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.