vemartin's Full Review: Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition Ful...
Qualifications:I am the manager (Network Administrator) of a medium-sized server farm at a government agency, which consists of some 25 Dell PowerEdge servers of various models and designs. Those models include 6400’s, 6450’s 2500’s & 2600’s, running Windows 2000 Advance Server or Windows 2003 Enterprise Edition.
Disclaimer:This review is intended for those with intermediate or software knowledge, or those individuals seeking in-depth information on Enterprise caliber software server installations. Few if any of the terms used throughout the review are expounded upon.
The company I provide consulting services for has a very large Windows 2000 Active Directory (AD) forest that covers the entire country, of which my server farm (container) is only a small part. And region by region we are converting to Windows 2003 Standard and Enterprise Edition Network Operating System (NOS). Why the migration? Simple, our file and application needs have outstripped the current capabilities of Windows 2000 Server and Advanced Server, our platform of choice to handle. We needed the robustness of Windows 2003’s security implementation, RAM headroom, multiple processor capabilities and advanced feature set.
The Product:
A little over three years have passed since Windows 2000 in all its various guises exploded upon the oft single-minded world of Network Operating Systems (NOS). To date, Microsoft has made several notable advances in the evolution of their server software. When the company first ventured into this area, and released Windows NT 3.51 it was considered to be a marginal NOS at best. Novell, the market leader at the time, even went so far as to offer it much lauded Directory Services for NT because Microsoft failed to offer it in Windows NT. Windows 2000 was Microsoft’s first foray into the world of directory services based NOS’s.
When Microsoft Windows 2000 Server debuted, it created a frenzy of training and recertification by IT personnel—including myself—vying to the be one of the first on the street with the new credentials. Those corporations devoted to the Microsoft way at long last were able to take advantage of a NOS that offered Directory Service (Active Directory) similar to that of Novell Netware’s forest design. Windows 2000 represented a revolution in Microsoft heretofore NOS offerings, and was different from Windows NT 3.51/4.0 as Windows 98 is from Windows XP. And Active Directory was much more than a Directory Service. But as in any revolution there were missteps and flaws in the design…
Windows 2000 had one fatal flaw that was hard to ignore: the native security implementation was—and is—awful. Not that it isn’t relatively easy to lock down a Windows 2000 Server. But the administrator has to actually manually tighten several different settings, leaving amble room for confusion and human error. Sure Microsoft issued patches to correct the security holes as they were found and exploited by those bent on wanton destruction, but applying new patches every other day is tiresome, not to mention disruptive if the server has the be rebooted to properly apply them.
Enter the new NOS in town, Windows 2003 Server. For those skeptics among you, who think Windows 2003 is only a minor upgrade, let me reassure you it is not. Microsoft, not surprisingly, has been attentive to the desires of System (Network) Administrators and Developers alike and offers each with solutions that each community can be proud of, resulting in a product has been massaged and tweaked scrupulously over the past three years. Gone are the apparent security holes that plagued Windows 2000. Gone too is the interface of old and in is the universal interface of Windows XP.
A feature of note Microsoft has added in Windows 2003 is the Volume Shadow copy Service (VSS). The VSS is a new service in 2003 similar in functionality to the Salvage Bin in Netware. When enabled, this service will periodically take snapshots of the server’s hard drive, storing data files that end users can recover if they have been deleted, or even retrieve a previous version of a file if it is needed. This data archiving feature can help alleviate the oft time-consuming need to restore a file(s) from tape saving time and productivity.
New Windows 2003 Features:
• VSS
• Manage Your Server
• Web Based Administration
• Enhanced Group Policy
• Active Directory in Application Mode (ADAM)
• Internet Information Service 6.0 (IIS 6)
• Microsoft Terminal Server/ Terminal Services (MTS)
Window 2003 comes in four different versions: Standard Edition(the focus of this review), Enterprise Edition, Datacenter Edition, and Web Edition. Listed below are the server requires for each product.
Windows 2003 Server System Requirements:
(Standard Edition):
• Minimum CPU Speed: 133 MHz
• Recommended CPU Speed: 550 MHz
• Minimum RAM: 128 MB
• Recommended Minimum RAM: 256 MB
• Maximum RAM: 4GB
• Multiprocessor Support: 1 or 2
• Disk Space for setup: 1.5GB
(Enterprise Edition):
• Minimum CPU Speed: 133 MHz for x86 based computers/ 733 MHz for Intel Itanium based computers.
• Recommended CPU Speed:733 MHz
• Minimum RAM: 128 MB
• Recommended Minimum RAM: 256 MB
• Maximum RAM: 32 GB for x86 based computers/ 64 GB for Intel Itanium based computers.
• Multiprocessor Support: Up to 8
• Disk Space for setup: 1.5 GB for x86 based computers/ 2.0 GB for Intel Itanium based computers.
(Data Center Edition):
• Minimum CPU Speed: 400 MHz for x86 based computers/ 733 MHz for Intel Itanium based computers.
• Recommended CPU Speed: 733 MHz
• Minimum RAM: 512 MB
• Recommended Minimum RAM: 1 GB
• Maximum RAM: 64 GB for x86 based computers/ 128 GB for Intel Itanium based computers.
• Multiprocessor Support: Minimum 8 required / Maximum: 32
• Disk Space for setup: 1.5 GB for x86 based computers/ 2.0 GB for Intel Itanium based computers.
