Windows Server 2003

Windows Server 2003
A version of the Windows NT operating system

Screenshot of Windows Server 2003 Enterprise
Developer Microsoft
Source model Shared source
Released to
manufacturing		 April 24, 2003 (2003-04-24)
Latest release 5.2 (Build 3790: Service Pack 2) / March 13, 2007 (2007-03-13)[1]
Platforms IA-32, x64, Itanium
Kernel type Hybrid kernel
License Trialware[2] and volume licensing,[3] with client access licenses[4]
Preceded by Windows 2000 (2000)
Succeeded by Windows Server 2003 R2 (2005)
Support status
Mainstream support ended on July 13, 2010
Extended support ended on July 14, 2015[5][6]

Windows Server 2003 (sometimes informally referred to as Win2K3, or just 2K3) is a server operating system produced by Microsoft and released on April 24, 2003.[7] It was a successor of Windows 2000 Server and incorporated some of Windows XP's features. An updated version, Windows Server 2003 R2, was released to manufacturing on December 6, 2005. Its successor, Windows Server 2008, was released on February 4, 2008. Windows Server 2003's kernel was later adopted in the development of Windows Vista.[8]

Overview

Windows Server 2003 was the follow-up to Windows 2000 Server, incorporating compatibility and other features from Windows XP. Unlike Windows 2000 Server, Windows Server 2003's default installation has none of the server components enabled, to reduce the attack surface of new machines. Windows Server 2003 includes compatibility modes to allow older applications to run with greater stability. It was made more compatible with Windows NT 4.0 domain-based networking. Incorporating and upgrading a Windows NT 4.0 domain to Windows 2000 was considered difficult and time-consuming, and generally was considered an all-or-nothing upgrade, particularly when dealing with Active Directory. Windows Server 2003 brought in enhanced Active Directory compatibility, and better deployment support, to ease the transition from Windows NT 4.0 to Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP Professional.

Changes to various services include those to the IIS web server, which was almost completely rewritten to improve performance and security, Distributed File System, which now supports hosting multiple DFS roots on a single server, Terminal Server, Active Directory, Print Server, and a number of other areas. Windows Server 2003 was also the first operating system released by Microsoft after the announcement of its Trustworthy Computing initiative, and as a result, contains a number of changes to security defaults and practices.

The product went through several name changes during the course of development. When first announced in 2000, it was known by its codename, "Whistler Server"; it was named "Windows 2002 Server" for a brief time in mid-2001, followed by "Windows .NET Server" and "Windows .NET Server 2003". After Microsoft chose to focus the ".NET" branding on the .NET Framework, the OS was finally released as "Windows Server 2003".[9]

Development

Windows Server 2003 was the first Microsoft Windows version which was thoroughly subjected to semi-automated testing for bugs with a software system called PREfast[10] developed by computer scientist Amitabh Srivastava at Microsoft Research.[11] The automated bug checking system was first tested on Windows 2000 but not thoroughly.[10] Amitabh Srivastava's PREfast found 12% of Windows Server 2003's bugs, the remaining 88% being found by human computer programmers.[10] Microsoft employs more than 4,700 programmers who work on Windows, 60% of whom are software testers[11] whose job is to find bugs in Windows source code. Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates stated that Windows Server 2003 was Microsoft's "most rigorously tested software to date."[11]

Microsoft later used Windows Server 2003's kernel in the development of Windows Vista.[8]

Changes

Manage Your Server

The following features are new to Windows Server 2003:

The ability to create a rescue disk was removed in favor of Automated System Recovery (ASR).

Editions

Windows Server 2003 comes in a number of editions, each targeted towards a particular size and type of business.[13][14] In general, all variants of Windows Server 2003 have the ability to share files and printers, act as an application server, 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.

