Windows 2003 Server versions

This Microsoft server comes in several variants, each targeted towards a particular size and type of business. In general, all variants of Windows Server 2003 have the ability to share files and printers, act as an application server, and host message queues, provide email services, authenticate users, act as an X.509 certificate server, provide LDAP directory services, serve streaming media, and to perform other server-oriented functions

 

1. Small Business Server

SBS includes Windows Server and additional technologies aimed at providing a small business with a complete technology solution. The technologies are integrated to enable small business with targeted solutions such as the Remote Web Workplace, and offer management benefits such as integrated setup, enhanced monitoring, a unified management console, and remote access.

 

The Standard Edition of SBS includes Windows SharePoint Services for collaboration, Microsoft Exchange server for e-mail, Fax Server, and the Active Directory for user management. The product also provides a basic firewall, DHCP server and NAT router using either two network cards or one network card in addition to a hardware router.

The Premium Edition of SBS includes the above plus Microsoft SQL Server 2000 and Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration Server 2004.

 

SBS has its own type of Client Access License (CAL), that is different and costs slightly more than CALs for the other editions of Windows Server 2003. However, the SBS CAL encompasses the user CALs for Windows Server, Exchange Server, SQL Server, and ISA Server, and hence is less expensive than buying all the other CALs individually.

 

SBS server has the following design considerations:

  • Only one computer in a domain can be running Windows Server 2003 for Small Business Server.
  • Windows Server 2003 for Small Business Server must be the root of the Active Directory® forest.
  • Windows Server 2003 for Small Business Server cannot trust any other domains.
  • Windows Server 2003 for Small Business Server is limited to 75 users or devices depending on which type of CAL.
  • A Windows Server 2003 for Small Business Server domain cannot have any child domains.
  • Terminal Services only operates in remote administration mode on the server running SBS 2003. (Change from SBS 2000 policy)

 

2. Web Edition

Windows Server 2003, Web Edition is mainly for building and hosting Web applications, Web pages, and XML Web Services. It is designed to be used primarily as an IIS 6.0 Web server and provides a platform for rapidly developing and deploying XML Web services and applications that use ASP.NET technology, a key part of the .NET Framework. This edition does not require Client Access Licenses and Terminal Server mode is not included on Web Edition. However, Remote Desktop for Administration is available on Windows Server 2003, Web Edition. Only 10 concurrent file-sharing connections are allowed at any moment. It is not possible to install Microsoft SQL Server and Microsoft Exchange software on this version of Windows, although MSDE and SQL Server 2005 Express are fully supported after service pack 1 is installed. The most important limitation of Web edition is a maximum memory of 2 GB RAM. Additionally, Windows Server 2003, Web Edition cannot act as a domain controller.

 

3. Standard Edition

Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition is aimed towards small to medium sized businesses. Flexible and versatile, Standard Edition supports file and printer sharing, offers secure Internet connectivity, and allows centralized desktop application deployment. This edition of Windows will run on up to 4 processors with up to 4 GB RAM. 64-bit versions are also available for the AMD x86-64 architecture and the Intel clone of that same architecture, EM64T. The 64-bit version of Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition is capable of addressing up to 32 GB of RAM and it also supports Non-Uniform Memory Access (NUMA), something the 32-bit version does not.

 

4. Enterprise Edition

Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition is aimed towards medium to large businesses. It is a full-function server operating system that supports up to eight processors and provides enterprise-class features such as eight-node clustering using Microsoft Cluster Server (MSCS) software and support for up to 32 GB of memory. Enterprise Edition also comes in a 64-bit edition for Intel. 64-bit versions are also available for the AMD x86-64 architecture and the Intel clone of that same architecture, EM64T. The 64-bit version of Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition is capable of addressing up to 1 Terabyte (1024 GB) of RAM. Both 32-bit and 64-bit versions support Non-Uniform Memory Access (NUMA).

 

5. Datacenter Edition

Windows Server 2003, Datacenter Edition is designed[3] for infrastructures demanding high security and reliability. Windows Server 2003 is available for x86 32-bit, Itanium, and x64 processors. It supports a minimum of 8 processors and a maximum of 64 processors, however it is limited to 32 processors when run on 32-bit architecture. 32-bit architecture also limits memory addressability to 64GB, while the 64-bit versions support up to 512 GB. Windows Server 2003, Datacenter Edition, also allows limiting processor and memory usage on a per-application basis.

 

Windows Server 2003, Datacenter Edition also supports Non-Uniform Memory Access. If supported by the system, Windows, with help from the system firmware creates a Static Resource Affinity Table, that defines the NUMA topology of the system. Windows then uses this table to optimize memory accesses, and provide NUMA awareness to applications, thereby increasing the efficiency of thread scheduling and memory management.

