Windows Server 2003 Review

[DaveH]

Microsoft on April 24th unveils it's newest enterprise class operating system Windows Server 2003 and it's various member products. But what are the differences between this and Windows 2000, and why do you want to upgrade? Well, I'm going to try to cover the noticible differences between the pair and why Windows Server 2003 just makes more sense.

[Installation]

Windows Server 2003 products with the exception of the Web Server brand support Remote Installation and Remote Installation Services (RIS) by default. What is remote installation and why do you want it? Well, Remote Installation Services (RIS) made it's debut in the Windows 2000 Server family many moons ago, it was a process that was somewhat lumbering, did not work totally well or at all for that matter. "RIS" allows adminstrators to copy the i386 directory along with any additional software they like into a directory, for our purposes, this will be W2003S/ afterwards, we boot from a "network client" which basically means something like DOS NDIS drivers and begin our network installation.

[Administration]

In the previous days, setting up a mail server was among one of the HARDEST things to do. Now; Microsoft has removed ALL the guess work from deploying your server as a mail/print/file-server with "Server Roles Wizard" now you can simply click and type the details of your server.

Available Server "Roles"

File server , Print server , Application server, Mail server, Remote access, Domain controller, DNS server, DHCP server, Streaming media server , WINS server.

Now, more than ever it is important to edit more than one group policy object or user account at a time, now you can CTRL+Click as many users/policies as you like and you can edit them all at the same time. Also, I might note that you can use multiple server roles together, it's not restricted to just ONE role.

Another key improvement is that II6 is not installed by default, nor will it be inheirently installed without the user/adminstrators knowledge, which is good, because IIS is scary and kills everyone.

Group Policy Modeling is a new addition to the Group Policy Management Console or GPMC and allows you to test out a policy before you deploy it.

Windows Server Windows Server 2003 HomePage

[Doggie]

i installed it and hard drives went stupid.. then i found out while installing i made for some stupid reason a disk quota for users.. so my hdd went 10mb only LOL.. anyways back to topic.. nice review.. its ashame 2003 server only lasts for 360 days not retail.. the one i receieved with office 11 beta 2 pack