Going Beyond the Basic Features of Windows 2003 with Feature Packs

Microsoft has made a commitment to not ship new features and functions in Service Packs, which have frequently caused applications to stop working after a Service Pack update. Microsoft now provides free downloadable Feature Packs to all licensed Windows 2003 organizations. The Feature Packs can be downloaded at http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/downloads/featurepacks/default.mspx.

The Feature Packs include add-ons that provide better group policy management, directory synchronization between Active Directory forests, new tools for network administration, and applications for document storage and management.

Group Policy Management Console

One Feature Pack that every organization should download and use is the Group Policy Management Console (GPMC) tool. With group policies being one of the most important administration, security, and management functions in Active Directory, the GPMC provides a better administrator interface and better functionality for Windows Server 2003 policy management. GPMC enables administrators to more easily create and manage group policies. Rather than having to go through a series of individual policies, administrators can create definition groups that allow the specification of settings allowing specific actions for users and computers.

Additionally, GPMC provides definition groups for specifying common system updates, specific application installation, user profile management, and desktop lockdown. GPMC is covered in detail in Chapter 21, "Windows Server 2003 Group Policies."

Software Update Service

Another significant Feature Pack update is the Software Update Service (SUS), which helps organizations perform routine patch management on Windows 2000 and 2003 servers, as well as Windows 2000 and XP workstations. With previous versions of the Windows operating system, an administrator had to check the Microsoft Windows downloads Web site, scan for updates, download the updates, and then apply them on each server in the network. Software Update Service enables network administrators to automatically scan and download updates and patches to a centralized server, and then configure a group policy to automatically distribute the update to servers throughout the organization.

Software Update Service minimizes the effort needed from IT administrators to keep their servers updated with necessary updates and patches. Anything that simplifies the update process provides an organization with a better chance of protecting its servers from known bugs or security flaws. The Microsoft Software Update Service is covered in detail in Chapter 22.

Identity Integration Feature Pack

The Identity and Integration Feature Pack (IIFP) provides directory synchronization between two Active Directory forests. For organizations that want to share directory information, such as a company with two forests, each with their own Exchange 2003 Org structure, IIFP synchronizes usernames and distribution list information between the forests so that email can flow back and forth between the organizations. IIFP can work between Active Directory 2000 forests, between Active Directory 2003 forests, and between an Active Directory 2000 and an Active Directory 2003 forest. It will also synchronize between Active Directory and ADAM, allowing the flow of objects and attributes to and from the application directory. IIFP is covered in detail in Chapter 8, "Integrating AD with Novell, Unix, and NT4 Directories."

Directory Services Markup Language Services for Windows

The Directory Services Markup Language (DSML) allows Active Directory access using SOAP integrated into Web services. This provides organizations with the capability to extend access to Active Directory from XML-based Web pages. This has been commonly used for directory lookup or for distributed Web-based administration and management. DSML is covered in Chapter 23.

Remote Control Add-on for Active Directory Users and Computers

For administrators who provide remote control support to servers or desktop systems, rather than launching the Remote Desktop Connection tool to perform remote administration, an administrator already in the Active Directory Users and Computers MMC tool can simply right-click on a computer account and have remote access to the remote system. The Remote Control add-on for Active Directory Users and Computers minimizes the number of separate tools that need to be loaded and used by administrators, and simplifies the task of remembering server and system names when the resources are all listed and organized within the Active Directory Users and Computers MMC tool. The Remote Control Add-on for Active Directory Users and Computers is covered in Chapter 28, "Windows Server 2003 Administration Tools for Desktops."

Services for NetWare 5.03

Microsoft is also including significant tool updates such as Service Packs on the Feature Pack download page. One of the major updates for a Windows Server 2003 tool is version 5.03 for Services for NetWare (SfN). SfN provides integration between Windows 2003 and a Novell NetWare environment. The Service Pack rolls up the latest patches and utility updates into a single update. SfN is covered in Chapter 8.

Windows SharePoint Services

A significant update provided free to all Windows 2003 licensed organizations is the Windows SharePoint Services Feature Pack, which is covered extensively in Chapter 36, "Windows SharePoint Services." Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) is a document-storage management add-on that provides organizations with the capability to better manage, organize, and share documents, as well as provide teams of users the ability to collaborate on information. Many believe that WSS could have been sold as a completely separate product, but Microsoft chose to include it as a free download to Windows 2003, and with Windows Server 2003 R2 the files for SharePoint Services are automatically copied onto the server as part of the R2 update.

Windows SharePoint Services sets the framework from which the SharePoint Portal Server 2003 (SPS) is built. SPS leverages the core functionality of WSS and extends the capability into enterprise environments. WSS is the basis of document-sharing and communications for organizations in the evolution of file and information communications.

Windows Rights Management Services

Windows Rights Management Services (RMS) is available for download on the Feature Pack page and provides organizations the tools to improve the security of files, documents, and communication between users. RMS sets the framework for secured information sharing down to the file and message level, and eliminates the need for different encryption and document-change control tools for email, documents, and other network communication media. Windows Rights Management is covered in Chapter 15, "Security Policies and Security Tools."

Windows System Resource Manager

Windows System Resource Manager (WSRM) was one of the first Feature Packs released by Microsoft, and has been made available for download to help organizations better manage server resources. Rather than letting applications grab as much memory as they want, or allowing applications to trigger high bandwidth demands on servers without administrative control, WSRM gives administrators a tool to throttle system resource demand.

As an example, if an accounting department prints a very large report every quarter, rather than having the report processing take up 90% of the server utilization for 10 minutes while the report takes the next three hours to print, WSRM can be activated to throttle server utilization to possibly 15%, so that the processing of the report and the printing of the report take three hours to complete without creating spiked demands on the server. Other uses of WSRM include the capability to throttle terminal server sessions so that a single terminal server user does not take up all the RAM and CPU available on a servertheir memory and server utilization is controlled. This can permit more users to access the terminal server with only moderate performance impact, rather than one user taking up all the server performance and affecting all the users on the system. WSRM is covered in detail in Chapter 27.