Microsoft is poised to release the long-anticipated — and frequently renamed — Windows Server 2003, almost a year and a half after the last beta version became available in November 2001. Our experiences with what we are assured is the gold code confirmed that this is indeed the best version of Windows to come out of the gate. Improved performance, better management tools, and a rapidly maturing directory service give customers something to look forward to when they take the plunge.
That does not mean, however, we advocate its immediate deployment in the enterprise; instead, we’re going to stick with our customary advice that customers hold off on using this latest iteration in production environments until they are able to evaluate it with the first delivery of the inevitable bug fixes and slipstreamed enhancements, even if that means waiting until the calendar reads 2004.
After all, it’s one thing to roll out a new operating system for desktops, where compatibility issues may affect a certain percentage of users without taking out the entire business. But given the central role of servers in any enterprise — whether its IT department uses exclusively
Microsoft products on the one hand or if managers prefer a best-of-breed approach on the other — anything short of a thorough evaluation period with the final code is foolhardy, no matter what the experiences with beta versions and release candidates may lead one to expect.
Deploy with care
Our own experience with the gold code for Windows 2003 Server was excellent. We tested it on new installations and upgrades, in the roles of domain controller and application server, and ran into no serious problems. Even on hardware toward the bottom end of the recommended range — the suggested minimum being one 550MHz CPU and 256MB of RAM — the software installs with ease and performs well after setup completes — seemingly better than Windows 2000 did on the same machine. Though shops performing upgrades to current installations of Windows will find that the IIS (Internet Information Services) Web server is disabled during the default installation, this feature can be changed by a simple registry tweak or modifying the script for an unattended installation.
Windows Server 2003 is the first Windows server-oriented OS that installs in what we consider a locked-down configuration, and deployment involves a less-dramatic architectural shift from its predecessor Windows 2000 than Windows 2000 did from Windows NT 4.
Active Directory upgrade
Although the Active Directory (AD) technology that debuted three years ago in Windows 2000 appears in an improved form in this release, customers who haven’t participated in the extensive beta cycle leading up to the release of Windows Server 2003 will be confronted with the need to upgrade the directory schema — the map that defines the fundamental data layout used by domain controllers during the process of authentication and authorisation — in each Active Directory “forest” in order to accommodate the new OS. Shops that are still running a mixed environment of NT and Windows 2000 domain controllers will have to eliminate the older controllers from their environment before upgrading.
The AD schema upgrade isn’t undoable, meaning that the multiple backups of the existing environment needed in case of an upgrade failure will have to be carefully verified against the existing data. The best thing shops can do in advance of an upgrade to a Windows Server 2003-compatible Active Directory environment — required to achieve the full benefit of the forthcoming Exchange 2003 and Office 2003 — is to reduce the number of domain controllers involved in the actual upgrade, if only temporarily, thus reducing the number of potential failure points.
Better control
Perhaps the strongest argument in favour of moving to Windows Server 2003 as soon as budgets can justify and nerves can stand is the much-improved manageability of the new OS. While Windows 2000 allowed system administrators to set operating priorities for the various processes running on a server, this was handled in a fairly crude and relative fashion. The features in the Windows System Resource Management snap-ins to the Microsoft Management Console framework include the ability to manage processes in a much more granular way, with a level of detail that is old hat to those experienced with the flexibility of Unix and mainframe environments. On top of it, the GUI is simple in appearance, while offering administrators a guts-level view of Windows’ innards.
Overall, Windows 2003 Server is more than a keeper. It really is the best and most secure out-of-the-box Windows OS for servers. Smoothly inserting it into the operations of one’s IT department won’t be completely pain-free, but the wrinkles that do exist are easily compensated for, and the benefits dramatic. While we can’t — for the reasons detailed above — recommend an immediate rollout and upgrade to Windows Server 2003 for most shops, we will suggest taking inventory of one’s budget and nerves with an eye to bringing the new OS into production use at the first chance. The rewards are worth the wait.
