Welcome to the first installment of Internet Information Services 6.0 on Windows Server 2003. I have decided to write this series of articles aimed at Internet Information Services 6.0 on Windows Server 2003 as both a refresher for the IT professional that is familiar with designing and administrating IIS 4 and 5 as well as allowing some of the newcomers to the service to get their feet wet so to speak.
In this installment I will begin my introduction to Internet Information Services 6.0 on Windows Server 2003 by providing an overview of the underlying operating system and what some of the differences between the versions are as well as offer a quick refresher on file systems.
There are four versions in the Windows 2003 Server family.
Windows Server 2003 Web Edition
Minimum Computer/Processor
133 MHz or higher Pentium-compatible CPU
Recommended Computer/Processor
550 MHz or higher Pentium-compatible CPU
Minimum Memory
supported
128 MB RAM minimum supported
Recommended Memory
256 MB RAM recommended minimum
Maximum Memory
2 GB maximum supported
Hard Disk
2 GB hard disk with a minimum of 1.5 GB free space. (Additional free hard disk space is required if you are installing over a network.)
CPU Support
Windows Server 2003 Web Edition supports up to two CPUs on one machine
Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition
Minimum Computer/Processor
133 MHz or higher Pentium-compatible CPU
Recommended Computer/Processor
550 MHz or higher Pentium-compatible CPU
Minimum Memory
supported
128 MB RAM minimum supported
Recommended Memory
256 MB RAM recommended minimum
Maximum Memory
4 GB maximum supported
Hard Disk
2 GB hard disk with a minimum of 1.5 GB free space. (Additional free hard disk space is required if you are installing over a network.)
CPU Support
Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition supports up to four CPUs on one machine
Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition
Minimum Computer/Processor
133 MHz for x86-based deployments
733 MHz for Itanium-based deployments
Recommended Computer/Processor
733 MHz or higher Pentium-compatible CPU on both x86-based and Itanium-based systems
Minimum Memory
supported
128 MB RAM minimum supported
Recommended Memory
256 MB RAM recommended minimum
Maximum Memory
32 GB for x86-based deployments
64 GB for Itanium-based deployments
Hard Disk
1.5 GB for x86-based systems
2.0 GB for Itanium-based systems
(Additional free hard disk space is required if you are installing over a network.)
CPU Support
Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition supports up to eight CPUs on one machine
Windows Server 2003 Datacenter Edition
Minimum Computer/Processor
400 MHz for x86-based deployments
733 MHz for Itanium-based deployments
Recommended Computer/Processor
733 MHz or higher Pentium-compatible CPU on both x86-based and Itanium-based systems
Minimum Memory
supported
512 MB RAM minimum supported
Recommended Memory
1 GB RAM recommended minimum
Maximum Memory
64 GB for x86-based deployments
512 GB for Itanium-based deployments
Hard Disk
1.5 GB for x86-based systems
2.0 GB for Itanium-based systems
(Additional free hard disk space is required if you are installing over a network.)
CPU Support
Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition supports a minimum of eight CPUs on one machine and a maximum of 64
You can perform direct upgrades to Windows Server 2003 from the following versions of Windows:
Windows NT Server 4.0 with Service Pack 5 or later
Windows NT Server 4.0, Terminal Server Edition, with Service Pack 5 or later.
Windows 2000 Server.
There is one gotcha where Remote Storage is concerned. Remote Storage is not included on Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition and if you are using Windows 2000 Server (not Advanced Server, but just “Server”) with Remote Storage, you will not be able to perform an upgrade installation to Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition. You will have the option to either upgrade directly to Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition or to remove Remote Storage through Add/Remove Programs in Control Panel from the current installation of Windows 2000 Server. If you remove Remote Storage you would then be able to perform an upgrade to Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition. Your other option would be to install Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition as a new installation which will effectively allow you to configure your server in a dual boot configuration.
You cannot upgrade installations of Windows Server 2003 from Windows 9x, ME, Windows NT Workstation, Windows 2000 Professional and Windows XP Home or Professional. Clean installations over the existing operating system installations can be performed. You can also perform a clean installation of Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition as a new installation to another partition which will effectively allow you to configure your server in a dual boot configuration.
(While dual boot configurations are allowed they are not recommended on production servers from a security standpoint.)
