Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition, is the workhorse version of the operating system. It comes with a bunch of new features that are exclusive to Windows Server 2003, as you’d expect, and it also includes a few unexpected surprises, including the aforementioned e-mail and database services, as well as Network Load Balancing. As you probably know, Network Load Balancing is included in Windows 2000 Server, but only with the Advanced Server edition—now you can get this feature without shelling out any extra cash. In fact, Network Load Balancing is now included with all four editions of the operating system, even the low-cost Web Edition.
Standard Edition is optimized to provide domain services, such as DNS, Dynamic Host Con- figuration Protocol (DHCP), Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) networking, print, and fax, in a small to moderately sized network environment. This edition supports two- and four-way symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) and up to 4 gigabytes (GB) of memory on 32-bit systems and 32 GB on 64-bit systems.
Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition
Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition, is the robust medium- to large-enterprise solution specifically designed for multidepartmental use. It supports eight-node clusters and very large memory (VLM) configurations of up to 32 GB on 32-bit systems and 64 GB on 64-bit systems. It also allows you to boot servers from a storage area network (SAN), supports hot- add memory (you don’t need to take down the system to install memory), and lets you run up to eight processors. In addition, it includes Services for Macintosh and support for Non- Uniform Memory Access (NUMA). (Don’t you just hate all the acronyms you have to keep track of now?)
Inside Out
Use hot-add memory for hot swapping memory on compliant systems
With hot-add memory, you just pop the cover, insert the new random access memory (RAM), and wait a few seconds for the system to recognize the change. Then, presto! The addi- tional RAM is made available to the operating system, its services, and applications, and just as important, no reboot is required. Watch out, though; not all server hardware sup- ports this feature. Both the server hardware and the operating system must support this feature to use it. On the hardware, the server must be built for hot swapping of memory—
this includes physical enhancements as well as machine-level coding so that hot swapping is possible. When you hot add memory, take the necessary precautions, handle the mem- ory properly, and insert the memory carefully without touching other system components. If not, you could fry the memory or a board on the server.
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Windows Server 2003, Datacenter Edition
If Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition, is plain vanilla ice cream served with a spoon, Datacenter Edition is more like an ice cream sundae made with five different flavors, nuts, and whipped cream and served with a cherry on top and spoons for everyone at your table.
This edition is designed to host business-critical systems and solutions using a minimum of 8 processors and a maximum of 32 and includes all the features of the Enterprise Edition.
Plus, it supports clustering for up to eight nodes and it increases VLM support, allowing for configurations of up to 64 GB on 32-bit systems and 512 GB on Itanium (IA-64) systems.
But the enhancements don’t stop there. Datacenter Edition also includes Windows System Resource Manager, which allows you to specify the amount of system resources, including processors and memory, that is available to each application and to prioritize the resources.
This permits tuning applications for optimal responsiveness. For example, you can specify that Microsoft Exchange Server can use up to 50 percent of the available central processing units (CPUs) and up to 75 percent of the available memory, while Microsoft SQL Server, also running on the server, can use only up to 33 percent of the available CPUs and up to 50 percent of the available memory. By further specifying that Exchange has priority over SQL Server, you can ensure that Exchange will always be optimally responsive.
Inside Out
Obtain Datacenter Edition from hardware vendors
You cannot purchase Windows Server 2003, Datacenter Edition, off the shelf. This edition of Windows Server 2003 is available only as part of a proprietary hardware system. To use the Datacenter Edition, you must choose a hardware vendor and a system from that vendor that not only meets the minimum requirements of eight CPUs and 512 gigabytes (MB) of RAM, but one that also has been through the rigorous hardware testing and certification process required by Microsoft.
Windows Server 2003, Web Edition
Windows Server 2003, Web Edition, is the fourth and newest option. It supports up to 2 GB of RAM and two CPUs and is designed, as the name implies, to provide Web services, primarily for hosting Web sites and Web-based applications on the Internet and intranets.
As with all the other editions of Windows Server 2003, it supports Internet Information Services (IIS) 6, ASP.NET, and the Windows .NET Framework. These technologies work together to make the sharing of application services in Web environments possible.
