under the "Features Summary" states 0 of 36 features installed. Is this really Microsoft? They have 36 features you can add, and they don't force you to disable the ones you don't need? You actually need to make an active choice to enable the features you want? Thats great!  

The "Server Manager" itself warrants a post of it's own. By far the best management console to come out of Redmond to date, and the ability to have diagnostics, roles, and features all in one central place like this is something that has been in demand for years. Well done!

On to driver installation. Most drivers were automatically installed, after all Server 2008 shares kernel and codebase with Windows Vista, so this was to be expected. The drivers that Server 2008 didn't handle on it's own, were for the most part handled by Lenovo System Update which identifies my system as Vista. The only thing I'm missing at this point are the Bluetooth drivers, but I'm pretty sure they'll install without much problems after a manual download from Lenovo.

Of course, running Windows Server 2008 as a desktop OS means that you will have to manually configure a few items. Unlike previous Windows Server versions, Server 2008 is pretty much locked down when installed. After all, who needs Aero, Windows Media Player and Wireless connectivity on their servers? It is a server OS after all. Well, as it turns out, I do. If you can call Aero a need that is, but I just had to try and enable it to compare performance with Vista.

The first "problem" was wireless connectivity. The wireless driver for my laptop seemed to be installed ok, but I was competely unable to find, and much less connect to, any wireless network. This was pretty infortunate, as I only use the laptop on wireless connectivty at home. Sitting on the floor with a cable attached to my wireless access point wasn't much fun, so I had to tackle that issue first.

The solution is pretty straight forward, and makes perfect sense, but if you don't know where to look it might pose a problem getting wireless to work.

Wireless

As I mentioned earlier, Wireless LAN features are not installed by default. All you have to do, is to add the "Wireless LAN Feature" to the server. That brings us to the new "Server Manager" console that Microsoft provides in Server 2008. Start "Server Manager", click on "Features" then go to "Add Features" and right at the bottom you'll find "Wireless LAN Service".

Internet Explorer Security

The second issue, if you want to call it an issue, is that by default Internet Explorer is locked down with the Internet Explorer Enhanced Security Configration settings. For the most part thats a good idea, and I'll leave it enabled on all my real servers at work, but when using it as a desktop OS it is just annoying. Disabling it is a bit different that from Server 2003, but it's a very quick procedure in Server 2008. In Server Manager browse to the Security Information section and click "Configure IE ESC".

Aero:

Now, to enable Aero features there are a couple of things that needs to be done. First, use the "Add Features Wizard" to  add "Desktop Experience". This requires a reboot, but thats not all, you also need to start the "Theme" service, which is disabled by default. When you have logged back in, launch "Server Manger" and browse to "Configuration" -> "Services" and locate the "Themes" service. Change the value from "Disabled" to "Automatic" and start the service. After the service starts, right click on the Desktop select "Personalize" and set the theme to Windows Vista.

Other

I've installed most of my day to day work applications on the newly installed laptop. Lotus Notes 8, VMware Virtual Infrastructure Client, Firefox etc. The only problem I've encountered so far, was installing MSN Live. The standard download doesn't install on Server operating systems, but there is an alternative download available. I've seen that others have experienced problems with running VMware Workstation 6 and Hyper-V simultaneously, but I've yet to test Hyper-V here, nor run any VMware products on top of it. While I plan on testing out Hyper-V on this system, I have to prioritize VMware Server for now. I still have a few template images I need to create, both personally and for the Gallery team.
 
I might be running the most expensive laptop OS in the world, but so far I'm extemely happy with it. I was even able to join the work domain remotely, via our Firepass SSL VPN solution. I had a small problem with the initial logon for my user account though, as the VPN client wasn't running when the logon box appears. That was easiliy solved by logging on as a local administrator, connecting to the SSL VPN, switching user account and then logging on with my domain user.

Conclusion

Windows Server 2008 performs better, even with the Aero features enabled, than Vista ever did on the same hardware. To
me, this a bit strange, even if a lot of services are still disabled,
as the codebase is pretty much the same as Vista. For all I know, Vista
might perform better now that Service Pack 1 has been released, but I
don't anticipate changing back any time soon. Another factor here is
that I had the 32bit version of Vista installed, while I'm now running
64bit Server 2008. How much of a difference that really makes, I don't
know.

My experience with Windows Server 2008 so far really makes me want to get started with upgrading my domain at work and all my servers. I'm literally acing to run adprep /forestprep and adprep /domainprep right now, but I'll wait until I'm physically at work though.

Mr. Patrick O'Rourke from the Microsoft Server Divison, if you are still reading this site please send my regards to the whole development team. You've made a great desktop OS, I'm confident it will be great on my servers as well.

The 14th, Microsoft made Vista Service Pack 1 available for both MSDN and Technet subscribers. It is also available for Volume License customers via the MVLS site. General availability is still scheduled for mid-March, then via individual download or via Windows Update.

I downloaded and installed on my home computer running Vista Ultimate x64. The installation was very smooth and I've had no problems with it at all. I haven't really dug in deep yet and looked at the improvements that Service Pack 1 promises yet, but at least the installation was without any problems at all. Network copying seems to be much quicker now, but I don't have any real benchmarks to base that on.


More interestingly though, I just noticed that Windows Server 2008 was available to me from MVLS. It might be available on MSDN and TechNet as well for all I know, but I haven't checked.

I plan on running Server 2008 as my Laptop OS, as Vista didn't perform all that well on it. Server 2008 and Vista both share the same kernel, and were basically developed as one branch in house at Microsoft until Vista went RTM.

One small fun fact is that the release version of Server 2008 includes Service Pack 1, so the "I'll wait until the first Service Pack is released before I install it" argument is moot. I don't think Microsoft has done anything like that, since perhaps the Exchange 4 release which, if memory servers right, had a fixup package installed in the final release version. I'm not 100% certain that this was the case though, but something along those lines came to mind when writing this.

Update: Iain McDonald explains why the release version of 2008 has Service Pack 1 included on his MSDN blog post Windows Server 2008 is called SP1. Adventures in doing things right?

The download is under way right now, and will most likely reinstall the laptop some time tonight or tomorrow, depending on when the 2.5GB download is finished.

I'll be back with a more comprehensive post regarding using Server 2008 as a laptop OS after I've been running it for a while.