Also, if you have Windows NT 4.0 Server Enterprise Edition running Service Pack 5 or later, you can upgrade directly to Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition, but not to Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition. A clean installation to Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition is available. If you have a version of Windows NT earlier than 4.0, such as Windows NT Server 3.x, you cannot upgrade directly to any product in the Windows Server 2003 family. You can first upgrade to Windows NT 4.0 and apply Service Pack 5 and then perform a direct upgrade if desired. (This is not recommended, however.)
There is a known issue with Windows Server 2003 on some Pentium Pro or Pentium II dual-processor or multiple-processor servers where the server may fire up with only one processor.
This situation may occur if you upgrade from Windows NT 4.0 or Windows 2000 to Windows Server 2003 and the error message of “Unsupported Multiprocessor Configuration” will be displayed according to Microsoft Knowledge Base Article – 319091 http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;319091
The Unsupported Multiprocessor Configuration issue affects the following Intel processors:
x86 Family 6 Model 1 Stepping X GenuineIntel (where X = 1, 2, 6, 7, or 9)
x86 Family 6 Model 3 Stepping X GenuineIntel (where X = 3 or 4)
When you perform the compatibility check after your upgrade the operating system you may receive the following message if you are using these processors:
“Microsoft Windows Server 2003 family of operating systems and the processors in this system do not operate together in a multiprocessor configuration.”
The upgrade will continue but upon completion Windows Server 2003 will only operate with a single processor.
There does not seem to be a whole lot of additional information on this and the only real solution to the issue is to use processors with different revision levels.
When a FAT16 partition is in use it will normally require you to supply 100 to 200 MB of additional free disk space than FAT32 or NTFS because of the cluster sizes that are in use on 2GB FAT16 partitions. NTFS is the recommended file system for any Server deployment.
NOTES FROM THE FIELD – SIDEBAR – FILESYSTEMS – File Allocation Table (commonly known as FAT or FAT16) is supported by Windows Server 2003 as well as, all Windows operating systems, DOS, and a host of other non-Microsoft OSes.
FAT partitions are allocated in clusters, the size of which varies automatically due to the size of the partition in use. The larger the partition, the larger the cluster size and the larger the cluster size, the more space is “required” when writing data to the disk.
FAT file system cluster sizes
Partition Size
Cluster Size
FAT Type
0M to less than 16MB
4,096 bytes
12-bit
16M through 128MB
2,048 bytes
16-bit
128 through 256MB
4,096 bytes
16-bit
256 through 512MB
8,192 bytes
16-bit
512 through 1,024MB
16,384 bytes
16-bit
1,024 through 2,048MB
32,768 bytes
16-bit
As you can see, with a 2GB partition size, (the maximum allowed under FAT16 in many cases) if you were to save 50 different files, all 1024 bytes (1KB) in actual size (or to have 50 fractions of larger files “fall over” to the next cluster by that same amount), the amount of hard drive space used up would be 1,638,400 bytes (a little over 1 MB), for 51,200 bytes of actual data.
You can obviously see that this is a serious problem when there are thousands of small *.DLLs and other types of small files on a partition that is formatted with FAT16
Also, with the advent of super-inexpensive hard drives that are 100GB or larger in size, you can see where using FAT16 would be an issue as well.
In summary, there are “advantages” for using the FAT file system on a Windows XP Professional installation:
MS-DOS, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT, Windows 2000, and some UNIX operating systems can use FAT16. If there is some reason to dual boot the system, FAT16 allows you the greatest number of options.
There are many software tools that can address problems and recover data on FAT16 volumes.
If you have a startup failure, you can start the computer by using a bootable floppy disk to troubleshoot the problem.
FAT16 is efficient, in speed and storage, on volumes smaller than 256 MB.
(Those 50 files I mentioned above, all 1024 bytes (1KB) in actual size, would use up “only” 409,600 bytes on a 400MB partition formatted with FAT16 and “only” 204,800 bytes on a 250MB partition.)
There are also some FAT16 disadvantages as well:
The root folder (usually the C: drive) has a limit of 512 entries. The use of long file names can significantly reduce the number of available entries.
FAT16 is limited to 65,536 clusters, but because certain clusters are reserved, it has a practical limit of 65,524. The largest FAT16 volume on Windows 2000 and Windows XP Professional is limited to 4 GB and uses a cluster size of 64 KB. To maintain compatibility with MS-DOS, Windows 95, and Windows 98, a volume cannot be larger than 2 GB. (Those 50 files I mentioned above, all 1024 bytes (1KB) in actual size, would use up 3,276,200 bytes of hard drive space to store 51,200 bytes of actual data on a 4 GB FAT16 partition used in this scenario.)
