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10 Features for Organizations Upgrading from Windows 2000 Server |
| Built
on the reliable Windows 2000 Server family, Windows Server 2003 integrates
a powerful application environment to develop innovative XML Web services
and improved applications that dramatically improve process efficiency.
Here are the major new features and improvements for organizations
considering upgrading to Windows Server 2003 from Windows 2000 Server. |
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Active
Directory Improvements.
Introduced in Windows 2000, the Microsoft
Active Directory® service simplifies the administration
of complex network directories and makes it easy for users
to locate resources on even the largest networks. This enterprise-class
directory service is scalable, built from the ground up using
Internet-standard technologies, and fully integrated at the
operating-system level in Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition,
Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Editon, and Windows Server
2003, Datacenter Edition.
Windows
Server 2003 provides numerous ease-of-use improvements to
Active Directory and new features including cross-forest trusts,
the ability to rename domains, and the ability to deactivate
attributes and classes in the schema so that their definitions
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Group
Policy Management Console.
Administrators can use Group Policy to define the settings
and allowed actions for users and computers. In contrast with
local policy, organizations can use Group Policy to set policies
that apply across a given site, domain, or organizational
unit in Active Directory. Policy-based management simplifies
such tasks as system update operation, application installation,
user profiles, and desktop-system lockdown.
Expected
to be available as an add-in component to Windows Server 2003,
the Group Policy Management Console (GPMC) provides the new
framework for managing Group Policy. With GPMC, Group Policy
becomes much easier to use, a benefit that will enable more
organizations to better utilize Active Directory and take
advantage of its powerful management features.
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Resultant
Set of Policy.
The Resultant Set of Policy (RSoP) tool allows administrators
to see the effect of Group Policy on a targeted user or computer.
With RSoP, organizations have a powerful and flexible base-level
tool to plan, monitor, and troubleshoot Group Policy.
RSoP
is an infrastructure provided as a set of Microsoft Management
Console (MMC) snap-ins that let administrators determine and
analyze the current set of policies in two modes: logging
mode and planning mode. In logging mode, administrators can
assess what has applied to a particular target. In planning
mode, they can see how policies would be applied to a target
and then examine the results before deploying a change to
Group Policy.
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Volume
Shadow Copy Restore.
As part of Volume
Shadow Copy service, this feature lets administrators configure
point-in-time copies of critical data volumes without interrupting
service. These copies can then be used for service restoration
or archival purposes. Users can retrieve archived versions
of their documents that are invisibly maintained on the server.
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Internet
Information Services 6.0
Internet Information Services (IIS) 6.0 is a full-featured
Web server that enables Web applications and XML Web services.
IIS 6.0 has been completely re-architected with a new fault-tolerant
process model that greatly boosts the reliability of Web sites
and applications.
Now,
IIS can isolate an individual Web application or multiple
sites into a self-contained process (called an application
pool) that communicates directly with the operating system
kernel. This feature increases throughput and capacity of
applications while offering more headroom on servers, effectively
reducing hardware needs. These self-contained application
pools prevent one application or site from disrupting the
XML Web services or other Web applications on the server.
IIS also
provides health monitoring capabilities to discover, recover,
and prevent Web application failures. On Windows Server 2003,
Microsoft ASP.NET natively uses the new IIS process model.
These advanced application health and detection features are
also available to existing applications running under Internet
Information Server 4.0 and IIS 5.0, with the vast majority
of applications not needing any modification. |
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Integrated
.NET Framework.
The Microsoft .NET Framework is the programming model of Microsoft
.NET-connected software and technologies for building, deploying,
and running Web applications, smart client applications, and
XML Web services that expose their functionality programmatically
over a network using standard protocols such as SOAP, XML,
and HTTP.
The .NET
Framework provides a highly productive, standards-based environment
for integrating existing investments with next-generation
applications and services.
In addition,
it helps organizations solve the challenges of deployment
and operation of Internet-scale applications.
With the
.NET Framework fully integrated into the Windows Server 2003
operating system, developers are freed from writing "plumbing"
code and can instead focus their efforts on delivering real
business value. The .NET Framework takes care of the integration
and management details, reducing code complexity and increasing
coherency. |
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Command-Line
Management.
The Windows Server 2003 family provides a significantly enhanced
command-line infrastructure, letting administrators perform
most management tasks without using a graphical user interface.
Of special importance is the ability to perform a wide range
of tasks by accessing the information store enabled by Windows
Management Instrumentation (WMI). This WMI command-line (WMIC)
feature provides a simple command-line interface that interoperates
with existing shells and utility commands and can be easily
extended by scripts or other administration-oriented applications.
Overall,
the greater command-line functionality in the Windows Server
2003 family, combined with ready-to-use scripts, rivals the
power of other operating systems often associated with higher
cost of ownership. Administrators accustomed to using the
command line to manage UNIX or Linux systems can continue
managing from the command line in the Windows Server 2003
family.
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Clustering
(eight-node support).
Available only in Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition
and Windows Server 2003, Datacenter Edition, this service
provides high availability and scalability for mission-critical
applications such as databases, messaging systems, and file
and print services. Clustering works by enabling multiple
servers (nodes) to remain in constant communication. If one
of the nodes in a cluster becomes unavailable as a result
of failure or maintenance, another node immediately begins
providing service, a process known as failover. Users who
are accessing the service continue their activities, unaware
that service is now being provided from a different server
(node).
Both
Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition and Windows Server
2003, Datacenter Edition support server cluster configurations
of up to eight nodes.
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Secure
Wireless LAN (802.1X).
Companies can move to a security model that ensures all physical
access is authenticated and encrypted, based on the 802.1X
support in the Windows Server 2003 family. Using 802.1X-based
wireless access points or switches, companies can be sure
that only trusted systems are allowed to connect and exchange
packets with secured networks. Because 802.1X provides dynamic
key determination, 802.1X wireless network encryption is dramatically
improved by addressing many of the known issues associated
with wired equivalent privacy (WEP) used by IEEE 802.11 networks.
This
feature provides security and performance improvements for
wireless local area networks (LANs), such as automatic key
management, user authentication, and authorization prior to
LAN access. It also provides access control for Ethernet networks
when wired Ethernet is used in public locations.
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Emergency
Management Services: Headless Server Support.
"Headless server" capabilities allow IT administrators
to install and manage a computer without a monitor, VGA display
adaptor, keyboard, or mouse. Emergency Management Services is
a new feature allowing IT administrators to perform remote-management
and system recovery tasks when the server is unavailable through
the network or other standard remote-administration tools and
mechanisms. |
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