Windows NT Enterprise Edition (Beta2)

After the grand success of NT Server 4.0,
Microsoft has come out with the Enterprise Edition of the same thing. The new version is
more suitable for large corporate networks and used for mission-critical applications or
in a place where several servers exist, and they all need to be consolidated into a single
multi-processor server. The foundation for the Enterprise Edition has been kept to be the
standard NT server. This means that the technology used in the Enterprise Edition is the
same, with several enhanced features and a few additional components.

The core differences between the Enterprise
Edition and standard Windows NT server are support for more SMP processors, and
availability of more memory for memory-intensive applications. In addition to this, the
Enterprise Edition also provides several components that get installed separately.
Included in these are clustering for sharing workload between two servers, and message
routing for applications that need to send messages to other servers continuously.

Clustering is done using Microsoft Cluster
server and is used to connect two NT Enterprise Servers together and share application
load. The Cluster Server comes with a management console from where you can manually
balance the workload within the cluster. The best part about the cluster server is that it
doesn't require any sort of configuration on the client side. If one server goes down, the
other one automatically recovers the application or data so that the user's work doesn't
get affected. For the cluster server to run, external SCSI hard disks are required,
connected to the two servers using a single split Y type of SCSI cable.

Memory tuning is another important feature
supported by the Enterprise Edition. Both the standard and Enterprise editions of NT can
address up to 4 GB of physical memory or RAM. The standard NT server can however, only
allocate a maximum of 2 GB of memory to an application. The remaining 2 GB is left for the
Operating System's kernel. The Enterprise Edition surpasses this limitation and extends
the memory allocation for memory up to 3 GB, while leaving the remaining 1 GB for the
Windows NT kernel. This helps increase application performance. Applications don't just
support this feature by default. It has to have additional code that takes this new factor
into account. The advantages of extending the memory addressable area is only notable if
two conditions are met. One, a system should have more than 2 GB of RAM, and two, the
application that runs on it must be able to utilize the extra RAM. The memory tuning
feature has its disadvantages as well. By reducing the maximum addressable memory for the
Windows NT kernel to 1 GB, the maximum number of concurrent connections is also reduced.

The standard edition of Windows NT server
was licensed to support a maximum of four processors. In the Enterprise Edition, this
limitation has been extended up to eight processors. So you can have a machine with as
many as eight CPUs, and the Operating System (NT Enterprise) will support it.

The Message Queue server is a service that
allows applications across servers to communicate with each other. Version 1.0 of the
Message Queue Server is already available for the Windows NT 4.0 server platform, and an
upgrade version is being developed for the Enterprise Edition. The new version is right
now in its Beta2 stage. Basically, the Message Queue server is a store and forward
mechanism that allows applications on different computers or on the same computer to send
data to other applications even if the network connection is down. This is because the
server supports asynchronous message delivery. Thus even if there is a problem with the
network or the computer where the message is being sent to is down, the Message Queue
server will hold the data in queue and send it in as soon as it gets a connection.

The installation of the NT Enterprise
server doesn't require anything extra to learn. There are three stages involved in the
process. The first stage is exactly similar to that of the Standard NT server. The
difference shows when you install the service pack 3 on it, which is the second stage.
It's after its installation that the startup menu shows you the title 'Windows NT
Enterprise Edition'. Finally, the third stage is the wizard which is used for installing
the Enterprise components. These components include Cluster Server, Mesage Queue server,
and Transaction Server.

Other components are the same as those
found with the standard NT server. These include Internet Information Server 3.0,
FrontPage97, and Internet Explorer 3.02. IIS 3.0 can only be installed if the previous
version viz. ver 2.0 has already been installed. The final version of the Enterprise
Edition is right now available through leading Microsoft vendors. A complete BackOffice
pack with products upgraded for use with the Enterprise Edition will be available soon.

width="295" height="125">The NT
Future

A look at NT Server 5.0,
currently in beta

With its host of new features, this upgrade
to NT 4 seems to be aimed at very large networks. The new features include Plug-and-Play,
Active Directory Service, Dynamic DNS, support for Smart Cards and new security features
like Kerberos.

NT Server 5.0 has the new Web-integrated
desktop look and feel, the one that you get by installing Internet Explorer 4.0 with
Active Desktop enabled on Win95 or NT 4, or the upcoming Windows 98. You can configure NT
for single-click access for opening files and folders, and have all the other features
that Internet Explorer 4.0 gives you.

With version 5, NT will support
Plug-and-Play. This means that adding new devices to an NT 5 system will be as easy as it
is in Win95. The final release has promised support for a new device driver model (that
might be used in the upcoming Windows 98 too). With this developers do not have to write,
and users do not have to obtain, separate drivers for different versions of Windows for
the same device.

Server administration and management under
NT 5 uses a common interface called the Microsoft Management Console (MMC). This interface
provides a framework for various administration modules, called 'Snap-ins'. Any number of
'Snap-ins' can be loaded in this interface and can be saved as an MSC file. By assembling
the required 'Snap-ins' to form a particular MMC file, the administrator can distribute
responsibilities by giving access to particular files only to the concerned personnel.