 

Windows Server 2003, Datacenter edition has better support for Storage Area Networks (SAN). It features a service which uses Windows sockets to emulate TCP/IP communication over native SAN service providers, thereby allowing a SAN to be accessed over any TCP/IP channel. With this, any application that can communicate over TCP/IP can use a SAN, without any modification to the application.

 

Windows Server 2003, Datacenter edition, also supports 8-node clustering. Clustering increases availability and fault tolerance of server installations, by distributing and replicating the service among many servers. Windows supports clustering, with each cluster having its own dedicated storage, or all clusters connected to a common Storage Area Network (SAN), which can be running on Windows as well as non-Windows Operating systems. The SAN may be connected to other computers as well.

 

6. Compute Cluster Server

Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003, released in June 2006, is designed for high-end applications that require high performance computing clusters. It is designed to be deployed on numerous computers to be clustered together to achieve supercomputing speeds. Each computer cluster server network comprises of at least one controlling head node and subordinate processing nodes that carry out most of the work. Compute Cluster Server uses the Microsoft Messaging Passing Interface v2 (MS-MPI) to administer the network.

 

7. Storage Server

Windows Storage Server 2003, a part of the Windows Server 2003 series is a specialized server Operating System for Network Attached Storage (NAS). It is optimized for use in file and print sharing and also in Storage Area Network (SAN) scenarios. It is only available through OEMs, with Network Attached Storage (NAS) devices, with capacities in excess of a few terabytes. Unlike other Windows Server 2003 editions that provide file and printer sharing functionality, Windows Storage Server 2003 does not require any Client access licenses.

 

Windows Storage Server 2003 NAS equipment can be headless, which means that they are without any monitors, keyboards or mice, and are administered remotely. Such devices are plugged into any existing IP network and the storage capacity is available to all users. Using NAS devices means that data is decentralized and shared amongst all users of the network, even though access through the data can be controlled. Windows Storage Server 2003 can use RAID arrays to provide redundancy, fault-tolerance and high-performance. Multiple such NAS servers can be clustered to appear as a single device. This allows for very high performance as well as it allows the service to remain up even if one of the servers goes down.

 

Windows Storage Server 2003 can also be used to create a Storage Area Network, in which the data is transferred in terms of chunks rather than files, thus providing more granularity to the data that can be transferred. This provides higher performance to database and transaction processing applications. Windows Storage Server 2003 also allows NAS devices to be connected to a SAN.

 

Windows Storage Server 2003 R2, as a follow-up to Windows Storage Server 2003, adds file-server performance optimization, Single Instance Storage (SIS), and index-based search. Single instance storage(SIS) scans storage volumes for duplicate files, and moves the duplicate files to the common SIS store. The file on the volume is replaced with a link to the file. This substitution reduces the amount of storage space required, by as much as 70%.

 

Windows Storage Server R2 provides an index-based, full-text search based on the indexing engine already built-in Windows server. The updated search engine speeds up indexed searches on network shares. Storage Server R2 also provides filters for searching many standard file formats, such as .zip, AutoCAD, XML, MP3, and .pdf, and all Microsoft Office file formats.

 

Windows Storage Server 2003 R2 includes built in support for Windows SharePoint Services and Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server, and adds Storage Management snap-in for the Microsoft Management Console. It can be used to centrally manage storage volumes, including DFS shares, on servers running Windows Storage Server R2.

Windows Storage Server R2 cannot be used as an iSCSI target, but can be an iSCSI initiator. This deficiency is slated to be addressed in an upcoming release of Windows Storage Server.

 

Features

  • Distributed File System (DFS): DFS allows multiple network shares to be aggregated as a virtual file system.
  • Support for SAN and iSCSI: Computers can connect to a Storage Server over the LAN, and there is no need for a separate fibre channel network. Thus a Storage Area Network can be created over the LAN itself. iSCSI uses the SCSI protocol to transfer data as a block of bytes, rather than as a file. This increases performance of the Storage network in some scenarios, such as using a database server.
  • Virtual Disc Service: It allows NAS devices, RAID devices and SAN shares to be exposed and managed as if they were normal hard drives.
  • JBOD systems: JBOD (Just a bunch of discs) systems, by using VDS, can manage a group of individual storage devices as a single unit. There is no need for the storage units to be of the same make and model.
  • Software and Hardware RAID: Windows Storage Server 2003 has intrinsic support for hardware implementation of RAID. In case hardware support is not available, it can use software enabled RAID. In that case, all processing is done by the OS.
  • Multi Path IO (MPIO): It provides an alternate connection to IO devices in case the primary path is down.