FAT16 is inefficient on larger volume sizes, as the size of the cluster increases. We have seen this in the examples above.
The boot sector is not backed up on FAT16 partitions. Because FAT16 does not include a backup copy of critical data structures they are susceptible to single point of failure issues, more so than other file systems.
There is no native file level security, compression or encryption available in the FAT16 file system.
Below is a table of Microsoft Operating systems and which file systems they can natively access.
Operating System
Supports
Supports FAT32
Supports
Max Partition
NTFS
FAT
Window Server 2003
Yes
Yes
Yes
4GB
Windows XP Professional
Yes
Yes
Yes
4GB
Windows XP Home
Yes
Yes
Yes
4GB
Windows 2000 Pro and Server
Yes
Yes
Yes
4GB
Windows Millennium Edition
No
Yes
Yes
2GB
Windows 98 and Second Edition
No
Yes
Yes
2GB
Windows 95 OSR2 and OSR2.5
No
Yes
Yes
2GB
Windows NT4 Workstation
Yes
No
Yes
4GB
Windows 95 Gold (Original Release)
No
No
Yes
2GB
Windows NT3.5x Workstation
Yes
No
Yes
4GB
MS-DOS (versions 3.3 and higher)
No
No
Yes
* see below
The maximum FAT partition that can be created and accessed by the operating systems listed above is 2GB in most cases. 4GB FAT partitions can be created and properly accessed only under those operating systems specifically listed above. A dual boot NT family of operating system can create a 4GB FAT partition and a lower level OS such as Windows 98 may be able to see data on it, however, issues will arise when data access is attempted above the 2GB threshold that the OS normally uses.
For more information on the Maximum Partition Size Using the FAT16 File System in Windows XP, you can look up Q310561 at the Microsoft PSS webpage.
The “OSR” in “Windows 95 OSR2 and OSR2.5” stands for OEM Service Release.
The “OEM” in “OEM Service Release” stands for Original Equipment Manufacturer.
For more information on Accessing FAT16 Drives Larger Than 2 GB, or Maximum Partition Size Using FAT16 File System, feel free to follow the links I have provided to the Microsoft web site.
* There are some exceptions, but for the most part, DOS 3.3 and higher can access up to 2GB of single partition space, as outlined in Q67321 at the Microsoft PSS webpage. The MS-DOS Partitioning Summary (Q69912) names some exceptions and points out the fact that some earlier versions didn’t support many of today’s FAT16 standards.
The maximum single file size on a FAT16 partition is 2 GB, regardless of the fact that some OSes can have a 4GB partition.
FAT32 is supported by the Windows Server 2003 family of operating systems as well as a number of the newer Microsoft Operating systems. FAT32 was first introduced with Microsoft Windows 95 OSR2 and the major differences between FAT and FAT32 are volume and cluster sizes for the most part and the fact that only Microsoft Operating systems can natively access FAT32.
The FAT32 file system can support drives up to 2 terabytes in size (in theory) and because it uses space more efficiently, FAT32 uses smaller clusters (that is, 4,096 byte clusters for drives up to 8 GB in size), resulting in more efficient use of disk space relative to large FAT16 drives.
FAT32 file system cluster sizes
Partition Size
Cluster Size
0M to less than 260MB
512 bytes
260MB through 8GB
4,096 bytes
8GB through 16GB
8,192 bytes
16GB through 32GB
16,384 bytes
32GB through 2TB
32,768 bytes
The 50 files I mentioned in the FAT16 section, all 1024 bytes (1KB) in actual size, would use up only 409,600 bytes on a 16GB partition formatted with FAT16 and only 204,800 bytes on a 8GB partition. As you can see however, we are now running into the issue with FAT32 drives with 80GB and 100GB partitions that we did a few years ago under FAT16, wasted space. Those same 50 files would use 819,200 bytes on either of the two large drives I mentioned.
While the FAT32 file system can support drives up to a standard theoretical size of 2 terabytes, (it “can” be jury-rigged under Windows Millennium Edition to support partitions of up to 8 TB) Windows Server 2003, Windows 2000 Server or Professional and XP Professional and Home Edition cannot FORMAT a volume larger than 32 GB in size using their native FAT32 file system.
The FastFAT driver can mount and support volumes larger than 32 GB that use the FAT32 file system, such as those created locally by Windows 98 or ME in dual boot configuration, (subject to other limits listed here for Windows 98, ME and 2000 and here for Windows XP), but you cannot CREATE one using the Format tool from within Windows Server 2003, Windows 2000 Server or Professional or from XP Home or Professional. If you attempt to format a FAT32 partition larger than 32 GB, the format fails near the end of the process with the following error message: Logical Disk Manager: Volume size too big.
