Network
Operating Systems
In this part . . .
Y
ou get an overview of the most popular network operating systems used for server computers. You’ll
learn the basics of working with Windows Server 2003 Windows Server 2000 is similar, NetWare 6 including
the latest version, 6.5, and Linux. You also get a brief introduction to the world of Macintosh networking.
Happy networking And hey, be careful out there.
Chapter 19
Windows Server 2003
In This Chapter
䊳
Getting ready for the installation
䊳
Installing a network operating system
䊳
Setting up a share on a file server
䊳
Using basic troubleshooting tools
T
his chapter presents a whirlwind tour of working with Windows Server 2003, the latest and greatest server operating system from Microsoft. I
can’t possibly show you everything there is to know about Windows Server 2003 in one chapter, so instead I’ll focus on the tasks that come up most often,
such as configuring user accounts, resetting passwords, setting up file shares, and so on. You’ll find more detailed information about Windows Server 2003
in my book, Networking All In One Desk Reference For Dummies or in Windows 2003 Server For Dummies by Ed Tittel and James Michael Stewart, both pub-
lished by Wiley, of course.
Note that much of the information applies to Windows 2000 Server as well. Although the exact procedures may vary, Windows 2000 Server is similar
enough to Windows Server 2003 that you should be able to get through most of the procedures without much trouble.
Installing and Configuring Windows Server 2003
The following sections briefly describe the process of installing and configur- ing Windows Server 2003.
Planning for installation
For the most part, installing Windows Server 2003 is simply a matter of answer- ing the questions posed by the Setup program. The key to a successful instal-
lation, then, is knowing what questions to expect and what answers to provide. This section should help you prepare.
Meeting the minimum requirements
Before you install a Windows Server operating system, you should make sure that the computer meets the minimum requirements. Table 19-1 lists the offi-
cial minimum requirements for Windows Server 2003 — as well as what I con- sider more realistic minimums if you expect to get satisfactory performance
from the server as a moderately-well-used file server.
Table 19-1 Minimum hardware requirements
for Windows Server 2003
Item Official Minimum
A More Realistic Minimum
CPU 133MHz Pentium
1GHz Pentium 4 RAM
128MB 512MB
Free disk space 1.5GB
5GB Besides meeting the minimum requirements, you should also check to make
sure that your specific hardware has been checked out and approved for use with Windows Server 2003. Microsoft publishes an official list of supported
hardware, called the Hardware Compatibility List, or HCL. You can find the HCL at
www.microsoft.comwhdchcldefault.mspx The Windows Server 2003 distribution CD-ROM includes a feature called the
Check System Compatibility option that automatically checks your hardware against the HCL.
The Windows Server 2003 distribution disc includes a file called Relnotes. asp
, located in the Docs file. You should read this file before you start Setup, just to make sure any of the specific procedures or warnings it contains applies
to your situation.
Choosing the installation mode
Windows offers two installation modes that you should choose from before you begin setup: full installation or upgrade installation. A full installation
deletes any existing operating system it finds on the computer and configures
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the new operating system from scratch. An upgrade installation keeps the settings of the previous Windows Server operating system version already
installed.
Choosing the licensing mode
You can purchase Microsoft operating systems on a per-server or a per-user basis. You’ll need to know which plan you have when you install the operat-
ing system. Per-server licensing allows a certain number of simultaneous client connections. This is a good choice if you have a large number of users, but
only a small number of them use the server at a given time. In most cases, per-user licensing is a better idea: Each user has a license to use the Windows
server, so all your users can use the server simultaneously.
Choosing the file system and partitioning scheme
Windows servers provide three choices for the file system to format the server’s disk: FAT, FAT32, and NTFS. In most cases, you should elect to use
NTFS. Well, actually, you should use NTFS in almost all cases. Come to think of it, you should always use NTFS.
You should also plan ahead how you’re going to partition your hard drives. Partitioning enables you to divide a physical disk into one or more separate
units called partitions. Each disk can have up to four partitions. All four of the partitions can be primary partitions, each of which can be formatted with a
file system, such as NTFS or FAT32. Or, you can create up to three primary partitions and one extended partition, which can then be subdivided into one
or more logical drives. Then, each logical drive can be formatted with a file system.
There are two common ways to partition a Windows server:
⻬ Allocate the entire disk as a single partition that will be formatted with NTFS. The operating system will be installed into this partition,
and disk space that isn’t needed by the operating system or other net- work applications can be shared.
⻬ Divide the disk into two partitions. Install the operating system and
any other related software such as Exchange Server or a backup utility on the first partition. If the first partition will contain just the operating
system, 10GB is a reasonable size, although you can get by with as little as 4 GB if space is at a premium. Then, use the second partition for
application data or network file shares.
Plan your TCPIP configuration
Before you install the operating system, you should have a plan for how you will implement TCPIP on the network. In particular, decide such things as
the IP subnet address and mask, the domain name, the host name for the
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server, whether the server will use DHCP or have a static IP address and per- haps itself be a DHCP server, and so on. If all this seems like gobbledygook,
refer to Chapters 24 and 25 for more information.
Choose workgroups or domains
You’ll need to decide whether to use domains or workgroups. A domain is a grouping of user accounts and various network resources under the control
of a single directory database. A workgroup is a less formal association of computers on a network that makes it easy to locate shared files and print-
ers. Workgroups don’t have a sophisticated directory database, so they can’t enforce strict security.