Windows NT Server till now had a flat
namespace. What this meant was that, large networks could not be organized into a logical
structure that represented the true hierarchy of the corporation. Novell NetWare 4.x, on
the other hand, had Novell Directory Services, which did just that. NT Server 5.0 debuts a
new directory structure called the Active Directory Service (ADS).

The ADS is a highly flexible directory
service, in which all the resources on a corporate network can be organized logically into
a hierarchical structure that mirrors or mimics the corporate structure. The ADS allows
you to create, modify, and remove resources like users, computers, printers, volumes, and
virtual objects like settings and policies in a logical structure. It will also implement
a multi-master replication model, in which changes made to any domain controller are
replicated on the other controllers in that domain. The advantage of this model is that
the ADS will always be available, even if one or more controllers are not. This is unlike
NT 4.0's single-master model, where a PDC must always be accessible for directory service
changes to take place.

NT Server 5.0 is expected to ship with
Internet Information Server 4.0, which has Web, FTP, and transaction servers, as well as
mail, news, and certificate servers alongwith other site management tools. The following
features which are currently not fully implemented in the Beta are expected to be shipped
in the final release.

NT 5 will have a new kind of network
printing. Called Internet printing, it will provide the ability to send output to printers
connected through HTTP. You will need IIS 4 or Peer Web Services (a smaller Web server for
Windows NT Workstation) to be running, and the printer to be shared for this to happen.
You can print to these printers by using IP address, DNS/UNC names, or normal HTTP names
like http://servername/printername. Administration of these printers is also possible
through a Web-based tool. To the user, this means remote printing over the Internet.

With the new Dynamic DNS being introduced,
updates of the DNS list are made and propagated automatically to all affected DNS name
servers throughout your network. Dynamic DNS reduces network administration effort by
reducing the need to manually edit and replicate the DNS database each time a change
occurs in a DNS client's configuration.

NT Server 5.0 will also include a Directory
Service Migration tool, with which you can non-destructively migrate information from
Novell NetWare servers. The tool, unlike the previous migration tool, promises to work
with both binderies and NDS, and permits administrators to model account information
before committing it to the Active Directory.

Up to version 4, NT supported only the
primitive MS DOS batch language for any sort of scripting purposes. NT 5 will allow
scripting of system and user components using Visual BASIC Scripting Edition (VBScript) or
Jscript, Microsoft's implementation of ECMAScript (better known as JavaScript). These can
be combined with the already existing batch language to provide a flexible and
customizable environment to work in.

On the security front, NT 5 will debut a
new security model. This model introduces the Encrypting File System that allows files or
folders to be encrypted using a public-key private-key protocol, which ensures that the
file cannot be tampered with or viewed by unauthorized persons. The Kerberos
authentication model is also incorporated. This allows authentication of clients by using
a system of encrypted keys and 'tickets'. NT will support Smart Cards too.

Windows NT Workstation 5.0

In its interface and looks NT Workstation 5 does not differ from NT Server 5. The major
difference between the two is in areas of mobile computing and power saving. NT 5
Workstation introduces a new feature called Client-Side Caching. This allows users to copy
files or folders from a network server to their local computer. They can then work on
these offline, but with network names and directory structures appearing as if still
connected to the network. The next time the user connects to the server, the files or
folders are synchronized. Power management in NT will shutdown, hibernate, or put the
computer on standby after a period of inactivity.

Microsoft Small Business Server color="#000000" size="2" face="Arial">

A complete packaged solution for running
small networks

Not all business firms are large
enterprises having hundreds or thousands of employees. In small-time companies or branch
offices having 20 to 25 employees or less is common. Microsoft's Small Business Server
(SBS) has been designed keeping in mind the requirements of these small companies, which
may not have full-time EDP staff. So not only does it have all the essential components
built in, but the management of the server has also been extremely simplified.

The SBS has some peculiar system
requirements for installation. It needs at least 1.5 GB of free disk space. A modem is
also required for the set-up program to install many components. If the modem is not
connected, turned on, or detected, the installation will give error messages and will not
install components like Remote Access Service, Modem Sharing Server, Fax Server, and the
Internet Connection wizard.

The main advantage of SBS is the number of
components that have been integrated into one product. These include Exchange server for
email, SQL server for database management, and Fax Server for sending faxes from any node,
not to mention Internet Information Server, Proxy Server, and FrontPage 98 for web page
creation.

As compared to the other flavors of NT,
management of resources (be it files, printers, or users) has been extremely simplified in
the SBS. All management functions are performed from a Manage Server console. It shows you
a broad view of all 'tasks' that you can perform, like managing users, printers, mail, and
shared folders. Choosing any of these gives a more detailed view of the task for a more
precise selection of the operation. Once a task is selected, the SBS guides you through
the entire process. For example, to connect several computers (that will not have a
specific user assigned to them) to the server, SBS has a program that creates a client
access diskette. All that has to be done is to run the set-up program on this disk on the
computers.

The console also provides single-click
access to administrative tools like managing the email lists and faxes, maintaining the
installed programs, modem pooling, and allowing access to the Internet. Detailed
cross-referenced help and documentation for every module is also available from the
console.

If you are part of a larger network, SBS
also allows you to join the network and share its resources. You can share a printer
that's on a different network, and let your users print to it. SBS supports a variety of
clients including MS DOS, Windows 3.x, Win95, Windows NT, and Macintosh.