Windows Server 2003
Windows Server 2003 is the name of
Microsoft's line of
server operating systems. It was introduced in April 2003 as the successor to
Windows 2000 Server, and is considered by Microsoft to be the cornerstone of their
Windows Server System line of business server products.
Released on
April 24 2003, Windows Server 2003 (which carries the version number 5.2) is the follow-up to Windows 2000 Server, incorporating compatibility and other features from
Windows XP. Unlike Windows 2000 Server, Windows Server 2003's default installation has none of the server components enabled, to reduce the attack surface of new machines. Windows Server 2003 includes compatibility modes to allow older applications to run with greater stability. It was made more compatible with
Windows NT 4.0 domain-based networking. Incorporating and upgrading a
Windows NT 4.0 domain to Windows 2000 was considered difficult and time consuming, and generally was considered an all or nothing upgrade particularly when dealing with
Active Directory. Windows Server 2003 brought in enhanced Active Directory compatibility, and better deployment support, to ease the transition from
Windows NT 4.0 to Windows Server 2003 and
Windows XP Professional.
Significant enhancements have been made to various services such as the
IIS web server (which was almost completely re-written to improve performance and security),
Distributed File System (which now supports hosting multiple DFS roots on a single server), Terminal Server, Active Directory, Print Server, and a number of other areas. Windows Server 2003 was also the first operating system released by Microsoft after the announcement of their
Trustworthy Computing initiative, and as a result, contains a number of improvements to
security defaults and practices.
The product went through several name changes during the course of development. When first introduced to technical beta testers in mid-2000, it was known by its
codename, "Whistler Server"; it then changed to "Windows 2002 Server" for a brief time in mid-2001, before being renamed "Windows .NET Server" as part of Microsoft's effort to promote their new integrated enterprise and development framework,
Microsoft .NET. However, due to fears of confusing the market about what ".NET" represents and responding to criticism, Microsoft removed .NET from the name during the Release Candidate stage in late 2002. This allowed the name .NET to exclusively apply to the
.NET Framework, as previously it had appeared that .NET was just a tag for a generation of Microsoft products.
In 2005, Microsoft announced
Windows Server "Longhorn" as the next major version of Windows Server after Windows Server 2003, with a targeted release date of the first half of 2007.
* Most versions of Windows Server include
Terminal Services support (using the
Remote Desktop Protocol), enabling multiple simultaneous remote graphical logins. This enables
thin client computing on the windows platform, where all applications run remotely on the server. This feature was first introduced with a special "Terminal Server Edition" of Windows NT Server 4.0, but became more important when made a standard part of Windows 2000.
*
Internet Information Services (IIS) v6.0 - again, versions of IIS were available on Windows 2000 and earlier, but IIS is improved significantly in Windows Server 2003.
*
Active Directory - like Terminal Services, significantly improved since Windows 2000
* Increased default security over previous versions, due to the built-in firewall and most services being disabled by default.
*
Message Queuing - significantly improved since Windows 2000
* Manage Your Server - a role management administrative tool that allows an administrator to choose what functionality the server should provide.
There are a number of improvements from
Windows 2000 server, notably:
* Improvements to
Active Directory (such as the ability to deactivate
classes from the
schema, or to run multiple instances of the directory server (ADAM))
* Improvements to
Group Policy handling and administration
* Improved disk management including the ability to backup from shadows of files, allowing the backup of open files.
* Improved
scripting and
command line tools, which are part of Microsoft's initiative to bring a complete command shell to the next version of Windows.
* Support for a hardware-based "watchdog timer", which can restart the server if the operating system does not respond within a certain amount of time.
[Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003, released in June 2006, is designed for high-end applications that require high performance computing clusters. It is designed to be deployed on numerous computers to be clustered together to achieve supercomputing speeds. Each computer cluster server network comprises of at least one controlling head node and subordinate processing nodes that carry out most of the work. Compute Cluster Server uses the Microsoft Messaging Passing Interface v2 (MS-MPI) to administer the network.]Storage Server
Windows Storage Server 2003, a part of the Windows Server 2003 series is a specialized server Operating System for Network Attached Storage (NAS). It is optimized for use in file and print sharing and also in Storage Area Network (SAN) scenarios. It is only available through OEMs, with Network Attached Storage (NAS) devices, with capacities in excess of a few terabytes. Unlike other Windows Server 2003 editions that provide file and printer sharing functionality, Windows Storage Server 2003 does not require any Client access licenses.
