The Windows Server 2003 Family

Just like there are various sizes of trucks for different uses, various editions of Windows Server 2003 are each suited to a different use.

Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition

The standard edition of Windows Server 2003 is targeted for small businesses and departmental use. It supports the following hardware:

• Minimum CPU133 MHz

• Minimum RAM128 MB

• Up to 4 gigabytes of RAM

• Up to 4 processors

• Network load balancing

Unlike in Windows 2000, the standard edition of Windows Server 2003 includes support for load balancing. This feature allows you to set up a group of servers running identical applications, typically a web server. All the servers share a virtual address, so the user will be connected to any server that's available. If a server is removed from the load-balanced group, either for maintenance or because of a failure, the incoming connections are rebalanced over the remaining servers in the group.

Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition

The enterprise edition of Windows Server 2003 is targeted for medium to large businesses and departmental use. The enterprise edition adds support for fault-tolerant features such as clustering and load balancing. It supports the following hardware:

• Minimum CPU133 MHz

• Minimum RAM128 MB

• Up to 32 gigabytes of RAM in the 32-bit edition and 64 gigabytes of RAM in the 64-bit edition

• Up to 8 processors

• 8-way clustering

• Terminal services load balancing

• All features included in standard edition

Clustering is an advanced feature that allows the workload to be switched over from one server to another, either manually, or because of a hardware or software failure. This process is called failover. By configuring a set of servers to failover in case of an error, a high degree of application availability can be obtained. Each server in this type of configuration is referred to as a node.

However, for clustering to provide this fault tolerance, the applications must be cluster aware. This requires them to be specifically written to be able to temporarily suspend operation while being switched from one node to another, and then to pick up exactly where they left off after the transfer has been completed. Microsoft Exchange and SQL Server are two applications that are available in cluster-aware versions.

Note that the hardware requirements for a server to be approved for use in a cluster configuration are far more stringent than for a common Windows Server 2003 server. Hence, there are far fewer server models available, and the ones that meet the requirements are far more expensive.

Note: Terminal Services Load Balancing

Although similar in operation to the basic load-balancing feature included in Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition, a lot of added functionality is specifically included for Terminal Services. Terminal Services will be covered at length in Chapter 11, "Managing and Maintaining Terminal Services."

Windows Server 2003 Web Edition

The web edition of Windows Server 2003 is targeted specifically for use as a web server and does not support many of the functions of the other editions. For example, it cannot be used as a domain controller, an Internet Authentication Service (IAS) server, or a DHCP server. It supports the following hardware:

• Minimum CPU133 MHz

• Minimum RAM128 MB

• Up to 2 gigabytes of RAM

• Up to 2 processors

In addition, the web edition is available only from OEMs preinstalled on servers. It is not available at retail.

Windows Server 2003 Datacenter Edition

The datacenter edition of Windows Server 2003 is targeted for large businesses that require mission-critical high-availability applications. The datacenter edition adds support for larger amounts of memory and more processors than the other versions. It supports the following hardware:

• Up to 64 gigabytes of RAM in the 32-bit edition and 128 gigabytes of RAM in the 64-bit edition

• Minimum of 8 processors and up to 32 processors

• 8-way clustering

• All features included in standard and enterprise editions

The datacenter edition of Windows Server 2003 is only available preinstalled on specialized hardware available directly from and supported by the manufacturer. It is not available from retail channels.

Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition for 64-Bit Processors

This is another specialized version developed for the Intel Itanium and AMD 64-bit chipset. Although not very popular at the initial release of Windows Server 2003, it has become more relevant as the popularity of 64-bit servers has increased., The next release of Windows Server, currently code named Longhorn and several other upcoming Microsoft products are being developed with features that take advantage of the 64-bit processors.

Service Pack 1

From time to time, Microsoft rolls up the various hot fixes into a service pack. A service pack is an integrated and tested set of the fixes and security enhancements that have been released since the last official release of the product. Although Microsoft commonly states that service packs will not include any new functionality, usually a few new features are sneaked in.

For the purposes of the 70-290 exam, you will need to become familiar with the following new features in Windows Server 2003 SP1:

• The Security Configuration Wizard The SCW automatically configures the file, services, auditing, and Registry settings for your server according to the server role to reduce the attack surface.

• Windows Firewall The Internet Connection Firewall has been replaced with the Windows Firewall, first released in Windows XP Service Pack 2. Unlike in Windows XP, the firewall is turned off by default in Windows Server 2003. If needed, it must be manually enabled.

Windows Server 2003 R2

Starting with the initial release of Windows Server 2003, Microsoft committed to releasing a major version of its server product every four years, with an incremental version after two years. The first incremental version release under this philosophy is Windows Server 2003 R2. Unlike service packs, Microsoft will release new functionality in incremental versions. Some of the features will be totally new, whereas others will be add-ons that were released to the web after the initial release of the product.

For the purposes of the 70-290 exam, you will need to become familiar with the following new features in Windows Server 2003 R2:

• The Print Management Console The Print Management Console enables you to manage all the printers on your network from a central console.

• The File Server Resource Manager The File Server Resource Manager is a third-party add-on purchased from Veritas. It allows you more sophisticated quota management compared to the initial release of Windows Server 2003, and enables you to block the storage of undesirable files, such as MP3s, movies, and the like. This new tool is covered at length in Chapter 13, "Managing Data Storage."

Although many more features were added via Service Pack 1 and R2, we are including the ones most likely to appear on the exam. For a complete overview of the new features not discussed here, check out the Microsoft web site at http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/default.mspx.

For an overview of the Active Directoryspecific features that have been added since the initial release of Windows Server 2003, reference the Microsoft article New Features for Active Directory at http://technet2.microsoft.com/WindowsServer/en/library/bb99fdd4-f8e0-490fadae-6814cf081ff71033.mspx?mfr=true.

Exam Alert: Be Familiar with Each Version

Because there are several versions of Windows Server 2003, each with varying capabilities, know in what situations one version would be more appropriate than another. You must have a good understanding of this for the exam.