Microsoft Windows Server 2003 R2 Enterprise - 25 CALs

Microsoft Windows Server 2003 R2 makes it easier and more cost-effective to extend connectivity and control to identities, locations, data, and applications throughout and beyond your organization.

Windows Server 2003 R2 is an update release of the award-winning Windows Server 2003 operating system. Built on Windows Server 2003 with Service Pack 1 (SP1), Windows Server 2003 R2 takes advantage of the stability and security enhancements of a proven code base while extending connectivity and control into new areas. Windows Server 2003 R2 offers all the benefits of Windows Server 2003 with SP1 while greatly improving identity and access management, branch server solutions, storage setup and management, and application development inside and outside your organization's traditional boundaries.

Use Windows Server 2003 R2 to:

• Simplify Branch Server Management:
  Windows Server 2003 R2 allows you to maintain the performance, availability, and productivity benefits of a local branch office server while avoiding issues typically associated with branch office server solutions such as connectivity limitation and management overhead.
• Improve Identity and Access Management:
  Windows Server 2003 R2 includes Active Directory Federation Services, designed to help administrators address identity management challenges by making it possible for organizations to share a user's identity information more securely across security boundaries. R2 also provides UNIX password synchronization which helps integrate servers running Windows and UNIX by simplifying the process of maintaining secure passwords.
• Reduce Storage Management Costs:
  Windows Server 2003 R2 includes new tools designed to provide a centralized view of storage, simplified storage planning, provisioning and maintenance, and improved monitoring and reporting.
• Provide a rich Web Platform:
  Windows Server 2003 R2 enables businesses to extend their infrastructure over the Web while reducing development and management costs through the enhancements delivered with SP1, x64, Windows SharePoint Services, .NET Framework 2.0, and Internet Information Services 6.0.
• Provide cost effective server virtualization:
  Windows Server 2003 R2 Enterprise Edition will allow you to run up to 4 virtual instances of Windows Server 2003 R2 EE on one licensed physical server or hardware partition, thereby decreasing the costs for server virtualization.
• Seamless UNIX/Windows Integration:
  UNIX Integration components in Windows Server 2003 R2 allow you to reduce costs by integrating UNIX and Windows systems to deliver a complete solution. The integration of security and directory services, file and printer sharing and re-use of UNIX code and IT skills across platforms delivers a simplified infrastructure and allows UNIX or Windows IT staff to manage both systems from one place.

Windows Server 2003 R2 Enterprise Edition differs from Windows Server 2003 R2 Standard Edition primarily in its support for high-performance servers and its ability to cluster servers for greater load handling. These capabilities provide reliability that helps ensure systems remain available even if problems arise.

At a high level, Windows Server 2003 R2 Enterprise Edition provides support for:

• Eight-way symmetric multiprocessing (SMP). To increase server performance and capacity, you can add processors, an approach to increasing your network capacity known as scaling up. The enhanced support for SMP allows you to add processors that work together--that is, multiprocessor servers. Windows Server 2003 R2 Enterprise Edition supports up to eight processors in a single system or partition.
• Eight-node clustering. Server clusters of up to eight nodes are available only in Windows Server 2003 R2 Enterprise Edition and Windows Server 2003 R2 Datacenter Edition.
• Up to 64 gigabytes (GB) of RAM. By adding memory, a computer can work with more information at once. Windows Server 2003 R2 Enterprise Edition includes enhanced memory capabilities that let you increase the memory available for server processing to as much as 64 GB of RAM.

Windows Server 2003 R2 Enterprise Edition includes new features and improvements that render it the most dependable, enterprise-ready server operating system Microsoft has ever created. Key technologies introduced in Windows 2000 Server have been enhanced, including network load balancing, server clusters, and the Active Directory service. Active Directory is now faster and more robust over unreliable wide area network (WAN) connections, thanks to more efficient synchronization and replication as well as credential caching in branch office domain controllers.

