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Windows Server 2003 R2 OS Update

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PCQ Bureau
New Update

There is an old tongue-twister: Betty bought a bit of

butter, but the butter Betty bought was bitter, so Betty bought better butter to

make the bitter butter better. Well, the Microsoft Windows Server 2003 R2 is

certainly a big improvement on the 'R1' release of the same OS. And the

reason is simple. Remember all those features you were wishing you had for the

past three years? Things to monitor what kinds of files users are placing on

your file servers; the ability to find out who has what stored and where and how

big it is; make your Windows and UNIX servers logon users with a single set of

credentials and so on? The R2 finally answers those wishes and adds all these

facilities for the first time to the Windows Server OS family. But the R2 is not

exactly a full OS by itself --- it is actually an add-on. Before installing the

parts that make the OS 'R2', you need to install the original OS and its

SP1.

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Price:
$502 (Standard Edition through Open License)


Meant For:
Network administrators


Key Specs:
Facility to manage branch office file servers, identity integration with UNIX servers, more reports across the board 


Pros:
Increases manageability and monitoring capabilities of Windows servers


Cons:
None 


Contact:
Microsoft Corporation, Gurgaon Tel: 4158000 E-mail: amitkum@microsoft.com 
R2 features task-based consoles like the file server MMC above. Select a task to launch wizards and get assistance 

Roll out







Once you have your target R2 server up with the Server 2003 and SP1 installed,
you're ready to go for installing R2. We've tested the R2 installer with

both a domain configured already on the server and a later ADS installation and

both run without problems. Installation is a single step and like installing

some piece of application software. All it asks for is your permission to start

installation and the update process finishes in a few minutes. Reboot you're

ready to go.


Server roles



One of the first things you'd notice is the set of spanking new roles you

can add to your server. The reverse subjects 'file server' and 'print

server' roles were present earlier in one combined 'file and print

server.' The split into separate entities becomes clearer when you see their

respective management consoles. Now, it is possible to manage storage on your

SANs, replication of your DFS setup and share files with UNIX and Macintosh

systems very easily by installing the relevant options during the file server

role setup. The print server role similarly lets you manage printers and deploy

them on the Active Directory the server is a part of. You can also manage the

drivers for your printers from here. Similarly, you have the 'Sharepoint

Services' role which sets up a Sharepoint Website with remote server

administration similar to what's been available with the SBS 2003.

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Active Directory



The ADAM (Active Directory Application Mode) lets the system administrator setup
credential mapping between various token (the Windows NT mode) and authorization

(Active Directory mode) stores for ASP.NET applications. The ADAM setup in R2

requires you to know beforehand what applications you're giving permissions to

and where they are located (URL). You can configure ADAM to pull the

authorization information from a remote stores as well (for which again you need

to have the URN information handy). You cannot provide a generic configuration

or mapping but require precise information about the store provider and the

consuming application.


There is also a new console in the ADS set, and this is to

manage Federation Services (ADFS). What this does is, it allows you to use

single sign on for applications in the same Web user session. Federation takes

the 'trust relationship' principles so far in use with Windows domains some

steps further. You setup claims on what you need from the remote authentication

system and then you can also setup trusts that let you provide authentication

services to remote systems. This configuration is stored as a 'trust policy'

which can take advantage of ADS replication to propagate among different stores

in your organization.

New in reporting



Something that even we in the Labs have been wanting to see in Windows for a

long time has been the ability to see who has gobbled up all the space on the

file server. We also want to know what kinds of files people are storing on them

and restrict them from placing certain types of files. All this was a

complicated task in Windows server OS so far, requiring administrators to write

WMI scripts and setup various scheduled tasks. In R2, all one needs to do is use

Quota Manager. The old Quota Manager only allowed you to specify drive/volume

wise quotas and then see upto what percentage of it a user has used up. The

R2's Quota Management Console lets the administrator perform all kinds of

auditing and find out to what extent the users are in sync with those policies.

For the first time, you can setup quotas by path (this means you can atlast

setup quotas on a single share directory!). File screening (the ability to limit

file types) lets you create your own file groups by extension and then give it a

friendly name. The reports can be scheduled to run at predefined times and saved

to a disk location or sent on by e-mail.

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Windows components



Some of the components (like ADAM and the SAN manager) don't come as part

of server roles. They need to be installed as optional Windows components from

Add/Remove Programs>Add/Remove Windows Components. As you browse through the

list of components here, you will notice quite a few new ones as well. It is

however a little cumbersome to manage your installation media while doing this,

since certain components require your original Windows media and the others the

R2 disc.

New in licensing



R2's license is great news for the power virtualizers. Traditionally, your

Windows licensing policy covered all copies of the software that you had in your

stock. But, with R2, MS has changed the policy to contain only running instances

of the OS. This means, if you have ten virtual servers deployed, with only two

of the running, the old model would require you to have ten licenses plus one

(host OS). Under the new regime, you only need two (running instances) plus one

(host). This means, the number of irons you can deploy them on as well as the

number of ready-to-run virtual machines can be greatly increased.

Bottom Line: A great upgrade with lots of new

features, this update is a boon to administrators looking for better ways to

manage the system without needing to look to third party software.

Sujay V Sarma

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