Configuring the Windows Media Servers

The server farm will initially be built on the bench in an isolated test environment. After it has been configured and tested, it will be installed in a rack in the data center and moved into production. The IT department builds servers offline because it is easier to add and configure software in a controlled environment. Working with the server offline also enables IT people to tweak the configuration, see how the system will handle various loads using Windows Media Load Simulator, and try out Windows Media Services 9 Series features, such as server-side playlists.

The hardware is assembled first. The NICs are installed in the servers, and memory is added, if it is not preconfigured by the manufacturer. Then the five hard drives are inserted in the servers.

The computers are started and the hard drives are configured. The first disk, an 18 GB hard drive, is split into two equal partitions. The primary partition contains the operating system, and the extended partition is left open for applications, such as a content management system. The second disk, an 18 GB hard drive, is also split into two partitions: one is used for backing up files; the other is used by the content management system for content storage. The remaining three disks, 36 GB each, are formatted with single partitions. All disks are formatted as NTFS volumes because NTFS provides better performance, security, reliability, and configuration features than the FAT32 file system.

Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition, is installed on each of the servers. During installation of the network components, the installer lets you choose whether to join a workgroup or a domain. Since the Fabrikam team will initially test the server farm in a closed LAN on the bench, they configure these machines to join a workgroup called LAN. Each computer is then given a name such as LAN01, LAN02, and LAN03. Each machine is also given an appropriate administrator password. (See the Windows Server 2003 Help for more information about strong passwords.)

After Windows Server 2003 is installed on each computer, a technician logs on as the administrator and installs Windows Media Services from the Windows Server 2003 CD.

The first thing you will notice after logging on is the Manage Your Server wizard. You can use this wizard to add the streaming media server role to the server, and the wizard will install Windows Media Services. The Manage Your Server wizard can also be used after Windows Media Services has been installed to open the Windows Media Services Administrator snap-in. In this case, the technician bypasses the Manage Your Server wizard in order to install and configure Windows Media Services manually.

Installing Windows Media Services

To install Windows Media Services, the technician does the following:

1. Open Control Panel, double-click Add or Remove Programs, and then start the Add/Remove Windows Components wizard.

2. Open details for Windows Media Services. All of the listed components will be used in this installation, including:

   • Multicast and Advertisement Logging Agent. This installs the components used to generate client usage logs for multicast broadcasts, and to collect client data by using the LogURL attribute in a playlist. Fabrikam will not use the advertisement agent, but they will log client usage for multicasts. Unicast logging is handled by the Logging plug-in. With multicast, on the other hand, there is no connection between the server and client. To log multicast usage, the client sends usage data back to the server, and Internet Information Server (IIS) handles logging the data using the multicast agent.

   • Windows Media Services. This installs the primary Windows Media Services functionality, and is a required component of a Windows Media server.

   • Windows Media Services snap-in. This is the primary interface used to administer the server. The interface is run in the Microsoft Management Console (MMC).

   • Windows Media Services Administrator for the Web. This installs the Web pages and components for administering a Windows Media server over the Web. Most technicians will connect to the server by using the Windows Media Services snap-in for the Microsoft Management Console (MMC). However, the Web interface will enable users with administrative permission to connect to and configure the server through a browser.

After the components have been installed on all servers, Windows Media Services is ready to run. Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) is also installed and configured automatically because it is used for multicast logging and to host the Web administrator. To use these features, the installation software configures IIS to allow ISAPI applications, server-side includes, and ASP pages.