In summary, the advantages of the FAT32 file system are:
FAT32 allocates disk space much more efficiently than FAT16.
The root folder on a FAT32 drive is not restricted in the number of entries in the root folder as was FAT16.
FAT32 is a more robust file system than FAT16 was. FAT32 has the ability to relocate the root directory and use the backup copy of the FAT instead of the default copy. In addition, the boot record on FAT32 drives has been expanded to include a backup of critical data structures. This means that FAT32 volumes are less susceptible to a single point of failure than FAT16 volumes.
Just as there were disadvantages to the FAT16 file system, so there are in FAT32 as well:
FAT32 volumes are not accessible from any other operating systems other than certain Microsoft ones.
FAT32 partition sizes are limited to 32GB in size using the native FAT32 file system format tools under Windows Server 2003, Windows 2000 and Windows XP.
There is no native file level security, compression or encryption available in the FAT32 file system.
Below is a table of Microsoft Operating systems which support native access to the FAT32 file system.
Operating System
Supports FAT32
Windows Server 2003
Yes
Windows XP Professional
Yes
Windows XP Home
Yes
Windows 2000 Professional
Yes
Windows Millennium Edition
Yes
Windows 98 and Second Edition
Yes
Windows 95 OSR2 and OSR2.5
Yes
Windows NT4 Workstation
No
Windows 95 Gold (Original Release)
No
Windows NT3.5x Workstation
No
MS-DOS (versions 3.3 and higher)
No
For answers to some common questions about the FAT32 File System, you can look up Q253774 at the Microsoft PSS webpage.
For more information on the Limitations of FAT32 File System on Windows 98, ME and 2000, you can look up Q184006 at the Microsoft PSS webpage. You can find the information for the limitations of the FAT32 File System in Windows XP information available at Q314463. You will also find the maximum partition sizes, both practical and theoretical listed there as well.
Volumes from 33 MB to 2 TB can be accessed under Windows Server 2003 however the maximum size that can be formatted under Windows Server 2003 is 32 GB.
The maximum single file size on a FAT32 partition is 4 GB, regardless of the size of the partition.
NTFS is the preferred file system for all computers running Windows Server 2003. If you are running Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 4 or later, you can read basic volumes formatted by using NTFS 5 locally on dual boot systems. Windows Server 2003, Windows 2000 and Windows XP Professional can read NTFS partitions on both basic and dynamic volumes.
(Computers systems accessing either version of NTFS across networks are not affected. Version differences are usually only considered in local / dual boot situations.)
The following NTFS features are available under version 5;
- File and Folder Permissions
- Encryption
- Disk Quotas
- File Compression
- Mounted Drives
- Hard Links
- Distributed Link Tracking
- Sparse Files
- Multiple Data Streams
- POSIX Compliance
- NTFS Change Journal
- Indexing Service
Detailed information on these features can be found in both the Microsoft Windows XP Professional Resource Kit Documentation and online.
If you are running Windows Server 2003 in a dual boot scenario with a system running Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 4 or later, most of the NTFS 5 features are not available. Most read and write operations are permitted provided as they do not attempt to make use of most NTFS 5 features.
Issues that may occur under this type of configuration may include some of the following:
- Windows NT4 cannot perform any operations that make use of reparse points.
- When you run Windows NT4 on a multiple-boot configuration that also runs Windows XP Professional, Windows NT4 ignores disk quotas implemented by Windows XP Professional.
- Windows NT4 cannot perform any operations on files encrypted by Windows XP Professional.
- Windows NT4 cannot perform any operations on sparse files.
- Windows NT4 ignores the change journal setup under Windows XP Professional..
The NTFS file system can support drives up to 16 exabytes, in theory, but because partition tables on basic disks (disks that include a master boot record) only support partition sizes up to 2 terabytes, you would need to use dynamic volumes to create NTFS partitions over 2 terabytes in size. Maximum volume and partition sizes start at 2 terabytes (TB) and range upward to almost 16 TB; dependent on whether basic or dynamic volumes are used and whether the volume is formatted with a standard allocation unit size of 4 KB.
Windows 2000, Windows XP Professional and Windows Server 2003 manage dynamic volumes in a special database instead of in the partition table, so dynamic volumes are not subject to the 2-terabyte physical limit imposed by the partition table. This is why dynamic NTFS volumes can be as large as the maximum volume size supported by NTFS.