Supported hardware capabilities across editions of Windows Server 2003[15]
Criteria Web Standard Enterprise Datacenter
Maximum physical CPUs 2 4 8 64
Maximum RAM IA-32 2 GB 4 GB 64 GB 64 GB
x64 N/A 32 GB 1 TB 1 TB
Itanium N/A N/A 2 TB 2 TB

Web

Windows Server 2003 Web is meant 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[16] and provides a platform for developing and deploying XML Web services and applications that use ASP.NET technology, a key part of the .NET Framework. Terminal Services is not included on Web Edition. However, Remote Desktop for Administration is available. Only 10 concurrent file-sharing connections are allowed at any moment. It is not possible to install Microsoft SQL Server and Microsoft Exchange software in this edition without installing Service Pack 1. Despite supporting XML Web services and ASP.NET, UDDI cannot be deployed on Windows Server 2003 Web. The .NET Framework version 2.0 is not included with Windows Server 2003 Web, but can be installed as a separate update from Windows Update.

Windows Server 2003 Web supports a maximum of 2 physical processors and a maximum of 2GB of RAM.[15] However, an instance of Windows Server 2003 Web cannot act as a domain controller.[13] It is the only edition of Windows Server 2003 that does not require any client access license (CAL) when used as the internet facing server front-end for Internet Information Services and Windows Server Update Services. When using it for storage or as a back-end with another remote server as the front-end, CALs may still be required.[16]

Standard

Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition cover box

Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Standard is aimed towards small to medium-sized businesses. Standard Edition supports file and printer sharing, offers secure Internet connectivity, and allows centralized desktop application deployment. A specialized version for the x64 architecture (AMD64 and EM64T, called collectively x64 by Microsoft) was released in April 2005.[17] The IA-32 version supports up to 4 physical processors and up to 4 GB RAM;[15] the x64 version is capable of addressing up to 32 GB of RAM[15] and also supports Non-Uniform Memory Access.

Enterprise

Windows Server 2003 Enterprise is aimed towards medium to large businesses. It is a full-function server operating system that supports up to 8 physical processors and provides enterprise-class features such as eight-node clustering using Microsoft Cluster Server (MSCS) software and support for up to 64 GB of RAM through PAE (added with the /PAE boot string).[15] Enterprise Edition also comes in specialized versions for the x64 and Itanium architectures. With Service Pack 2 installed, the x64 and Itanium versions are capable of addressing up to 1 TB and 2 TB of RAM,[15] respectively. This edition also supports Non-Uniform Memory Access (NUMA). It also provides the ability to hot-add supported hardware. Windows Server 2003 Enterprise is also the required edition to issue custom certificate templates.

Datacenter

Windows Server 2003 Datacenter is designed[18] for infrastructures demanding high security and reliability. Windows Server 2003 is available for IA-32, Itanium, and x64 processors. It supports a maximum of 32 physical processors on IA-32 platform or 64 physical processors on x64 and IA-64 hardware. IA-32 versions of this edition support up to 64 GB of RAM.[15] With Service Pack 2 installed, the x64 versions support up to 1 TB while the IA-64 versions support up to 2 TB of RAM.[15] Windows Server 2003 Datacenter also allows limiting processor and memory usage on a per-application basis.

This edition has better support for storage area networks (SANs): 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.

The Datacenter edition, like the Enterprise edition, supports 8-node clustering. Clustering increases availability and fault tolerance of server installations by distributing and replicating the service among many servers. This edition supports clustering with each cluster having its own dedicated storage, or with all cluster nodes connected to a common SAN.

Derivatives

Windows Compute Cluster Server

Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003 (CCS), 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 Compute Cluster Server network comprises 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 communicate between the processing nodes on the cluster network. It ties nodes together with a powerful inter-process communication mechanism which can be complex because of communications between hundreds or even thousands of processors working in parallel.

The application programming interface consists of over 160 functions. A job launcher enables users to execute jobs to be executed in the computing cluster. MS MPI was designed to be compatible with the reference open source MPI2 specification which is widely used in High-performance computing (HPC). With some exceptions because of security considerations, MS MPI covers the complete set of MPI2 functionality as implemented in MPICH2, except for the planned future features of dynamic process spawn and publishing.

Windows 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). Launched in 2003 at Storage Decisions in Chicago, it is optimized for use in file and print sharing and also in Storage Area Network (SAN) scenarios. It is only available through Original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). Unlike other Windows Server 2003 editions that provide file and printer sharing functionality, Windows Storage Server 2003 does not require any CAL.

