Windows Server 2008 Roles, what are they?
A role is logical grouping of a set of components based on user scenarios, typical server workloads and dependencies. There are no roles installed by default.
The available roles in Server 2008 are:
- Active Directory Certificate Services (AD CS)
- Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS)
- Active Directory Federation Services (AD FS)
- Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services (AD LDS)
- Active Directory Rights Management Services (AD RMS)
- Application Server
- Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) Server
- Domain Name System (DNS) Server
- Fax Server
- File Services
- Network Policy & Access Services
- Print Services
- Terminal Services
- UDDI Services
- Web Server (IIS)
- Windows Deployment Services (WDS)
- Windows SharePoint Services
Take a deeper look into any of the roles in the following link: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windowsserver/2008/default.aspx