Server operating system Windows Server 2003
- — 22 November, 2003 07:00
It may have been delayed, but Microsoft’s latest server operating system has been well worth the wait. Some three years in the making, Windows Server 2003 is more an evolutionary than a revolutionary upgrade to its predecessor, Server 2000. The most significant changes are the integration of the .NET framework and the much improved Internet Information Server 6.0. Version 2003 offers a heap of performance improvements and enhancements that are designed to make Windows-based networking faster, more reliable and more secure.
![](http://secure.idg.com.au/images/pcw/winserver03_oct03.jpg"class="left"border="o"style="width:700;""height:437;"align="left"></p><p class="storybody">Windows Server 2003 comes in four editions: Web, Standard, Enterprise and Datacenter (which can only be bought with a server). The Enterprise edition scales up to eight processors and 32GB of RAM on x86-based hardware. The upcoming 64-bit version of the OS (for Intel Itanium-based systems) supports up to 64GB of RAM, and the Datacenter edition will support no fewer than 32 processors and 512GB of RAM.
Security, a known Microsoft weakness, has been addressed with Windows Server 2003. There are more than 20 security features such as IIS (internet information services), clipbook, licence logging, telnet, terminal service session discovery and Network DDE. However, these features aren’t enabled by default — you must explicitly install each in turn.</p><p class="storybody">Other enhancements such as driver protection, process isolation and fault tolerance all contribute towards this OS’s excellent stability. Individual servers can handle more users, and backup and recovery won’t slow performance. By any measure, Server 2003 is faster than its predecessors, although these performance gains will be noticeable only on larger networks.</p><p class="storybody">IIS 6.0 is very different in this OS update. The app has been cut into modules and now separates Web server operations from Web site application code processing. The result? It runs more quickly. You can also apply patches without downing the server — a major boon. Sadly, though, there is no direct upgrade path from IIS 5.0. </p><p class="storybody">Enterprise-class installations will benefit from 2003’s Virtual Disk Service, which integrates the OS with directly attached SAN and NAS backup systems. You can now snap storage management tools directly into the Microsoft Management Console, which is a real timesaver. Support for the emerging iSCSI storage networking protocol became available in June.</p><p class="storybody">One potential brow soother is the Volume Shadow Copy service. This lets you take a ‘snapshot’ of single or multiple volumes. Users can then view and optionally restore files from the snapshot, which effectively lets you travel back in time to recover accidentally deleted files without IT intervention. All of which sounds too good to be true. It is — Windows Server 2003 does have a down side. </p><p class="storybody">Surprisingly, the operating system offers poor backwards-compatibility with existing server apps. It can’t even run most versions of Microsoft’s own major server programs like SQL Server and Exchange — you must upgrade to the 2003 versions, but these have yet to be released. As for the rest of your NT or Windows 2000 applications, it’s likely that as many as one in three programs won’t run. </p><p class="storybody">One possibility of redemption lies in Virtual Server. Microsoft recently bought the virtual machine assets of Connectix and is turning them into this add-on. Virtual Server will let users running a Windows NT 4.0 line of business applications continue to run them as a ‘virtual machine’ alongside Server 2003. </p><p class="storybody">In Brief: Microsoft Windows Server 2003 <br>
Windows Server 2003 is a significant improvement over its predecessor. Fundamental changes are thin on the ground, but the new server is noticeably faster. If you’re about to deploy a new network, this is definitely one for the shortlist. Those with NT servers to upgrade may need careful forethought before making the jump, though.<br>
Price: $2079 up to five seats<br>
Vendor: Microsoft<br>
Phone: 13 2058 <br>
<d href=http://www.microsoft.com.au>www.microsoft.com.au</a>
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<h4 id="author-name"><a href="/author/1230839882/roger-gann/articles">Roger Gann</a></h4>
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