Microsoft Windows 2003 Server Enterprise Edition (1)
Overclocker 24 Apr2003

Today, Microsoft launches its new series of Windows server - Windows Server 2003. Windows Server 2003 taps on the proven server technology of Windows NT and 2000 and brings you the familiar Windows XP interface for easy administration of your organisation. 

If you are familiar with how Windows XP is used as a client, Windows Server 2003 brings you the familiarity of GUI. In the installation, we went through the wizard by feeding answers to it. As we are using a SilconImage SATA interface card with a Seagate SATA HD, we used the Windows 2000 drivers to install Advanced Controllers during the inital set up phase. It went through without a hitch.

The first screen that greeted us is the MANAGE YOUR SERVER, over here we can set up the server to run optimised for the various roles. If you are familiar with adminstrating NT, you would have known that in a IP network, you would probably reduce the number of protocols and move the protocol stack as the highest priority protocol if multiple protocols is used across the network. You would also have tried to disable certain services for better background tasks. Well, selecting the server roles will just set the best settings for you for maximum throughput and install the necessary services for you.

Server Roles

Windows Server 2003 is a multipurpose operating system capable of handling a diverse set of server roles, depending on your needs, in either a centralized or distributed fashion. Some of these server roles include:

· File and print server.
· Web server and Web application server.
· Mail server.
· Terminal server.
· Remote access and virtual private network (VPN) server.
· Directory services, Domain Name System (DNS), Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) server, and Windows Internet Naming Service (WINS).
· Streaming media server. 

If you are use Windows 2003 Server for as a File Server

The Volume Shadow Copy service provides a photo snapshot of a single volume or multiple volumes. As its names implies, the shadow copy restore feature enables Windows-based client computers to view and recover previous versions of their files stored on the file server without IT intervention. This is especially useful when you accidentally save and edited copy to the save filename and wanted to recover the original. You can roll back in time to retrieve back the original copy that was shadowed before on the file server.

It is always a headache to manage group policies in an enterprise as some users are part of various departments. So when it comes to accessing certain resources, we have to explicitly check which group this user belongs to. In Windows Server 2003, Microsoft has released a new Group Policy management solution that unifies management of Group Policy. The Microsoft Group Policy Management Console (GPMC) provides a single solution for managing all Group Policy-related tasks.

The GPMC lets administrators manage Group Policy for multiple domains and sites within one or more forests, all in a simplified user interface (UI) with drag-and-drop support. Highlights include new functionality such as backup, restore, import, copy, and reporting of Group Policy objects (GPOs). These operations are fully scriptable, which lets administrators customize and automate management. Together these advantages make Group Policy much easier to use and help you manage your enterprise more cost-effectively.

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