Released: March 2009 (SP2) | End of Mainstream Support: January 13, 2015 | End of Extended Support: January 14, 2020 Introduction Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2 represents a significant milestone in Microsoft’s server operating system history. Built on the same kernel as Windows Vista (NT 6.0), Server 2008 was the final Microsoft server OS to offer a native x86 (32-bit) edition. With SP2, Microsoft delivered a rollup of updates, new features, and reliability improvements that made this platform a workhorse for nearly a decade.
If your business relies on it, treat migration as a critical risk-management project. If you are studying it, admire the engineering that kept NT 6.0 alive for over a decade. Quick Reference Card | Edition | Max RAM (x86) | Max RAM (x64) | Hyper-V? | End of Life | | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | | Web Server | 4 GB | 32 GB | No | Jan 14, 2020 | | Standard | 4 GB | 32 GB | No | Jan 14, 2020 | | Enterprise | 64 GB | 2 TB | Yes | Jan 14, 2020 | | Datacenter | 64 GB | 8 TB (SP2) | Yes | Jan 14, 2020 | | Itanium | N/A | 2 TB | No | Jan 14, 2020 | Need to extract data from an old WS2008 SP2 machine? Consider booting a live Linux USB to image the drive, or use the Windows Backup utility to write to an external SATA drive. Never connect an unsupported OS directly to the internet. Windows Server 2008 SP2 -x86-x64-