| Windows Server 2003 is required to run Windows SharePoint Services or SharePoint Portal Server 2003. Chapter 4,"Planning and Designing the SharePoint 2003 Infrastructure," gives an overview of the differences between the different versions of Windows Server 2003. For most organizations, Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition is the best choice for a front-end or back-end server, and the sample installations in this chapter all use Windows Server 2003. What's New in Windows Server 2003 Windows Server 2003 provides a number of new features that may not be familiar to all readers. Even if Windows Server 2003 is only being used for Windows SharePoint Services or SharePoint Portal Server 2003, a knowledge of these new features will be useful to the SharePoint 2003 Administrator as they can facilitate the management of the SharePoint 2003 server as well as ensuring the security of the server configuration. Some of the new features that have relevance to a SharePoint 2003 implementation include Greater Security Microsoft's Trustworthy Computing Initiative has led to a number of significant security enhancements to the Windows Server 2003 network operating system: IPSec and Wireless Security Improvements, Microsoft Passport support, and IPSec NAT Traversal. Cross-Forest Authentication, Cross-Forest Authorization, Cross-Certification Enhancements, Credential Manager, and Software Restriction Policies also help improve the security of the enterprise. SSL Client Authentication Improvements Increased performance improvement of over 35% when using the secure sockets layer (SSL). The SSL session cache can be shared by multiple processes. This reduces the number of times a user has to reauthenticate with applications, and reduces CPU cycles on the application server. Improved Dependability Active Directory includes several new features that increase dependability such as Health Monitoring, improved global catalog replication, and an updated Inter-Site Topology Generator (ISTG) that scales better by supporting forests with a greater number of sites than Windows 2000. Increased support for standards Support for IPv6, support for XML Web Services, and support for IETF security standards. Easy Cluster Setup and Configuration The cluster service is an integral part of the Windows Server 2003 operating system, and no longer an optional component. This enables a server cluster node to be configured without distribution media, and allows a server cluster to be created, or the configuration changed, using Cluster Administration tools from a remote management station. No reboots are required to set up a server cluster configuration. Larger Clusters Now Supported In Enterprise Edition, the maximum supported cluster size has been increased from 2-nodes in Windows 2000 Advanced Server to 8-nodes in Windows Server 2003. In Datacenter Edition, the maximum supported cluster size has been increased from 4-nodes in Windows 2000, to 8-nodes in Windows Server 2003.
Enhancements to Internet Information Services 6.0 Internet Information Services (IIS) 6.0 is included with Windows Server 2003 and offers a number of key enhancements over IIS 5.0 that are designed to leverage the improvements in Windows Server 2003 and the .NET Framework. IIS 5.0 proved to have many weaknesses and was vulnerable to many viruses and worms, such as Code Red, Code Red II, and Nimda, so the improvements were eagerly received. Windows Server 2003 does not install IIS 6.0 by default, which is part of the reduced attack footprint strategy to enhance server security, so it needs to be installed for Windows SharePoint Services or SharePoint Portal Server 2003 to run. IIS has been redesigned to offer enhancements in several key areas: Increased Web Server Reliability and Availability New fault-tolerant process architecture and other features such as health monitoring, automatic process recycling, and rapid-fail protection, help reduce unplanned server downtime and increase application availability. Easier Server Management XML-based configuration file provides improved troubleshooting and metabase corruption recovery. The Edit-while-running feature allows changes to the server (such as adding a new site or creating a new virtual directory) to be made while the server is running. Command-line and script-based administration facilitate many common management tasks. Support for Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) gives Web administrators access to important system management data, such as performance counters and configuration files. Server Consolidation Many more sites can be hosted on a single server running IIS 6.0, and a larger number of worker processes can be concurrently active. HTTP protocol stack (HTTP.sys), a new kernel-mode driver for HTTP parsing and caching, provides increased scalability and performance. IIS 6.0 worker process isolation mode also enables multiple worker processes to be configured to service requests for a given application pool, a configuration known as a web garden. Processor affinity, when set, enables IIS 6.0 worker processes to run on specific microprocessors or CPUs. Processor affinity can also be used with web gardens that run on multiprocessor computers where clusters of CPUs have been dedicated to specific application pools. Faster Application Development ASP.NET and IIS integration offer developers high levels of functionality such as rapid application development (RAD) and a broad choice of languages. The Microsoft .NET Framework allows developers to build .NET-based applications and services in a number of languages, including Microsoft Visual C++ .NET, Visual Basic .NET, JScript, and Visual C# .NET. IIS 6.0 provides a high-performance platform for XML web services, which provide the means to access server functionality remotely. Increased Security IIS 6.0 is not installed by default on Windows Server 2003administrators must explicitly select and install it. IIS 6.0 ships in a locked-down state, serving only static content. The default installation of IIS will not compile, execute, or serve files with dynamic extensions. In order to have them served, each acceptable file extension must be added to the web service extensions list. All IIS 6.0 worker processesby defaultrun as Network Service user accounts, a new, built-in account type with limited operating system privileges, on Windows Server 2003. All ASP built-in functions always run as low-privileged accounts (anonymous user). IIS 6.0 also extends the use of a new authorization framework that comes with Windows Server 2003 to control access. HTTP Compression You can enable HTTP compression server-wide or on a specific directory. HTTP compression improves bandwidth utilization and speeds up website performance. In addition, you can compress static or dynamic responses.
Deciding Whether to Upgrade to Windows Server 2003 from a Previous Version A general rule of thumb is to avoid upgrading a previous version of Windows Server to Windows Server 2003. In certain situations, however, it might make sense to upgrade from a previous operating system. One such situation would be in a company where many SharePoint 2001 servers already exist, and the in-place upgrade process will be used (see Chapter 8, "Migrating from SharePoint 2001 to SharePoint 2003," for more details). Table 6.1 lists the upgrade paths from other Microsoft Server operating systems. Windows Server 2003 cannot upgrade from desktop operating systems. Table 6.1. Upgrading from Previous Versions of Windows Server ProductsPrevious Operating System | Ability to Upgrade to Windows Server 2003 |
|---|
Windows NT versions 3.51 and earlier | No, you must upgrade first to NT 4.0 or higher | Windows NT 4.0 Server | Yes, with Service Pack 5 or higher | Windows 2000 Server, Advanced Server | Yes |
Other potential issues with upgrades include the possibility of incompatibilities with other software applications currently installed on that system, such as data backup or virus scanning software. The detailed installation portions of this chapter, which follow, assume that clean installations are taking place, so upgrades are not addressed in additional detail. CAUTION If the server has been upgraded from Windows 2000 to Windows Server 2003, two items should be checked that affect Windows SharePoint Services or SharePoint Portal Server 2003 functionality:
Upgrading from Previous Versions of SharePoint Products Microsoft supports upgrading to SharePoint Portal Server 2003 from SharePoint Portal Server 2001, and SharePoint Team Services can also be upgraded to Windows SharePoint Services. Each of these upgrades requires that the existing SharePoint environment be backed up, and then that Windows 2000 Server be upgraded to Windows Server 2003, and then the SharePoint sites and data restored. Chapter 8 is dedicated to the topic of upgrading from production versions of the SharePoint "version 1" products. A complete article on the subject of "Upgrading from an Evaluation Version to the Final Release of SharePoint Portal Server 2003" with detailed instructions can be found on Microsoft's site, at the following URL at the time of writing: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/office/sps2003/deploy/upgreval.mspx Upgrading to SharePoint 2003 products from SharePoint "version 1" products is recommended only if the server or server farm contains data that cannot be easily migrated without upgrading. SharePoint Portal Server 2003 should be installed without upgrading when possible. |
