Serving up .Net
With RC1, many Microsoft customers have ample reason to upgrade to Enterprise Server
UPGRADING AN OPERATING SYSTEM is never as simple as popping in a CD-ROM and twiddling your thumbs through an automated install. Every OS change requires planning, retraining, and sometimes changes to client systems and custom applications. To make the effort worthwhile, a new OS release must be compelling. In the current corporate climate, with IT budgets and manpower stretched beyond their limits, an upgrade must add significant value to make it onto the schedule.
Microsoft is betting that Windows .Net Server will get a spot on customers' crowded to-do lists. To make this happen, Microsoft has packed Windows .Net Enterprise Server RC1 (Release Candidate 1) with impressive new features. The vendor has taken the unprecedented step of allowing customers to download the OS for free (or order CDs), and every copy of RC1 comes with a one-year license.
RC1 of .Net Server straddles the line between retail and prerelease software. Microsoft is using this software in-house to run its Web sites, and it has talked several major accounts into using RC1 in production. We'd never recommend taking that kind of risk. But after a thorough evaluation of RC1, we understand why a company would consider it. Microsoft has packed more unique value into an operating system than any vendor to date.
We evaluated .Net Enterprise Server RC1 on a SuperMicro server with dual Xeon CPUs and 1GB of RAM. It is not possible to explore every new feature here; a mere laundry list of enhancements would more than fill this space. We had to limit ourselves to a handful of features added to RC1.
Lower admin overhead
RC1 embodies Microsoft goal of providing multiple rich paths to system management. The MMC (Microsoft Management Console) remains the primary interface for most administrators. A new role-based management interface, Manage Your Server, organizes administrative tasks, documentation, and guidance (for example, "what to do next") by server roles such as Web, domain, e-mail, and media. This facility is simpler and far more helpful than Windows 2000's Configure Your Server interface. If you access management consoles via Manage Your Server, new features such as task shortcuts and functional groupings will appear.
For example, if you ask to manage your file server role, you'll see one-click shortcuts for creating shadow copies and adding a new shared folder. When you ask to manage your Web app server role, the management interfaces for .Net, IIS (Internet Information Server), and COM+ are rolled together. It's also easier to add and remove groups of related services. We enabled DNS, DHCP, and Active Directory by adding Domain Server to our test machine's list of roles.
Other paths to management include browser interfaces, .Net APIs, and command-line tools. The standard .Net run time gives administrators the ability to automate management with custom programs written in C#, Visual Basic, C++, JScript, or any third-party .Net language. Windows 2000's WSH (Windows Scripting Host) is still present, as are previous management APIs. However, .Net's language flexibility, along with the ability to present Web and Windows GUIs, makes it an excellent customization platform for system management. But for basic administrative scripting, Visual Studio .Net is overkill. We recommend using any decent editor with the free .Net command-line compilers. Microsoft offers a free, basic .Net IDE called Web Matrix ( http://www.asp.net/webmatrix ), which is ideal for quick scripts.
