Terminal Server | Provides a single point of installation that gives multiple users access to any Windows Server 2003. Users can run programs, save files, and use network resources from a remote location as if these resources are installed on their local computers. Benefits include: | • | Offers rapid, centralized deployment of applications | | • | Provides a uniform version of Windows on desktops, reducing maintenance and administrative costs | | • | Provides increased scalability | | • | Provides improved manageability | | • | Has an easy-to-use remote desktop connection |
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File Server | Sets and helps manage access to files such as data files and network-accessible applications. Benefits include: | • | Automatically copies critical data volumes by using the Volume Shadow Copy Restore service, eliminating downtime. The copies are used to restore or archive files, and users can retrieve archived versions of their documents. | | • | Enables Encrypting File System (EFS), which provides core file encryption technology. EFS is a public key-based system that makes it easy to manage, difficult to attack, and transparent to the user. | | • | Initiates Distributed File System (DFS), a stable, orderly, location-independent naming scheme for all shared files when using Windows. A single share, or a single drive mapped to such a share, can contain files and directories on any number of file servers. | | • | Quickly stores, manages, and shares information such as files and network-accessible applications. | | • | Limits and monitors the amount of disk space available to individual users. | | • | Securely searches for information, either locally or on the network. It also searches in files that are in different formats and languages. | | • | Helps users manage their disk space by logging and reporting when a user exceeds a specified disk space limit or warning level—that is, the point at which a user is nearing his or her quota limit. |
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Print Server | Configures and manages access to printers. Benefits include: | • | Supports more than 3,800 print devices from a variety of hardware vendors. | | • | Provides printer management via a Web browser. Individuals can pause, resume, or delete a print job and view the printer and print job's status. | | • | Administrators can manage printers remotely, manage printers by using Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI), or print from a server or client computer to a print server by using a URL. | | • | Provides increased print driver control and reliability. | | • | Improves print spooling performance of heavily loaded servers. | | • | Reduces administrative time by automatically propagating print cluster driver installation to all nodes. | | • | Users can connect to printers on a network by using Web point-and-print for single-click installations of a shared printer. It also lets users install drivers from a Web site. |
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Application Server (IIS, ASP.NET) | Installs Internet Information Services (IIS 6.0) along with other technologies and services, such as COM+ and ASP.NET. The application server role contains all the functionality and other services for development, deployment, and runtime management of XML Web services, Web applications, and distributed applications. Benefits include: | • | The Process Recycling tool enhances reliability. This tool recycles processes, thereby minimizing resource consumption caused by memory leaks before they compromise performance and reliability. Administrators can schedule periodic IIS processes recycling to release resources any leaking Web application consumes. | | • | A just-in-time object activation model saves resource infrastructure. | | • | Resource pooling—database connection pooling and object pooling—uses resources more effectively than in previous Windows operating systems. | | • | Avoids system resource overloading by using distributed transaction management. | | • | Automatic XML Web service interfaces access business objects. | | • | Failover and application health detection services monitor and report application status. | | • | Uniform integrated security across all applications that Authorization Manager increases reliability and reduces administrative time. |
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Mail Server (POP3, SMTP) | Installs post office protocol (POP3) and simple mail transport protocol (SMTP) e-mail services components included with the Windows Server 2003 family. The POP3 service implements the standard POP3 protocol for mail retrieval and enables mail transfer when paired with the SMTP service. Benefits include: | • | End users, applications, and devices can use the POP3 and SMTP services to store and send e-mail messages to other end users, applications, and devices for basic messaging needs. | | • | Enables users to access the mail server to retrieve e-mail from their local computers by using an e-mail client that supports the POP3 protocol (for example, Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express). |
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Remote Access/VPN Server | Remote or mobile users can access corporate networks as if they were directly connected, either through dial-up connection services or over the Internet by using VPN connections. Benefits include: | • | Provides remote access to all the services typically available to a locally connected user, including file and print sharing, Web server access, and messaging. | | • | Offers administrative control of how and when remote users access the network. | | • | Provides network address translation (NAT) services for the computers on the network. | | • | Creates custom networking solutions using application programming interfaces (APIs). |
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Streaming Media Server | Provides Windows Media Services to an organization. Windows Media Services manages, delivers, and archives Windows Media content, including streaming audio and video, over an intranet or the Internet. Benefits include: | • | Uses Fast Streaming—a set of features in Windows Media Services—to significantly improve the streaming experience. | | • | Provides real time digital video over networks that range from low-bandwidth, dial-up Internet connections to high-bandwidth, and local area networks (LANs). | | • | Uses server-side play lists and advertisements by enabling Dynamic Content Delivery, which customizes content distribution. | | • | Offers streaming advertisements to potentially generate revenue for a Web site. | | • | Reliably scales and secures streaming media for even the largest enterprises and content delivery networks. |
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WINS Server | Configures Windows Internet Name Service (WINS), which maps IP addresses to NetBIOS computer names and vice versa. With WINS servers, individuals can search for resources by computer name instead of by IP address. Benefits include: | • | Reduces NetBIOS-based broadcast traffic on subnets by permitting clients to query WINS servers to locate remote systems. | | • | Supports earlier Windows and NetBIOS-based clients on the network by permitting them to browse lists for remote Windows domains without requiring a local domain controller on each subnet. | | • | Supports domain name system (DNS) based clients by enabling those clients to locate NetBIOS resources when WINS lookup integration is implemented. |
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Domain Controller (Active Directory) Server | Stores directory data and manages communication between users and domains, including user logon processes, authentication, and directory searches. Active Directory service manages users and computers and is a key feature of the Domain Controller Server role. Benefits include: | • | Stores directory data and makes it available to network users and administrators. Active Directory stores information about user accounts—for example, names, passwords, and phone numbers—and enables other authorized users on the same network to access this information. | | • | Improves availability and reliability of network services by adding extra domain controllers to an existing domain. | | • | Improves network performance between sites by placing a domain controller in each site, which enables the server to handle the client logon processes within the sites rather than using network bandwidth between sites. |
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DNS Server | The DNS service enables client computers on a network to register and resolve user-friendly DNS names. The DNS server hosts records of a distributed DNS database and uses these records to answer DNS queries sent by DNS client computers, such as queries for the names of Web sites or computers on your network or on the Internet. Benefits include: | • | User-friendly naming makes naming and locating network resources are more efficient and understandable. | | • | Resolves control names for each network segment and replicates changes to the entire network or globally on the Internet. | | • | Reduces administration time by dynamically updating DNS information. |
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DHCP Server | Once set up, administrators can manage IP addresses and related information in a central location. Benefits include: | • | Prevents IP address conflicts by preventing the use of previously assigned IP addresses. | | • | Reduces the time spent configuring and reconfiguring computers by selecting the DHCP server to supply a full range of additional configuration values when assigning address leases. | | • | Prevents clients—such as users with mobile or portable computers who change locations frequently—from missing updates by using the lease renewal process. |
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