In addition, Windows Server 2003 R2 Enterprise Edition introduces new technologies, such as a common language runtime that safeguards networks from malicious or poorly designed code. Moreover, the operating system reflects the Microsoft commitment to trustworthy computing, with leaps forward in security functionality, including improved security for Internet Information Services (IIS), public key infrastructure (PKI), and Kerberos, as well as new support for smart cards and biometrics.

In addition to including all the features in Windows Server 2003 R2 Standard Edition, Windows Server 2003 R2 Enterprise Edition adds enhanced availability, scalability, and dependability--features also in Windows Server 2003 R2, Datacenter Edition.

• Cluster service. Server clusters provide high availability and disaster tolerance for mission-critical database management, file sharing, intranet data sharing, messaging, and general business applications. With Windows Server 2003 R2 Enterprise Edition, and Windows Server 2003 R2 Datacenter Edition, cluster service supports up to eight-node clusters for increased flexibility in adding and removing hardware in a geographically dispersed cluster environment. The cluster service also provides improved scaling options for applications. Windows Server 2003 R2 Enterprise Edition allows server clusters to be deployed in a variety of different configurations, in particular:
  • Single cluster configurations with dedicated storage.
  • Multiple clusters on a storage area network (SAN), potentially with other Windows-based servers or operating systems.
  • Clusters spanning multiple sites (that is, geographically dispersed clusters).
• Cross-file remote differential compression (RDC) support. DFS Replication in Windows Server 2003 R2 uses RDC to replicate only the differences (or changes) between the members when a file is changed. This allows branch offices with slow WAN connections to participate in replication using minimal bandwidth. When DFS Replication is deployed on servers running Windows Server 2003, Enterprise or Datacenter Edition, an additional function of RDC known as cross-file RDC is used. Cross-file RDC uses a heuristic to identify files that are similar to the file that needs to be replicated. This is useful when a new file is created on one server and needs to be replicated to another server. Instead of replicating the entire file, DFS Replication can use portions from files that are similar to the replicating file to minimize the amount of data transferred over the WAN.
• Multiprocessor support. The Windows Server 2003 family scales from single-processor solutions all the way up to 64-way systems. Windows Server 2003 R2 Enterprise Edition supports servers with up to 8 processors.
• Metadirectory Services support. Microsoft Metadirectory Services (MMS) helps organizations integrate identity information from multiple directories, databases, and files with Active Directory. MMS provides a unified view of identity information, enables the integration of business processes with MMS, and helps synchronize identity information across an organization.
• Hot Add Memory. Hot Add Memory allows ranges of memory to be added to a computer and made available to the operating system and applications as part of the normal memory pool. No rebooting and no downtime are required. This feature currently operates only on servers that have hardware support for adding memory while the server is operating. For these servers, the act of installing memory automatically invokes the Hot Add Memory feature in Windows Server 2003 R2 Enterprise Edition.
• Non-Uniform Memory Access (NUMA). System firmware can create a table called the Static Resource Affinity Table that describes the NUMA topology of the system. Windows Server 2003 R2 Enterprise Edition uses this table to apply NUMA awareness to application processes, thread default affinity settings, thread scheduling, and memory management features. Additionally, the topology information is made available to applications using a set of NUMA application programming interfaces.
• Terminal Services session directory. This load balancing feature allows users to reconnect easily to a disconnected session on a server farm running Terminal Services. Session directory is compatible with the Windows Server 2003 load balancing service and is supported by third-party external load balancer products.
• Windows System Resource Manager. A feature in both Windows Server 2003 R2 Enterprise Edition, and Windows Server 2003 R2 Datacenter Edition, the Windows System Resource Manager (WSRM) enables an administrator to allocate CPU and memory utilization on a per-application basis. This is a useful tool for server consolidation.

Microsoft Windows Server 2003: Edition Comparison

Product information is advisory only. Specifications and compatibility should be checked with the manufacturer before order. Images are for illustrative purposes only.