Windows 2003

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In May this year David Briggs from The Quill Consultancy attended a 5-day trainer preparation for Windows 2003 in Melbourne.

It is fair to say that Windows 2003 is an incremental improvement on the Windows 2000 platform. Built on the Windows 2000 code base the number of changes to the Windows 2003 Server kernel is small when compared to the changes between NT 4.0 and Windows 2000. For those organisations that have established a Windows 2000 infrastructure then there is minimal issues in upgrading to Windows 2003 Server. Organisations will need to complete a Forestprep and Domainprep (similar to the process required when installing Exchange 2000) and then simply upgrade in place.

If, however, you are still running a NT 4.0 Server infrastructure significant planning and testing will need to be performed if you wish to upgrade from NT 4.0 to Windows 2003. It is important to note that it will be possible to upgrade directly from NT 4.0 to Windows 2003 Server, thus missing Windows 2000 Server.

Windows 2003 comes in four versions.

• Standard Edition – replaces Windows 2000 Server

• Enterprise Edition – replaces Windows 2000 Advanced Server

• Datacentre Edition – replaces Windows 2000 Datacentre Server

• Web Edition – new

Windows Server 2003, Web Edition

Offers dedicated Web serving and hosting as well as the following benefits:

• A platform for building and hosting Web applications, Web pages, and XML Web Services.

• A design intended for use primarily as an IIS 6.0 Web server.

• A platform for rapidly developing and deploying XML Web services and applications that use ASP .NET technology, a key part of the .NET Framework.

• Ease of deployment and management.

Studies have shown that human error—primarily accidental file deletion or modification—causes over one-third of all data loss. For the average business, whether a small, medium, or enterprise organization, the impact of lost data is at the least an inconvenience and at the worst a critical blow that can jeopardize daily operations.

Microsoft Windows Server 2003 includes Shadow Copies of Shared Folders to help prevent inadvertent loss of data. Shadow Copies of Shared Folders helps alleviate data loss by creating shadow copies of files or folders that are stored on network file shares at predetermined time intervals. A shadow copy is essentially a previous version of the file or folder at a specific point in time.

Internet Information Services (IIS) 6.0 is a full-featured Web server that enables Web applications and XML Web services. IIS 6.0 has been completely re-architected with a new fault-tolerant process model that greatly boosts the reliability of Web sites and applications.

Now, IIS can isolate an individual Web application or multiple sites into a self-contained process (called an application pool) that communicates directly with the operating system kernel. This feature increases throughput and capacity of applications while offering more headroom on servers, effectively reducing hardware needs. These self-contained application pools prevent one application or site from disrupting the XML Web services or other Web applications on the server.

IIS also provides health monitoring capabilities to discover, recover, and prevent Web application failures. On Windows Server 2003, Microsoft ASP.NET natively uses the new IIS process model. These advanced application health and detection features are also available to existing applications running under Internet Information Server 4.0 and IIS 5.0, with the vast majority of applications not needing any modification.

The .NET Framework provides the programming model for building, deploying and running Web-based applications and XML Web services on this highly stable platform. It provides a productive, standards-based, multi-language environment for integrating existing investments with next-generation applications and services as well as the agility to solve the challenges of deployment and operation of Internet-scale applications. Existing applications can be easily repackaged as XML Web services and UNIX applications can be integrated or even migrated into the solution with less work than in the past.

Remote Desktop for Administration builds on the remote administration mode of Windows 2000 Terminal Services. In addition to the two virtual sessions that are available in Windows 2000 Terminal Services remote administration mode, an administrator can also remotely connect to the real console of a server.

In internal tests, Windows Server 2003 shows dramatic performance gains over previous versions of Windows server operating systems. For example, file and Web server performance is two times faster than Windows NT Server 4.0. While your organization's performance gains may vary because of unique network and computer settings, Microsoft is confident that the improved performance of Windows Server 2003 will help you deliver faster service for your network solutions

Click here to see an independent analysis of the performance of Windows 2003 Server

The Windows Server 2003 family provides a significantly enhanced command-line infrastructure, letting administrators perform most management tasks without using a graphical user interface. Of special importance is the ability to perform a wide range of tasks by accessing the information store enabled by Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI). This WMI command-line (WMIC) feature provides a simple command-line interface that interoperates with existing shells and utility commands and can be easily extended by scripts or other administration-oriented applications.

Overall, the greater command-line functionality in the Windows Server 2003 family, combined with ready-to-use scripts, rivals the power of other operating systems often associated with higher cost of ownership. Administrators accustomed to using the command line to manage UNIX or Linux systems can continue managing from the command line in the Windows Server 2003 family.

The Resultant Set of Policy allows administrators to see the effect of Group Policy on the targeted user or computer. The Microsoft RSoP tool provides administrators with a powerful and flexible base-level tool to plan, monitor and troubleshoot Group Policy.

RSoP is an infrastructure tool in the form of a MMC snap-in enabling administrators to determine and analyse the current set of policies in two modes: logging mode and planning mode. In logging mode, administrators assess what has applied to a particular target. In planning mode, administrators can see how policies would be a applied to a target and then examine the results before deploying a change to Group Policy

A further enhancement of group Policy is the ability for a policy to be applied by WMI (Windows Management Instrumentation) Filtering. This allows the administrator to apply a policy based on a particular characteristic of the client machine such as which OS the client machine is running or only to client machines running a particular service.

The following replication enhancements are available in Windows 2003 server. It should be noted that some of these features are not available until Windows 2003 Forest functionality is achieved.

New features include:

• Install from media

• Universal group caching

• LVR replication

• Improved ISTG

• Dynamic aux classes

• User to INetOrgPerson Change

• Schema de-/reactivation

• Domain rename

• Cross forest trust

• Partial GC sync

In the coming months you will hear people refer to the next release of Windows by their codenames Blackcomb and/or Longhorn.

• Longhorn is the codename for the next desktop operating system which will upgrade Windows XP, possibly due late 2004.

• Blackcomb is the codename for the next major release of the Windows 2003 server platform due late 2005 or 2006.

The Quill Consultancy has scheduled in the the September to December period a number of courses for Windows 2003 Server. This includes courses that have been designed to allow existing MCSA, and MCSE, in Windows 2000 to prepare for the exams required to upgrade their certification for Windows 2003.

Click here to check our course schedule for course outlines and dates.

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