Forewords

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My first experience with a ProLiant server involved a faulty tape backup unit. You're not likely to applaud a technology when it fails you, but I look back at the experience as a positive event because it introduced me to the ProLiant way of doing business. It took exactly one ring to get connected to technical support. I waited no more than ten seconds before a technician took the call. With three questions, the technician had identified the problem. In two hours, a courier appeared at the front desk with a part. Another support technician walked me through the replacement and testing. For a junior administrator trying not to make "the big mistake," knowing that this level of support and knowledge was available any time, day or night, raised my comfort level for server management considerably.

Since that time, I've had the pleasure of working with Compaq and HP technicians and system engineers at all levels. I've developed an enormous respect for their expertise and authority. They're not only willing to roll up their sleeves and demonstrate how a feature works, they go to great pains to explain what might go wrong and to show how to prevent problems. All this experience and knowledge gets rolled into ProLiant servers, so that each generation represents the state-of-the-art for manageability and reliability.

For that reason, when I was asked to read a book specifically aimed at the installation and management of Windows Server 2003 on ProLiant hardware, I jumped at the chance. I often find myself trying to come up with a way to simplify an operation, only to discover that a ProLiant engineer has already solved the problem. I looked forward to seeing all those solutions distilled into a single reference.

As I read through the book, it became obvious that nearly every aspect of deploying and managing Windows Server 2003 could be enhanced in one way or another by taking advantage of a special ProLiant feature. I appreciated the step-by-step descriptions of how to implement those features, especially the practical recommendations for field implementation.

I found the coverage of automated deployment, storage configuration, high availability, and disaster recovery to be especially valuable because many of the operations in these areas rely heavily on proper hardware configuration. There's also a great deal of sage advice on designing Active Directory domains and for migrating existing domains to Windows Server 2003. The Business Applications and Solutions section has a wealth of information describing how to engineer a reliable server infrastructure in support of Exchange, remote access, and terminal services.

If you intend on running Windows Server 2003 on ProLiant servers, you'll find that this book will help you consolidate operations, simplify deployment, improve security, centralize management, and monitor performance. I highly recommend it.


”Bill  Boswell
Bill  Boswell  Consulting,  Inc.

HP's technology strategy emphasizes making the best possible use of standard components by adding innovation and invention in ways that will make a real difference. The ProLiant server family and the HP toolsets are a good example of this strategy in action. IA32 servers are certainly a standard component of today's computing infrastructures , even down to the level of being a commodity item, so companies that build IA32 servers have to demonstrate real added value before customers are willing to buy and deploy these products. ProLiants are well-planned and well-engineered devices, but I believe the true differentiation comes from tools such as the management tools and the rapid deployment pack because they make it easier for system administrators to get their work done. Setting up and managing a single server is a reasonably straightforward affair, but tools like Insight Manager and SmartStart come into their own as the number of servers grows.

Of course, having the tools is only one step. You also need the knowledge to be able to liberate the potential of the tools, first by understanding what the engineers who design and build the tools had in their mind when they approached the problems of management and deployment, and then to put the information to work within your own production environment. I anticipate that this book will help you understand how to get the best out of the ProLiant server family by using the tools that are available to you.

Once you have servers up and running, it is nice to be able to run some software on them. I have been impressed with the changes Microsoft made in Windows 2003 to make it more robust, reliable, and secure ”especially when deployed correctly ”so the information on the Active Directory (the cornerstone of Windows 2000 and 2003) and the other applications reviewed here is a welcome addition to the information available to us.

As always, it is important to say that the information presented in any source represents one view (albeit in this case from a group of authors) in time of a topic. Given the ever-changing nature of technology, we have to keep ourselves updated and research new information. I hope that the information presented here will give you the necessary pointers to help you stay informed and to exploit the powerful combination of ProLiant server technology and Windows 2003 for maximum benefit.


”Tony  Redmond
Vice  President  and  Chief  Technology  Officer
HP  Services

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Windows Server 2003 on Proliants. Deployment Techniques and Management Tools for System Administrators
Windows Server 2003 on Proliants. Deployment Techniques and Management Tools for System Administrators
ISBN: B004C77T6A
EAN: N/A
Year: 2004
Pages: 214

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