Windows Server 2003 Introduction
Manufactured Date
Windows Server 2003 was first introduced on 24 April 2003 as the successor to Windows 2000 Server. Usually Windows Server 2003 is referred to as Win2k3. As to the name, we could tell it is a server operating system produced by Microsoft. According to Microsoft, Windows Server 2003 is more scalable and delivers better performance than its predecessor, Windows 2000.
Updated Version
An updated version, Windows Server 2003 R2, was released to manufacturing on 6 December 2005. Its successor, Windows Server 2008, was released on 4 February 2008.
Windows Server 2003 Editions
There are currently nine editions. Separately named as the followings:
- 1, Windows Small Business Server(the most used in the market shorted as SBS server)
- 2, Web Edition
- 3, Standard Edition
- 4, Enterprise Edition(the second most used)
- 5, Datacenter Edition
- 6, Windows Computer Cluster Server
- 7, Windows HPC Server 2008
- 8, Windows Storage Server
- 9, Windows Home Server(popular for home users.)
Improved Features of Windows Server 2003
Internet Information Services (IIS) v6.0 - A significantly improved version of IIS.
- Increased default security over previous versions, due to the built-in firewall and having most services disabled by default.
- Significant improvements to Message Queuing.
- Manage Your Server - a role management administrative tool that allows an administrator to choose what functionality the server should provide.
- Improvements to Active Directory, such as the ability to deactivate classes from the schema, or to run multiple instances of the directory server (ADAM)
- Improvements to Group Policy handling and administration
- Provides a backup system to restore lost files
- Improved disk management, including the ability to back up from shadows of files, allowing the backup of open files.
- Improved scripting and command line tools, which are part of Microsoft's initiative to bring a complete command shell to the next version of Windows.
- Support for a hardware-based "watchdog timer", which can restart the server if the operating system does not respond within a certain amount of time.