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. Windows Storage Server 2003 can use RAID arrays to provide data redundancy, fault-tolerance and high performance. Multiple such NAS servers can be clustered to appear as a single device, which allows responsibility for serving clients to be shared in such a way that if one server fails then other servers can take over (often termed a failover) which also improves fault-tolerance.

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%.[19]

Windows Storage Server 2003 R2 provides an index-based, full-text search based on the indexing engine already built into Windows server.[19] The updated search engine speeds up indexed searches on network shares. This edition 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 a Storage Management snap-in for the Microsoft Management Console. It can be used to manage storage volumes centrally, including DFS shares, on servers running Windows Storage Server R2.

Windows Storage Server 2003 R2 can be used as an iSCSI target with standard and enterprise editions of Windows Storage Server 2003 R2, incorporating WinTarget iSCSI technology which Microsoft acquired in 2006 by from StringBean software.[20][21] This will be an add-on feature available for purchase through OEM partners as an iSCSI feature pack, or is included in some versions of WSS as configured by OEMs.

Windows Storage Server 2003 can be promoted to function as a domain controller; however, this edition is not licensed to run directory services. It can be joined to an existing domain as a member server.[22]

Features

Editions

Windows Storage Server 2003 R2 was available in the following editions:

Express Workgroup Standard Enterprise
Number of physical CPUs[lower-roman 1] 1 1 1–4 1–64
x64 versions available Yes Yes Yes Yes
Numbers of disk drives 2 4 Unlimited Unlimited
NICs 1 2 Unlimited Unlimited
Print service No Yes Yes Yes
CALs required No No No No
iSCSI target support Optional Optional Optional Optional
Clustering No No No Yes
  1. ↑ Microsoft defines a physical CPU/processor as a single socket/node on the systemboard. For O/S licensing purposes, a dual-socket single-core (Intel Pentium/4 Xeon, AMD Athlon/64) system counts as a total of 2 processors, whereas a single-socket quad-core CPU (such as AMD's Opteron and Intel's Xeon) counts as 1 processor. Microsoft's policy has no bearing on how third-party software vendors (such as Oracle) administer CPU licensing for its server applications.

Windows Unified Data Storage Server is a version of Windows Storage Server 2003 R2 with iSCSI target support standard, available in only the standard and enterprise editions.

Windows Small Business Server

Windows Small Business Server (SBS) is a software suite which includes Windows Server and additional technologies aimed at providing a small business with a complete technology solution.

The Standard edition of SBS includes Microsoft Remote Web Workplace, Windows SharePoint Services, Microsoft Exchange Server, Fax Server, Active Directory, a basic firewall, DHCP server and network address translation capabilities. The Premium edition of SBS adds Microsoft SQL Server 2000 and Microsoft ISA Server 2004.

SBS has its own type of 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 other CALs individually.

SBS has the following design limitations, mainly affecting Active Directory:[23]

To remove the limitations from an instance of SBS and upgrade to regular Windows Server, Exchange Server, SQL and ISA Server, there is a Windows Small Business Server 2003 R2 Transition Pack.[25]

Windows Home Server

Main article: Windows Home Server

Windows Home Server is an operating system from Microsoft based on Windows Small Business Server 2003 SP2 (this can be seen in the directory listings of the installation DVD). Windows Home Server was announced on January 7, 2007 at the Consumer Electronics Show by Bill Gates and is intended to be a solution for homes with multiple connected PCs to offer file sharing, automated backups, and remote access.

Windows Home Server began shipment to OEMs on September 15, 2007.[26]

Windows Server for Embedded Systems

Main article: Windows Embedded

Windows Server 2003 for Embedded Systems replaced "Windows 2000 Server for Embedded Systems". Intended use was for building firewall, VPN caching servers and similar appliances. Versions were available with "Server Appliance Software" and with "Microsoft® Internet Security and Acceleration Server"

Availability of the original version ended May 28, 2003. Availability of R2 ended March 5, 2006. End of Support is scheduled for July 14, 2015 (R2 and original), and End of Licence is scheduled for May 28, 2018 (R2 and original) . The end of support date indicates that the supported service pack was dated July 14, 2005. The End of Licence date is the last date that OEM's may distribute systems using this version. All versions continue to receive Critical security updates until the end of support: Microsoft has not announced extended support dates for Windows Server 2003 for Embedded Systems.