Workgroups are normally used only for very small networks. In fact, any net- work large enough to have a dedicated server computer that runs Windows
Server 2003 is too large to use workgroups. So here’s a word to the wise: If you’re installing a Windows server, I recommend that you always opt for
domains.
Assuming you opt for domains, you need to make two basic decisions:
⻬ What will the domain name be? If you have a registered Internet domain
name, such as mydomain.com, you may want to use it for your network’s domain name. Otherwise, you can make up any name you want.
⻬ What computer or computers will be the domain controllers for the domain? If this is the first server in a domain, you must designate it as
a domain controller. If you already have a server acting as a domain con- troller, you can either add this computer as an additional domain con-
troller, or designate it as a member server. A member server is simply a server that belongs to the domain but isn’t responsible for authenticat-
ing logons and other duties that only domain controllers have to worry about.
Before You Install . . .
After you’ve made the key planning decisions for your Windows server installa- tion, you should take a few precautionary steps before you actually start the
Setup program. The following paragraphs describe the tasks you should com- plete before you perform an upgrade installation. Note that all these steps
except the last one apply only to upgrades. If you’re installing a Windows server on a new system, you can skip the first three.
⻬ Back up: Do a complete backup of the server before you begin. Although
Windows Setup is reliable, sometimes something serious goes wrong that results in lost data. Note that you don’t have to back up the drive
to external media, such as tape. If you can find a network disk share with enough free space, back up to it.
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⻬ Check the event logs: Look at the event logs of the existing server
computer to check for recurring errors. You may discover that you have a problem with a SCSI device or that you have a problem with
your current TCPIP configuration. Better to find out now rather than in the middle of Setup.
⻬ Uncompress data: If you’ve used DriveSpace or any other disk-
compression software to compress a drive as people did in the days before multi-gigabit drives, you’ll have to uncompress the
drive before you run Setup. Windows Server 2003 doesn’t support DriveSpace or other disk-compression programs.
⻬ Disconnect UPS devices: If you have installed an Uninterruptible Power
Supply UPS device on the server and connected it to your computer via a serial cable, you should temporarily disconnect the serial cable
before you run Setup. After setup is complete, you can reconnect the serial cable.
Running Setup
Now that you’ve planned your installation and prepared the computer, you’re ready to run the Setup program. To start the Setup program, insert the distri-
bution CD in the computer’s CD-ROM drive and restart the computer. After a few moments, the Windows Setup Wizard fires up. It begins by asking whether
you want to perform a new or upgrade installation, as shown in Figure 19-1. Choose the option you want, click Next, and continue answering the ques-
tions posed by the Setup Wizard. You’ll be asked to enter the 25-character product key that verifies that you have a legal copy of the software, plus a
bevy of configuration options such as the type of file system you want to use and the partition structure to create.
Figure 19-1:
Welcome to Windows
Setup
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Eventually, Setup will format your disk drive if you’re performing a new installation and copy the Windows files to the drive. This part of the setup
takes awhile — and runs in text mode, so you can’t play Solitaire while you wait. I suggest you bring along your favorite book. Start on Chapter 1.
After all the files have been copied, Setup reboots your computer again and returns you to the more attractive GUI Setup program. Then, Setup examines
all the devices on the computer and installs any necessary device drivers. You can read Chapter 2 of your book during this time.
After the drivers are all set up, Setup continues by asking other configuration questions such as your region, language, name, licensing mode, the password
for the Administrator account, domain name, and so on.
Completing the installation
Setup gets a working Windows operating system up and running on your server. When that’s done, however, you still have plenty of configuration
information to specify before you can say your server is installed. Follow these steps to complete the installation and configuration of your server:
1. Log on to Windows.
To log on to Windows, press Ctrl+Alt+Delete. When the Log On to Windows dialog box appears, type the Administrator password and
click OK.
2. Activate Windows.
The Product Activation feature is annoying to be sure, but Microsoft claims that it helps to reduce piracy. You have 30 days to activate
Windows, but you may as well do it now. Windows displays a pop-up reminder in the bottom-right corner of the
desktop. When you click the reminder, the Activation Wizard appears. Follow the wizard’s steps to activate Windows.
3. Configure your server roles.
The first time your new Windows server boots up, the Configure Your Server Wizard appears automatically, as shown in Figure 19-2. The fol-
lowing list describes the roles that you can configure for the server by using this wizard:
• File Server: Lets you share disk folders that can be accessed over
the network.
• Print Server: Lets you share printers over the network. • Application Server: Installs Microsoft’s Web server, Internet
Information Service also known as IIS.
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• Mail Server: Installs a basic POP3 and SMTP server for e-mail. • Terminal Server: Allows other users to run applications on the
server via the network.
• Remote AccessVPN Server: Enables dialup and VPN connections. • Domain Controller: Enables Active Directory and designates the
server as a domain controller.
• DNS Server: Enables the DNS server for DNS name resolution. • DHCP Server: Enables the DHCP server to dynamically assign
IP addresses to client computers.
• Streaming Media Server: Enables the Streaming Media Server. • WINS Server: Enables the WINS server for Windows-based name
resolution.
Managing User Accounts
Every user who accesses a network must have a user account. User accounts let you control who can access the network and who can’t. In addition, user
accounts let you specify what network resources each user can use. Without user accounts, all your resources would be open to anyone who casually
dropped by your network.
Figure 19-2:
Configuring server roles.
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