Default NTFS file system cluster sizes
Partition Size
NTFS
7 MB-16 MB
512 bytes
17 MB-32 MB
512 bytes
33 MB-64 MB
512 bytes
65 MB-128 MB
512 bytes
129 MB-256 MB
512 bytes
257 MB-512 MB
512 bytes
513 MB-1,024 MB
1,024 bytes
1,025 MB-2 GB
2,048 bytes
2 GB-4 GB
4,096 bytes
4 GB-8 GB
4,096 bytes
8 GB-16 GB
4,096 bytes
16 GB-32 GB
4,096 bytes
32 GB-2 terabytes
4,096 bytes
In summary, the advantages of NTFS are as follows:
- NTFS uses standard transaction logging and recovery techniques. By using the log file and checkpoint information to automatically restore the consistency of the file system in the event of a failure, NTFS, for the most part, maintains the consistency of the data on the volume and the volume itself.
- NTFS supports compression on volumes, folders, and files. Files that are compressed on an NTFS volume can be read and written by any Windows based application without first being decompressed by another program. Decompression happens automatically, (think of a ZIP utility on-the-fly) during the file read. The file is compressed again when it is closed or saved.
- NTFS does not restrict the number of entries to 512 in the root folder.
- Windows 2000 and Windows XP can format partitions up to 2 terabytes using NTFS.
- NTFS manages disk space efficiently by using smaller clusters (see the cluster table).
- The boot sector is backed up to a sector at the end of the volume.
- You can set permissions on shares, folders, and files that specify which groups and users have access, and what level of access is permitted on NTFS partitions.
- NTFS supports a native encryption system, (EFS), to prevent unauthorized access to file contents.
- Reparse points enable new features such as volume mount points.
- Disk quotas can be set to limit the amount of usage allowed by end users.
- NTFS uses a change journal to track changes made to files.
- NTFS supports distributed link tracking to maintain the integrity of shortcuts and OLE links.
- NTFS supports sparse files so that very large files can be written to disk while requiring only a small amount of storage space.
There are also a few notable disadvantages to NTFS, as outlined below.
- NTFS volumes are not locally accessible from MS-DOS, Windows 95, Windows 98 and Windows Millennium Edition operating systems.
- Many advanced features of NTFS included with version 5 are not available in Windows NT.
- On small partitions with mostly small files, the overhead of managing the NTFS file system can cause a slight performance drop in comparison to FAT.
- Floppy disks cannot be formatted as NTFS
For more detailed answers to questions about the NTFS File System, you can look up the information in the Microsoft Windows XP Professional Resource Kit Documentation, which can also be found online.
NTFS stands for New Technology File System.
Default Cluster Sizes for partitions under Windows Server 2003
Partition size
FAT16 cluster size
FAT32 cluster size
NTFS cluster size
7 MB-16 MB
2 KB (FAT12)
Not supported
512 bytes
17 MB-32 MB
512 bytes
Not supported
512 bytes
33 MB-64 MB
1 KB
512 bytes
512 bytes
65 MB-128 MB
2 KB
1 KB
512 bytes
129 MB-256 MB
4 KB
2 KB
512 bytes
257 MB-512 MB
8 KB
4 KB
512 bytes
513 MB-1,024 MB
16 KB
4 KB
1 KB
1,025 MB-2 GB
32 KB
4 KB
2 KB
2 GB-4 GB
64 KB
4 KB
4 KB
4 GB-8 GB
Not supported
4 KB
4 KB
8 GB-16 GB
Not supported
8 KB
4 KB
16 GB-32 GB
Not supported
16 KB
4 KB
32 GB-2 TB
Not supported
Not supported
4 KB
Quick points and summary tidbits:
- FAT volumes smaller than 16 megabytes (MB) are formatted as FAT12.
- FAT12 is used only on floppy disks and on volumes smaller than 16 megabytes
- FAT16 volumes larger than 2 gigabytes (GB) are not locally accessible from computers running MS-DOS, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows Millennium Edition and many other operating systems.
- FAT32 volumes can theoretically be as large as 2 terabytes, Windows Server 2003, Windows 2000 and Windows XP limit the maximum size FAT32 volume that it can format to 32 GB. (Windows Server 2003, Windows 2000 and Windows XP Professional can read and write to larger FAT32 volumes formatted by other operating systems.)
- NTFS volumes can theoretically be as large as 16 exabytes (EB), but the practical limit is 2 terabytes.
