Variants of Windows Server 2003

Depend on particular size and type of business Windows Server 2003 comes in several variants.But 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.

Windows Small Business Server(SBS)

SBS includes Windows Server and additional technologies that helps small business. In SBS,the technologies are embedded such that it provides Remote Web Workplace, and offer management benefits such as integrated setup, enhanced monitoring, a unified management console, and remote access for small business.

The Standard Edition of SBS includes Services for collaboration, Microsoft Exchange server for e-mail, Fax Server, and the Active Directory for user management.It also provides a basic firewall, DHCP server and NAT router .

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

SBS server has the following design limitations:

* 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.
* Windows Server 2003 for Small Business Server is limited to 4GB of RAM .
* A Windows Server 2003 for Small Business Server domain cannot have any child domains.
* To remove the limits from SBS server upgrade to Server 2003 R2 Transition Pack.

     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.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. However MSDE and SQL Server 2005 Express are fully supported after service pack 1 is installed.
Windows Server 2003 Web Edition supports a maximum of 2 processors with support for a maximum of 2GB of RAM. Additionally, Windows Server 2003, Web Edition cannot act as a domain controller. Additionally, it is the only version of Windows Server 2003 that does not include client number limitation upon Windows update services as it does not require Client Access Licenses.
   Standard Edition

Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition is for small to medium sized businesses. It 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.

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 8 GB of memory .

Datacenter Edition

Windows Server 2003, Datacenter Edition is designed 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.

It supports Non-Uniform Memory Access,better support for Storage Area Networks (SAN) and
also supports 8-node clustering.

Windows Compute Cluster Server

Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003 (CCS) 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.
Computer Cluster Server uses the Microsoft Messaging Passing Interface v2 (MS-MPI) to communicate between the processing nodes on the cluster network.

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). 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). 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.

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.

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 Home Server

Windows Home Server is an operating system from Microsoft based on Windows Server 2003 SP2.  Windows Home Server is intended to be a solution for homes with multiple connected PCs to offer file sharing, automated backups, and remote access.

Feature of Window Server 2003

Windows Server 2003 is a server operating system produced by Microsoft. It is advance version of Windows 2000 Server.An updated version, Windows Server 2003 R2 was released to manufacturing on 6 December 2005. Now, Windows Server 2008 was released on February 4, 2008.

Windows Server 2003 is the follow-up to Windows 2000 Server,compatibile with Windows XP.Its 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.

Service Pack 1

In 2005, Microsoft released Service Pack 1 for Windows Server 2003. Some of the update in SP1 same as SP2 for Windows XP. Features that are added with Service Pack 1 include:

* Security Configuration Wizard: A tool that allows administrators to more easily research,
and make changes to, security policies.
* Hot Patching: This feature is set to extend Windows Server 2003’s ability to take DLL,Driver, and non-kernel patches without a reboot.
* IIS 6.0 Metabase Auditing: Allowing the tracking of metabase edits.
* Windows Firewall: Brings many of the improvements from Windows XPService Pack 2 to Windows Server 2003.
* Wireless Provisioning Services,better IPv6 support, and new protections against SYN flood TCP attacks are supported.
* Post-Setup Security Updates: A default mode that is turned on when aService Pack1 server is first booted up after installation.
* Data Execution Prevention (DEP): Support for the No Execute (NX) bit which helps to prevent buffer overflow exploits that are often the attack vector of Windows Server exploits.
* Windows Media Player version 10
* Internet Explorer 6 SV1.

Windows Server 2003 R2

It is an update version of Windows Server 2003. It is in two CDs, with one CD being the Windows Server 2003 SP1 CD. The other CD adds many optionally installable features for Windows Server 2003. The R2 update was released for all x86 and x64 versions, but not for Itanium versions.

New features

1.Branch Office Server Management
o Centralized management tools for file and printers
o Enhanced Distributed File System (DFS) namespace management interface
o More efficient WAN data replication with Remote Differential Compression.
2.Identity and Access Management
o Extranet Single Sign-On and identity federation
o Centralized administration of extranet application access
o Automated disabling of extranet access based on Active Directory account information
o User access logging
o Cross-platform web Single Sign-On and password synchronization using Network
Information Service (NIS)
3.Storage Management
o File Server Resource Manager (storage utilization reporting)
o Enhanced quota management
o File screening limits files types allowed
o Storage Manager for Storage Area Networks (SAN) (storage array configuration)
4.Server Virtualization
o A new licensing policy allows up to 4 virtual instances on Enterprise Edition
and Unlimited on Datacenter Edition
5.Utilities and SDK for UNIX-Based Applications add-on, giving a relatively full Unix
development environment.
o Base Utilities
o SVR-5 Utilities
o Base SDK
o GNU SDK
o GNU Utilities
o Perl 5
o Visual Studio Debugger Add-in

Service Pack 2

Microsoft has described Service Pack 2 for Windows Server 2003 as a “standard” service pack release containing previously-released security updates, hotfixes, and reliability and performance improvements. In addition, Service Pack 2 contains Microsoft Management Console 3.0, Windows Deployment Services , support for WPA2, and improvements to IPSec and MSConfig. Service Pack 2 also adds Windows Server 2003 Scalable Networking Pack (SNP).