Release 2 for Embedded Systems was available in 32 and 64 bit versions, Standard (1-4 CPU) and Enterprise (1-8 CPU):

Updates

Service Pack 1

On March 30, 2005, Microsoft released Service Pack 1 for Windows Server 2003. Among the improvements are many of the same updates that were provided to Windows XP users with Service Pack 2. Features that are added with Service Pack 1 include:

A full list of updates is available in the Microsoft Knowledge Base.[33]

Service Pack 2

Service Pack 2 for Windows Server 2003 was released on March 13, 2007.[34] The release date was originally scheduled for the first half of 2006.[34] On June 13, 2006, Microsoft made an initial test version of Service Pack 2 available to Microsoft Connect users, with a build number of 2721. This was followed by build 2805, known as Beta 2 Refresh. The final build is 3790.

Microsoft has described Service Pack 2 as a "standard" service pack release containing previously released security updates, hotfixes, and reliability and performance improvements.[35] In addition, Service Pack 2 contains Microsoft Management Console 3.0, Windows Deployment Services (which replaces Remote Installation Services), support for WPA2, and improvements to IPsec and MSConfig. Service Pack 2 also adds Windows Server 2003 Scalable Networking Pack (SNP),[36] which allows hardware acceleration for processing network packets, thereby enabling faster throughput. SNP was previously available as an out-of-band update for Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1.

As of October 2009, no further Service Packs are planned for Windows Server 2003.[34]

Windows Server 2003 R2

Windows Server 2003 R2 is the successor of Windows Server 2003, released to manufacturing on December 6, 2005. It was released for x86 and x64 platforms, but not for IA-64.[37] It is distributed on two CDs, with one CD being the Windows Server 2003 SP1 CD. The other CD adds many optionally installable features for Windows Server 2003 R2.[38] It was succeeded by Windows Server 2008.

New features

Branch Office Server Management
Identity and Access Management
Storage Management
Server Virtualization
Utilities and SDK for UNIX-Based Applications

This add-on gives a relatively full Unix development environment. It consists of:

Support lifecycle

On July 13, 2010, Windows Server 2003's mainstream support expired and the extended support phase began. During the extended support phase, Microsoft continued to provide security updates; however, free technical support, warranty claims, and design changes are no longer being offered.[39] Extended support lasted until July 14, 2015.[39]

