Sinopsis
Windows Server 2003, R2, is an intermediate release between Windows Server 2003 and the next major version of the flagship operating system from Microsoft, due in the latter part of this decade. This release builds on the solid foundation of an already released and widely used operating system to provide critical security, authentication, and networking enhancements. It also provides features that make the extension of the enterprise network to branch offices and remote locations far easier and more secure. R2 takes you closer to the goal of a server and network consolidation, no matter how diverse or remote the various parts of your network.
If you are still supporting Windows 2000 (or, Heaven forbid, Windows NT), Windows Server 2003 offers many new and improved features that present you with both exciting and daunting challenges. This book is the culmination of thousands of hours spent testing, evaluating, and experimenting with just about everything that Windows Server 2003 can throw at you.
Gone are the days when the Windows server operating systems could be covered in a single book or a week’s crash course at a training center. If we told you that this is the only book that you need about Windows Server 2003, we would be lying. Many of the features that we cove warrant advanced treatment under separate cover. We have attempted to build as complete a hands-on reference as possible, while still providing a broad scope of coverage of the most important aspects and implications of the Windows Server 2003 platform for all editions.
There is no excuse to be still using Windows 2000 (which was released to manufacturing in the sunset of 1999) or Windows NT (which was released before the dawn of the Internet as we know it today)—those giddy years for technology in the mid-1990s. Windows Server 2003 presents some compelling reasons to convert sooner rather than later. Windows 2003 offers expanded hardware support and support for plug-and-play. Windows Server 2003 incorporates numerous new technologies and improves on several existing ones, particularly for Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition, the focus of this book.
One of the most pervasive changes in Windows 2000 was the Active Directory, and Windows Server 2003 expands on and improves implementation of the Active Directory. In R2, Active Directory comes with the so-called Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS), built-in technology that makes it easier than ever, and with much more reliability, to extend AD to remote locations and branch offices.
AD affects most aspects of Windows Server 2003, including the areas of security and user and group administration, network and domain topology, replication, DHCP and DNS, and more. Other important changes include changes to the Distributed File System (DFS), which enables you to build a homogenous file-system structure from shares located on various servers across the network. The concept of presenting shared folders to users as a grouping called a namespace has been further extended and enhanced. In R2, the enhanced DFS Namespaces (DFS-N) provides for easier management of file system roots within a DFS network infrastructure. DFS-N gives you far greater flexibility in deploying DFS; you now have a much more sophisticated tool to create multiple DFS roots and manage them.
In a similar fashion, volume mountpoints, a feature of NTFS 5.0 (introduced in Windows 2000), enable you to mount a volume into an empty NTFS folder, making the volume appear as part of the structure of the volume in which the NTFS folder resides. Mounted volumes do much the same for a local file structure that DFS provides for a network file structure. Changes in DNS and DHCP enable DHCP clients to dynamically request updates of their host records hosted by Windows Server 2003 DNS servers, enabling you to maintain up-to-date host records for all systems in the enterprise, even when they are assigned an IP address dynamically, or their host or domain names change.
If you have been creating and managing Windows 2000 networks, you should find many features in Windows Server 2003 welcome improvements. A good example is Group Policy. You know from Windows 2000 that you cannot implement a Windows 2000 network without Group Policy, but Group Policy is difficult to master without supporting tools. Windows Server 2003 greatly improves Group Policy technology with increased functionality, such as resultant set of policy (RSoP) and the capability to more easily report on Group Policy application. These changes are just a few of the many new features and modifications offered by the Windows Server 2003 operating platform
Content
- Windows Server 2003 Architecture
- Introducing Windows Server 2003
- Windows Server 2003 and Active Directory
- Windows Server 2003 Security
- .NET Framework Services
- Planning, Installation, and Configuration
- Planning for Windows Server 2003
- Installing Windows Server 2003
- Configuring Windows Server 2003
- Active Directory Services
- Planning for Active Directory
- Organizing a Logical Domain Structure
- Active Directory Physical Architecture
- Active Directory Installation and Deployment
- Active Directory Management
- Managing Users and Groups
- Change Control, Group Policy, and Workspace Management
- Networking and Communication Services
- Windows Server 2003 Networking
- DHCP
- DNS and WINS
- Routing and Remote Access
- Availability Management
- Storage Management
- Backup and Restore
- Disaster Recovery
- The Registry
- Auditing Windows Server 2003
- Service Level
- Windows Server 2003 High Availability Services
- File, Print, Web, and Application Services
- Windows Server 2003 File Systems
- Sharing and Securing Files and Folders
- Print Services
- Web, FTP, and Intranet Service
- Terminal Services