(Web Edition):
• Minimum CPU Speed: 133 MHz
• Recommended CPU Speed: 550 MHz
• Minimum RAM: 128 MB
• Recommended Minimum RAM: 256 MB
• Maximum RAM: 2GB
• Multiprocessor Support: 1 or 2
• Disk Space for setup: 1.5GB
Installation:
I installed several instances of Windows 2003 Standard Ed. on a number of Dell PowerEdge 2600 Servers each with two Intel Xeon 3.0GHz processors, 6GB of RAM and 180GB of hard drive space.
Those familiar with the Windows XP installation process will feel right at home with Windows 2003 Standard Ed.; only difference: there is no accessories install sub process (more on that later). The installation process, not unlike Windows XP took approximately 40 minutes to complete.
When the install was complete the NOS came up as excepted, but some drivers were missing; i.e. network, and motherboard sub-system. I installed the drivers from the original manufactures OEM CD’s without incident. Note: I could not find a Hardware Compatibility List (HCL) for Windows 2003, so be prepared with drivers for your hardware. It is important to note that Windows XP would have installed the drivers, and many have complained—and rightly so—that Windows 2003 Standard Ed. lacks adequate support for even mainstream hardware components. The Windows 2003 Standard Ed. desktop is short of frills; gone are the rich graphics and plush desktop schemes of Windows XP, but this is after all a NOS and pretends to be nothing else. After the installation approximately 2.5GB of hard drive space was consumed.
First Impressions, Enhancements & Performance:
To date the new NOS has been rock solid and very secure. Everyday operations barely tax the NOS, this despite hundreds of simultaneous connections to the servers pulling and pushing files. A new AD snap-in afford me access to the still largely Windows 2000 schema, and security is evident from the moment you try to access the Internet. That is not to say that there have not been critical patches to install, but they have been far fewer then under Windows 2000.
Make no mistake; this is a serious NOS groomed for applications, file & print services, and heavy database number crunching. This is not an OS for gamers, or those interested in simple word processing and or surfing the web. The new feature set is rich and offers a number of tool Administrators and Developers will find useful.
Mange Your Server
Under Windows 2000 the installation of server applets such as Windows Internet Naming Service (WINS), Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP), and Domain Naming Service (DNS), was accomplished during the installation of the NOS. But under Windows 2003 Standard Ed., those decisions are made after the install is complete via the Mange Your Server applet. Mange Your Server suggests roles for the server, such as file & print, application, web server, active directory services, terminal services etc. I prefer to make those choices during the installation of the NOS; less work after the system reboots, but I began to install new Server services, this utility became a very usable administrative tool. As you install additional services, like Active Directory, DHCP, WINS, or IIS, the functionality and practicality of Manage Your Server increases. The applet and shows you common tasks associated with each service installed on the server.
Enhanced Group Policy
Group Policy—the ability to push down common user and computer policies via Active Directory—has grown tremendously, not modified, just grown with many new additions throughout. These enhancements have to do with Wireless Technology, Windows Messenger, IIS, Windows Media Digital Rights Management, Time Server Synchronization, File Replication etc. Note, however that many of these enhancements are only applicable to Windows XP and 2003 Server. The Group Policy interface, once simple has changed as well to include the new “Extended View” which was first introduced in Windows XP. The Extended View of Group Policy provides the administrator with the ability to select a policy option from the right pane and see a description of what the policy does on the left pane; very, very, useful.
Active Directory Application Mode (ADAM)
One of the really useful features of the Windows 2000/2003 Active Directory (AD) is the ability to extend the Schema. For those not familiar with the Schema of Active Directory, it’s the bottom partition of the database that contains all of the potential objects that you can create and all of their subsequent attributes.
Under Windows 2000 your ability to add to or extend the schema allowing more attributes to be added to the AD forest to better suit the needs of the organization was not ideally implemented. For example, if your company needed to add a Social Security, Gender or Race field for new users in the AD for the HR department, then that was possible. The only problem was that any modifications to the schema are replicated to all other Domain Controllers in the forest. Also modifications can only be made by members of the “Schema Admins” security group. This is often times unpractical and inconvenient.
Schema Developers need to work around the desires of the Network Administrators, because the potential for damage to the functionality of the NOS was real and ever present. Revising the AD Schema can lead to critical system down time, loss of data and productivity. And modifications to the schema cannot be deleted only deactivated adding unwanted fields the AD database foundation.
These problems have been largely solved in ADAM. ADAM is an idea whose time has defiantly come. ADAM runs as a service under Windows XP, and all of the editions of Windows 2003 save Web Edition. ADAM is a service that creates an instance of AD that runs side by side with the production database. It has the ability to access all the information from the production service, including network authentication information without modifying the Schema itself. What this mean in practical terms in the ability of one department to modify certain aspects of ADAM without affecting the AD schema, while maintaining the ability to simultaneously access Enterprise-wide information via the production schema.
Conclusions:
Windows 2003 Standard Ed. fits perfectly into the role I wanted the PowerEdge servers to play; that of file servers where reliability is the key. I did not need the robustness of Enterprise Ed., but I wanted the advantages of the enhanced Group Policy snap-in, VSS and ADAM.
Overall I am very pleased with Windows 2003 Standard Ed. I have thus far installed three instances of the NOS with no problems. Stay tuned for regular updates from the field as it were, as I forge ahead with our migration from Windows 2000 Advanced Server to Windows 2003, Standard and Enterprise Edition.
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