See also

References

  1. ↑ http://blogs.technet.com/windowsserver/archive/2007/03/13/sp2-goes-live.aspx
  2. ↑ "Windows Server 2003 Evaluation Kit". microsoft.com. Microsoft. 6 November 2003. Archived from the original on 1 January 2005.
  3. ↑ "Volume Licensing Programs for Windows Server 2003". microsoft.com. Microsoft. 15 June 2004. Archived from the original on 13 January 2005.
  4. ↑ "Windows Server 2003 Pricing". microsoft.com. Microsoft. 6 February 2004. Archived from the original on 29 December 2004.
  5. ↑ "Windows server 2003 Lifecycle Policy". Microsoft. March 8, 2008.
  6. ↑ "Windows Server 2003 end of support". Microsoft. Retrieved 19 June 2015.
  7. ↑ "Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Is Available Worldwide Today". News Center. San Francisco: Microsoft. 24 April 2003. Retrieved 1 April 2013.
  8. 1 2 "Rob Short (and kernel team) - Going deep inside Windows Vista's kernel architecture - Going Deep - Channel 9". Channel 9. Microsoft.
  9. ↑ "Windows Server's identity crisis". CNET News. CBS Interactive. 9 January 2003. Retrieved 1 April 2013.
  10. 1 2 3 "The Exterminator - Forbes.com". forbes.com.
  11. 1 2 3 "The Exterminator - Forbes.com". forbes.com.
  12. ↑ "Watchdog Timer Hardware Requirements for Windows Server 2003". WHDC. Microsoft. January 14, 2003. Archived from the original on November 18, 2006. Retrieved May 13, 2006.
  13. 1 2 "Compare the Editions of Windows Server 2003". Microsoft. Archived from the original on 19 April 2012.
  14. ↑ Holme, Dan; Thomas, Orin (2004). "1: Introducing Microsoft Windows Server 2003". Managing and maintaining a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 environment. Redmond, WA: Microsoft Press. pp. 1–5. ISBN 0-7356-1437-7.
  15. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "Memory Limits for Windows Releases". Msdn.microsoft.com. Retrieved November 22, 2011.
  16. 1 2 "Licensing Windows Server 2003, Web Edition". Microsoft.com. Retrieved November 22, 2011.
  17. ↑ "Microsoft Raises the Speed Limit with the Availability of 64-Bit Editions of Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP Professional" (Press release). Microsoft. April 25, 2005. Retrieved September 10, 2015.
  18. ↑ "Microsoft documentation for Windows Server 2003, Datacenter Edition". Microsoft.com. Retrieved November 22, 2011.
  19. 1 2 David Chernicoff (April 17, 2006). "Storage Server R2 Boasts Search and File-Access Improvements". Windows IT Pro. Retrieved September 2, 2006.
  20. ↑ Nicholas Kolakowski (2011-09-07). "HP TouchPad Needs 6 to 8 Weeks for Additional Shipments". Eweek.com. Retrieved 2013-01-09.
  21. ↑ "Microsoft Corporation Acquires WinTarget Technology from String Bean Software". Microsoft.com. Retrieved November 22, 2011.
  22. ↑ "Windows Storage Server 2003 R2 – Frequently Asked Questions". Microsoft.
  23. ↑ "Windows Small Business Server 2003 R2: Frequently Asked Questions". Microsoft. July 11, 2006. Retrieved September 2, 2006.
  24. ↑ "Licensing – Windows Small Business Server 2003 R2: Frequently Asked Questions". Microsoft. Retrieved September 2, 2006.
  25. ↑ Windows Server 2003
  26. ↑ Hill, Brandon (August 22, 2007). "Windows Home Server Systems to Ship 15 September". DailyTech.com. Retrieved October 11, 2007.
  27. ↑ "Security Configuration Wizard for Windows Server 2003". Retrieved September 2, 2006.
  28. ↑ "Metabase Auditing (IIS 6.0)". Retrieved September 2, 2006.
  29. ↑ "The Cable Guy – December 2004: New Networking Features in Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1". Microsoft TechNet. December 1, 2004. Retrieved September 2, 2006.
  30. ↑ "A detailed description of the Data Execution Prevention (DEP) feature in Windows XP Service Pack 2, Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005, and Windows Server 2003 (KB 875352)". Microsoft. Retrieved September 2, 2006.
  31. ↑ SV1 stands for "Security Version 1", referring to the set of security enhancements made for that release . This version of Internet Explorer is more popularly known as IE6 SP2, given that it is included with Windows XP Service Pack 2, but this can lead to confusion when discussing Windows Server 2003, which includes the same functionality in the SP1 update to that operating system.
  32. ↑ "Windows and GPT FAQ". Microsoft.com. June 15, 2011. Retrieved November 22, 2011.
  33. ↑ "Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 list of updates (KB 824721)". Microsoft. Retrieved September 2, 2006.
  34. 1 2 3 "Windows Service Pack Road Map". Microsoft. July 10, 2008. Retrieved September 15, 2008.
  35. ↑ Ward Ralston (August 1, 2006). "Windows Server 2003 and XP x64 Editions Service Pack 2". Windows Server Division WebLog. TechNet Blogs. Retrieved August 5, 2006.
  36. ↑ "Windows Server 2003 gets second update". Retrieved March 13, 2007.
  37. ↑ "New Version Of Windows Server Is On The Way". InformationWeek. UBM. Retrieved September 2, 2006.
  38. ↑ "Windows Server 2003 R2 installation help". Microsoft. Retrieved February 23, 2013.
  39. 1 2 "Microsoft Support Lifecycle". Support. Microsoft. Retrieved April 11, 2014.
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