As far as unplanned downtime goes, Microsoft claims to have dealt with the number-one cause of the so-called blue screen of death on Win2K systems by completely reengineering the driver verifier. New problem-tracking technologies—including a server shutdown tracker—provide proactive help to figure out why a system is rebooting and what you can do to prevent the problem in the future. And Win.NET Server includes Microsoft's optional Reliability Service, which the company previously used only inhouse and which lets customers gather reliability data from their servers, analyze the data, and obtain a reliability and availability report.
Availability. Even the most reliable server is of no use unless clients can access it. Win.NET Server improves availability through clustering and failover technologies and problem-avoidance techniques. The new OS increases clustering capabilities to eight nodes, and clustering is easier to set up, thanks to friendly wizards and proactive tools that sense when a cluster is configured improperly, then correct any problems. Memory-mirroring support ensures that memory failure won't bring down the system. Hot-plug PCI technology lets you add PCI cards without shutting down the server. Hot-add memory lets you add memory on the fly (although a similar feature for removing memory won't be available until the next Windows Server version, code-named Longhorn). To provide support for load-balancing and failover, Win.NET Server offers multipath I/O for storge. Microsoft has improved support for Storage Area Networks (SANs), and you can now implement a SAN-based file system without using drive letters.
Scalability. Microsoft says that Win2K customers want more high-end hardware choices and proof that Windows can scale as high as UNIX can. Therefore, Win.NET Server supports as much as 256GB of RAM as well as technologies such as NUMA and Intel Hyper-Threading, letting you partition Windows servers as you would a mainframe. More important for most Microsoft customers, perhaps, is that the 32-bit Win.NET Server products can work in systems with as many as 32 processors.
A new Windows Resource Manager (WRM), which is available only on Win.NET Datacenter Server, lets you run more than one line of business (LOB) application on a 32-way server, create rules about which services are most important, and give those services processor and RAM priority. By default, WRM evens off processor time between running applications. To determine how much time each application gets, however, you can create policies, schedule them on a calendar (e.g., schedule a daytime policy, create dynamically changing policies), and fire changes according to specified events.
Interoperability. Historically, interoperability hasn't been Microsoft's strong suit. With this new batch of servers, however, the company seems to be embracing the notion that heterogeneous platforms will interoperate using open standards such as XML Web services and Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP). Furthermore, the 32-bit and 64-bit Win.NET Server products are completely interoperable: The systems appear similarly on your network, with no discernable way to distinguish the 32-bit servers from the 64-bit servers.
Security. Win.NET Server will be the first major Microsoft OS release in the wake of the company's Trustworthy Computing code review, which occurred in February and March of this year. Win.NET Server includes a secure VPN gateway, the new IEEE 802.1x secure wireless standard, and a standards-based TCP/IP infrastructure that includes support for DNS, DHCP, Network Address Translation (NAT), and IPv6. By default, Win.NET Server disables IIS 6.0 and turns off more than 20 other services; Microsoft reduced the privileges for some services, such as the NetworkService and LocalService. Win.NET Server includes stronger default ACL and policy settings and refuses network authentication for accounts with blank passwords.
To protect systems after deployment, the new Software Restriction Policies (SRP) feature lets you determine which applications can—and can't—execute in their environment. Win.NET Server also supports smart card technologies so that you can log on with a nonadministrative account, then swipe a smart card when you need to perform secure administrative tasks and access administrative privileges.
Manageability. In Win.NET Server, Microsoft identified and concentrated on several manageability "pillars." To ease deployment and configuration, all Win.NET Server versions except Win.NET Web Server support RIS for the rapid installation of servers. (This feature was previously available only on Windows desktop systems.) The OS's new Manage Your Server wizard, which Figure 1 shows, and Configure Your Server Wizard, which Figure 2 shows, simplify the process of assigning server roles (e.g., file server, print server, Web server); you can easily assign multiple roles where appropriate. To keep Win.NET Server up- to-date and secure, the OS supports Microsoft Software Update Services (SUS), and Auto Update, as Figure 3 shows. The new SRP feature also helps prevent unau- thorized code execution. To help you consolidate management of many systems, the OS will support a new Microsoft Man-agement Console (MMC) Group Policy Management Console (GPMC) snap-in, which will provide a scriptable interface for managing Group Policy. One nice feature of this tool is its integration with RSoP, which lets you generate reports that show which policies apply to specific users and machines. However, Microsoft says that GPMC probably won't make the final Win.NET Server release to manufacturing (RTM); the snap-in will ship soon thereafter as a separate, free download. Finally, Microsoft aimed to enable richer administrative control and flexibility through command-line and task-based administration tools, command-line access to WMI, headless server mode, and emergency server access.
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