- History of the SBS Product
- Features of SBS 2008
- Limitations of SBS 2008
- Support for SBS 2008
- Summary
Limitations of SBS 2008
SBS 2008, like its predecessors, is a limited product, given its price point and other factors. Those who have worked with previous versions of SBS are used to the limitations of the product, but those who are looking at SBS for the first time might not be aware of what the restrictions are or why they are in place.
Hardware Limitations
For the first time in the lifecycle of SBS, there are specific hardware requirements that are different for SBS than there would be for a regular Windows Server implementation. Historically, SBS has had the same general core hardware requirements as the version of Windows Server that it was built on. Yes, SBS needed more RAM and more disk space at minimum than the published specs for Windows Server, but processor and other hardware minimums matched the core OS.
Not so in SBS 2008. Because of the requirements of Exchange 2007, SBS 2008 must run on a 64-bit platform despite the fact that Windows Server 2008 is capable of running on either 32-bit or 64-bit hardware. This is a fairly significant change in the product, and it means that, in many cases, existing SBS 2003 server deployments will not be able to run SBS 2008 on the current hardware, unless 64-bit–compliant hardware was purchased within a couple of years prior to the release of SBS 2008.
Software Limitations
Table 1.2 details some of the limitations SBS 2008 has with its core components.
Table 1.2. SBS 2008 Software Restrictions
Category |
Restriction |
Operating System |
|
Users/Devices |
A maximum of 75 user and device licenses can be installed. |
Active Directory |
SBS 2008 must be the root of the Active Directory forest. |
Active Directory |
SBS 2008 cannot have any Active Directory Domain Trusts with other domains or forests. |