Introducing Microsoft Windows Server(TM) 2003

Microsoft Windows Server technologies deliver low total cost of ownership (TCO) and reliable file services that are essential to enterprise computing infrastructures . Windows Server 2003 delivers an exciting set of customer-focused improvements in file services, especially for businesses using Windows NT Server 4.0 to provide file services. This chapter discusses improvements in Windows Server 2003 file services, describing core infrastructure file service innovations, new features, and improved management tools that lower the cost associated with managing file servers.

Microsoft built important improvements to file services in the Windows Server 2003 product family, most of which are the result of customer feedback. These improvements focus on three key areas:

• Improved infrastructure services.

  Improved infrastructure services provide more flexibility with storage options and file delivery. As new storage topologies and applications have become more popular in the past five years (think "storage area networks"), it has been a struggle to get different components of a solution to work well together. New standardized infrastructure services in Windows Server 2003 help streamline the development of core server management and file services.

• Enhanced end user experience.

  Windows Server 2003, used in conjunction with Microsoft Windows XP, delivers seamless access to network data and files. It also strengthens the safety net for end users who save files on network shares, even files from non “Windows XP clients .

• Lower TCO.

  Improved manageability in Windows Server 2003 leads to a lower total cost of ownership. This is accomplished by using improved Web-based management tools, as well as more extensive command-line tools that enable the use of scripts to manage remote or local file servers.

This chapter describes the many new file service features in Windows Server 2003. You learn about local storage improvements, Virtual Disk Service, Volume Shadow Copy Service, and much more. This chapter starts with the benefits to file systems in Windows Server 2003.