EDITOR'S NOTE: At press time, Microsoft announced a name change for the Windows .NET Server family of products: Windows .NET Server 2003. This article follows the RC1 naming conventions; future articles will incorporate the new names.
Windows .NET Server (Win .NET Server), which at the time of this writing is scheduled for release late this year, will be in customers' hands in early 2003, according to Microsoft. (The product began life in late December 1999, alongside what would become Windows XP. However, after the February 2001 beta 2 releases of Win.NET Server and XP, Microsoft set the two products on separate development paths.) At the summer Windows .NET Server Reviewers' Workshop, I received a technical overview of the product's new features, and one thing was clear: The Windows Server OS has grown up dramatically since Windows NT's early days. First, the Win.NET Server family includes a wider range of products than does the Windows 2000 Server family. Second, Microsoft hopes that improvements in what it terms "abilities"—reliability, availability, scalability, interoperability, security, and manageability—will make the product viable in the data center market. Specifically, Win.NET Server offers new or enhanced components such as Active Directory (AD), Terminal Server (formerly Win2K Server Terminal Services), Windows Media Services (WMS), Microsoft IIS, application services, storage-management services, and communications and networking technologies.
The Win.NET Server Family
Win.NET Server is available in four mainstream 32-bit products:
- Windows .NET Web Server (Win.NET Web Server)
- Windows .NET Standard Server (Win.NET Standard Server—formerly Win2K Server)
- Windows .NET Enterprise Server (Win.NET Enterprise Server—formerly Win2K Advanced Server)
- Windows .NET Datacenter Server (Win.NET Datacenter Server—formerly Win2K Datacenter Server)
The family also includes two 64-bit editions: Win.NET Enterprise Server 64-Bit Edition and Win.NET Datacenter Server 64-Bit Edition.
Win.NET Web Server. Optimized solely for serving and hosting Web pages, Win.NET Web Server supports two processors and as much as 2GB of RAM. The product supports ASP.NET, Dfs, Encrypting File System (EFS), Internet Information Services (IIS) 6.0, IntelliMirror, Internet Connection Firewall (ICF), IP version 6 (IPv6), the Microsoft .NET Framework, Network Load Balancing (NLB), public key infrastructure (PKI), print services for UNIX, RDP, remote OS installation (but not Remote Installation Services—RIS), Resultant Set of Policies (RSoP), Shadow Copy Restore, VPNs, and Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) command-line features. Win.NET Web Server can be a member server in an AD domain but can't be a domain controller (DC), and thus lacks much of the other Win.NET Server editions' management infrastructure.
Win.NET Standard Server. The core product for small and midsized businesses, Win.NET Standard Server supports two processors and can handle 4GB of RAM. The product includes all the technologies in Win.NET Web Server. In addition, Win.NET Standard Server includes Certificate Services; Enterprise Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration (UDDI) Services; Fax Service; Internet Authentication Services (IAS); removable and remote storage; RIS; services for Macintosh; smart card support; Terminal Server; and WMS.
Win.NET Enterprise Server. Earmarked as the new high-volume Windows server product, Win.NET Enterprise Server supports as many as eight processors, 32GB of RAM, and two- to eight-node clusters. Win.NET Enterprise Server is a superset of Win.NET Standard Server, adding Metadirectory Services Support (MMS), Terminal Services Session Directory features, clustering support, and support for hot-add memory and Non-Uniform Memory Access (NUMA). A 64-bit version with different specifications is also available.
Win.NET Datacenter Server. As Microsoft's performance champion, Win.NET Datacenter Server aims at the upper end of the market, with exclusive availability and scalability enhancements. The product supports 8 to 32 microprocessors, 64GB of RAM, and two- to eight-node clusters. Although functionally equivalent to Win.NET Enterprise Server, Win.NET Datacenter Server lacks MMS and ICF features but adds Windows Datacenter Program support. This product also comes in a 64-bit version with different specifications.
Win.NET Server 64-bit editions. Since June 2001, Microsoft has offered a limited distribution Win.NET Server dubbed Windows Advanced Server, Limited Edition. This 64-bit product takes advantage of the first-generation Itanium platform (i.e., IA-64—formerly code-named Merced), which also shipped in summer 2001; in mid-2002, the company shipped a small update that targets Itanium 2. Late this year, Windows Advanced Server, Limited Edition will be superseded by Win.NET Enterprise Server 64-Bit Edition and Win.NET Datacenter Server 64-Bit Edition, both of which will support Itanium 2 and Itanium processors. Win.NET Enterprise Server 64-Bit Edition supports as many as eight processors, as much as 64GB of RAM, and two- to eight-node clusters. Win.NET Datacenter Server 64-Bit Edition supports 8 to 32 processors, 512MB to 256GB of RAM (though initially, most systems will be physically constrained to 128GB), and eight-node clusters. The 32-processor limit is fairly artificial: The 32-way 64-bit machines are only in the planning stages. Microsoft says it could scale Win.NET Datacenter Server 64-Bit Edition beyond 32 processors if the hardware were available.
The 64-bit products, of course, will see fairly limited deployments during the Win.NET Server family lifetime, thanks to the ever-increasing capabilities and performance of the 32-bit Intel architecture (IA-32, or x86) platform and the high prices of 64-bit hardware solutions. But releasing 64-bit products is an important step for Microsoft, which believes that the 64-bit market will someday surpass 32-bit products.
Focus on Abilities
Microsoft hopes that improvements in Windows Server's reliability, availability, scalability, interoperability, security, and manageability will satisfy Win2K and NT customers and help Win.NET Server succeed in the data center market. The company says it focused its efforts on responding to Win2K customer feedback and setting the scene for future enhancements.
Reliability. Microsoft's research of Win2K downtime statistics showed that 76 percent of downtime is planned, according to Jim Livingston, group program manager for Windows Datacenter Server. To improve reliability in these situations—specifically during OS upgrades or reconfigurations, service pack installations, and hotfix or Quick Fix Engineering (QFE) installations—Microsoft changed several core features in Win.NET Server. Most Win.NET Server upgrades, service pack installations, and hotfix or QFE installations will no longer require a server reboot. Furthermore, Win.NET Server supports the ability to chain QFEs so that you can install them in one step.
Previous
Register