Windows Storage Server 2003 NAS equipment can be headless, which means that they are without any monitors, keyboards or mice, and are administered remotely. Such devices are plugged into any existing IP network and the storage capacity is available to all users. Using NAS devices means that data is decentralized and shared amongst all users of the network, even though access through the data can be controlled. Windows Storage Server 2003 can use RAID arrays to provide redundancy, fault-tolerance and high-performance. Multiple such NAS servers can be clustered to appear as a single device. This allows for very high performance as well as it allows the service to remain up even if one of the servers goes down.
Windows Storage Server 2003 can also be used to create a Storage Area Network, in which the data is transferred in terms of chunks rather than files, thus providing more granularity to the data that can be transferred. This provides higher performance to database and transaction processing applications. Windows Storage Server 2003 also allows NAS devices to be connected to a SAN.
Windows Storage Server 2003 R2, as a follow-up to Windows Storage Server 2003, adds file-server performance optimization, Single Instance Storage (SIS), and index-based search. Single instance storage(SIS) scans storage volumes for duplicate files, and moves the duplicate files to the common SIS store. The file on the volume is replaced with a link to the file. This substitution reduces the amount of storage space required, by as much as 70%[[1]]
Windows Storage Server R2 provides[[2]] an index-based, full-text search based on the indexing engine already built-in Windows server. The updated search engine speeds up indexed searches on network shares. Storage Server R2 also provides filters for searching many standard file formats, such as .zip, AutoCAD, XML, MP3, and .pdf, and all Microsoft Office file formats.
Windows Storage Server 2003 R2 includes built in support for Windows SharePoint Services and Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server, and adds Storage Management snap-in for the Microsoft Management Console. It can be used to centrally manage storage volumes, including DFS shares, on servers running Windows Storage Server R2.
Windows Storage Server R2 cannot be used as an iSCSI target, but can be an iSCSI initiator. This deficiency is slated[[3]] to be addressed in an upcoming release of Windows Storage Server.Features
*Distributed File System (DFS): DFS allows multiple network shares to be aggregated as a virtual file system.
*Support for SAN and iSCSI: Computers can connect to a Storage Server over the LAN, and there is no need for a separate fibre channel network. Thus a Storage Area Network can be created over the LAN itself. iSCSI uses the SCSI protocol to transfer data as a block of bytes, rather than as a file. This increases performance of the Storage network in some scenarios, such as using a database server.
*Virtual Disc Service: It allows NAS devices, RAID devices and SAN shares to be exposed and managed as if they were normal hard drives.
*JBOD systems: JBOD (Just a bunch of discs) systems, by using VDS, can manage a group of individual storage devices as a single unit. There is no need for the storage units to be of the same make and model.
*Software and Hardware RAID: Windows Storage Server 2003 has intrinsic support for hardware implementation of RAID. In case hardware support is not available, it can use software enabled RAID. In that case, all processing is done by the OS.
*Multi Path IO (MPIO): It provides an alternate connection to IO devices in case the primary path is down.Small Business Server: Average cost is $599 USD, the product is purchased through a brick-and-mortar retailer, while an open new license must be purchased through a volume license reseller.
Web Edition: This operating system is priced at $397 USD. Client Access Licenses are not required.
Standard Edition: This operating system is priced at $999 USD, although licences may be purchased for less from a reseller. For more than 5 Active Directory remote-connected users (users of Exchange, for example) additional costs are incurred.
Enterprise Edition: This operating system is priced at $3,999 USD. For more than 25 remote-connected users, additional costs are incurred (either CALs or the EC license).
Datacenter Edition: This operating system's price is unknown, since it must be obtained through an OEM.
Compute Cluster Edition: This operating system's price is currently unknown.
Storage Server: This operating system's price is unknown, since it must be obtained through an OEM. It is rumored to cost between $500 and $1000.
External Connector: an additional license required when non-employees authenticate to Windows applications, for example on an Internet-connected application server. Priced at $3999 USD per server.
All these prices are estimated retail; actual prices will vary depending on the reseller.*Comparison of operating systems
*Windows Server System
*Windows NT Startup Process* Microsoft's Windows Server 2003 homepage
* Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Reviewer's Guide document
* GUIdebook: Windows Server 2003 Gallery — Window Server 2003 screenshots
* Problems with Windows Server 2003 SP1
* Overview of Small Business Server 2003 for the IT Pro
* Overview of Windows Server 2003 security
* Windows Server is an Application Server
* ServerCentral for helping new users for deploying server applications