However, Web Edition, doesn’t include many of the other common features of Windows Server 2003. The biggest feature missing is Active Directory, which means that servers run- ning the Web Edition cannot be domain controllers. Other servers in the datacenter can pro- vide this functionality, however; and so servers running the Web Edition can be part of an
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Active Directory domain. In addition, although Network Load Balancing support is included in Web Edition, the only other features it has in common with the other editions of Windows Server 2003 are the following:
● Distributed file system (DFS)
● Encrypting File System (EFS)
● Remote Desktop for Administration
Because of this, Web Edition cannot provide Internet connection sharing, network bridging, or faxing services, and although it includes the Remote Desktop, it doesn’t include Terminal Services. This means you can access a server running Web Edition using Remote Desktop, but cannot run applications on it remotely using Terminal Services.
Caution An important security note for Web Edition is that Internet Connection Firewall is not included. Because of this, there is no built-in firewall protection. Microsoft assumes the datacenter will have its own firewall that restricts access to servers as appropriate.
Note Web Edition is available only to Microsoft customers with Enterprise and Select licensing agreements and to service providers that have a service provider licensing agree- ment (SPLA). You can also get Web Edition preinstalled on a system from Microsoft OEMs and System Builder partners.
64-Bit Computing
With Windows Server 2003, 64-bit computing achieves its full potential. Not only do computers running 64-bit versions of Windows perform better and run faster than their 32-bit counterparts, they are also more scalable, as they can process more data per clock cycle, address more memory, and perform numeric calculations faster. Windows Server 2003 supports two different 64-bit architectures:
● The first architecture is based on the Explicitly Parallel Instruction Computing (EPIC) processor architecture, which is implemented in Intel Itanium (IA-64) processors. This architecture offers native 64-bit processing, allowing 64-bit applications to achieve optimal performance.
● The second architecture is based on 64-bit extensions to the x86 instructions set, which is implemented in AMD Opteron (AMD64) processors and Intel Xeon proces- sors with 64-bit extension technology. This architecture offers native 32-bit process- ing and 64-bit extension processing.
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Inside Out
Running 32-bit applications on 64-bit hardware
In most cases, 64-bit hardware is compatible with 32-bit applications; however, 32-bit appli- cations will perform better on 32-bit hardware. Windows Server 2003 64-bit editions sup- port both 64-bit and 32-bit applications using the Windows on Windows 64 (WOW64) x86 emulation layer. The WOW64 subsystem isolates 32-bit applications from 64-bit applica- tions. This prevents file system and Registry problems. The operating system provides interoperability across the 32-bit/64-bit boundary for Component Object Model (COM) and basic operations, such as cut, copy, and paste from the clipboard. However, 32-bit pro- cesses cannot load 64-bit dynamic-link libraries (DLLs), and 64-bit processes cannot load 32-bit DLLs.
64-bit computing is designed for performing operations that are memory-intensive and that require extensive numeric calculations. With 64-bit processing, applications can load large data sets entirely into physical memory (that is, RAM), which reduces the need to page to disk and increases performance substantially. The EPIC instruction set enables Itanium- based processors to perform up to 20 operations simultaneously.
x86-based and Itanium-based computers differ in many fundamental ways. x86-based computers use BIOS and the Master Boot Record (MBR) disk type. Itanium-based com- puters use Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI) and the GUID Partition Table (GPT) disk type. This means there are differences in the way you manage x86-based and Itanium- based computers, particularly when it comes to setup and disk configuration. For details on setting up x86-based and Itanium-based computers, see the section entitled “Getting A Quick Start” on page 72. Techniques for using MBR and GPT disks are covered in detail in Chapter 19, “Storage Management.”
Note In this text, I will refer to 32-bit versions of Windows and 64-bit versions of Windows to indicate something that applies to Windows Server 2003 32-bit and Windows Server 2003 64-bit versions in general. If a feature is specific to chip architecture, I will specify the chip architecture, such as x86 (IA-32) or Itanium (IA-64). Keep in mind that the Windows Server 2003 64-bit extended systems versions run on x86 chip architectures.
.NET Technologies
All editions of Windows Server 2003 include IIS 6 and ASP.NET and support the Windows .NET Framework. IIS, as you probably already know, is a bundle of essential Web services that allow servers to act as Web servers, File Transfer Protocol (FTP) servers, Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) hosts, and Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP) hosts. ASP.NET is a server-side scripting environment for developing Web applications. The Windows .NET