- The user can specify the cluster size when an NTFS volume is formatted. However, NTFS compression is not supported for cluster sizes larger than 4 kilobytes (KB).
- Not supported means “Not supported by Microsoft.” In some “chance” cases, you may be able to perform a function that is not normally supported.
If you are installing any of the Windows Server 2003 versions from a network share, you will need approximately 100 to 200 MB of additional free disk space because the setup program needs space for the TEMP files that are associated with the installation. This will also require that the currently installed hard drive or disk array be formatted before hand so that the installation process can copy over the needed files. If a formatted partition does not exist, the network installation will not be able to continue.
The amount of disk space required for the swapfile will affect the size of the initial partition as it is directionally proportional to the amount of physical memory installed in the system. Larger amounts of RAM installed require a larger swapfile and thus, the minimum hard drive free space requirements would need to increase.
As far as the different versions of the Windows Server 2003 operating system family are concerned, all allow you to run the system configured as an IIS6.0 application server but there are some subtle differences between the versions beyond just what was listed above.
For the most part Windows Server 2003 Web Server Edition is designed specifically for low end and entry level Web hosting environments, providing a specific platform for deploying Web services and applications. The Windows .NET Framework is included with Windows Server 2003 Web Server Edition as is ASP.NET and the Network Load Balancing feature that is found on all of the other Windows Server 2003 versions.
There are some intentional limitations to Windows Server 2003 Web Server Edition that go beyond the IIS application itself but it is important to call them out in the event the deployment of your system may need to incorporate other functions that would not be allowed under this version of the operating system. While you would probably not want to your web server to perform many of these described functions it is necessary to point out the built in limitations of the Web Server Edition.
Windows Server 2003 Web Server Edition can be set up as a Virtual Private Network (VPN) server but you will only be allowed a limited number of connections per media type: local area network (LAN), remote access (dial-up), and direct cable connection are all limited to one connection each. Server Message Block (SMB) connections are limited to 10 simultaneous connections maximum.
Web Server Edition cannot be installed as part of a Server cluster via the operating system. (It may be possible to cluster this type of deployment via a third party configuration; it is simply something that cannot be done via Clustering services under Windows Server 2003.)
The Web Server Edition also cannot be installed as a Terminal Server; however Remote Desktop for Administration connections can be made to and from the system.
Windows Server 2003 Web Server Edition also does not support remote storage or UDDI services.
Web Server Edition does not have support for Printer and fax sharing and it does not support IR devices. Also there is not file or print server for Macintosh systems under this version.
It cannot be deployed as a RIS server nor can ISA server be installed on it and it cannot be established as a domain controller. It cannot be installed as a certification authority (CA) and it cannot be used as an Exchange Server or Microsoft SQL Server nor can it be set up as a Streaming Media Server.
As far as the other members of the Windows Server 2003 family of operating system are concerned; Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition is designed with the day to day needs of the average business in mind and is the suggested replacement for the Windows NT4 Server / Windows 2000 Server line of server operating systems.
Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition is designed specifically for larger implementations and deployments which surpass the functional levels of Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition. Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition is the suggested replacement for the Windows NT4 Server Enterprise Edition / Windows 2000 Advanced Server line of server operating systems.
Windows Server 2003 Datacenter Edition is designed specifically for high-end hardware implementations and deployments for business-critical and mission-critical applications in order to provide the highest levels of scalability and availability as required. Windows Server 2003 Datacenter Edition is the suggested replacement for the Windows 2000 Datacenter Server line of operating systems.
Well, that wraps up my first installment of Internet Information Services 6.0 on Windows Server 2003article. I hope you found it informative.
If you have any questions, comments or even constructive criticism, please feel free to drop me a note.
I want to write solid technical articles that appeal to a large range of readers and skill levels and I can only be sure of that through your feedback.
Until the next time, remember,
“Windows 2000 is approaching 4 years in service and on July 29th of 2003 Windows NT4 Server was 7 years old.”
* Origninally published at 2000Trainers
Click here to read part 2 of this article
Click here if you would like to sign up for FREE B2B / Tech. newsletters from Murdok!
Jason Zandri has worked as a consultant, systems engineer and technical trainer for a variety of corporate clients in Connecticut over the past five years and currently holds the position of Technical Account Manager for Microsoft Corporation.
He has also written a number of COMPTIA and MICROSOFT prep tests for Boson Software and holds a number of certifications from both companies. Currently, he writes part time for a number of freelance projects, including numerous “HOW TO” and best practices articles for 2000Trainers.com and MCMCSE.com.
