Qualifications: I am the manager (Network Administrator) of a medium-sized server farm at a financial institute that consists of some 250 Dell PowerEdge servers of various models and design and they run Windows 2003 Standard Edition (x32 & x64-bit R2) or Windows Enterprise Edition (x32 & 64-bit R2).

Disclaimer: This review is intended for those with intermediate or software knowledge, or those individuals seeking in-depth information on Enterprise caliber software server installations. Few if any of the terms used throughout the review are expounded upon.
The company I provide Windows / Exchange Administrator services for operates an intermediate Windows 2003 Active Directory (AD) forest. Most of the servers in the farm are either Windows 2003 Standard or Enterprise Edition x32-bit Network Operating System (NOS). However, all of our new (larger 4U and larger) servers are brought on-line with Windows 2003 Enterprise x64-bit Edition.

Windows 2003 Enterprise x64 Edition offers the following higher functionality over that of it smaller brother Windows 2003 Standard:

o Eight-way symmetric multiprocessing (SMP): Windows Server 2003 Enterprise x64 Edition, supports up to eight processors in a single server system;

o Eight-node server clustering;

o Support for up to 2TB of RAM.

Why 64-Bit Computing?

One of the biggest reason to go with 64-bit computing over 32-bit is memory; how much can be utilized by the process and in what configuration. Your typical computer with one or more 32-bit processors can address up to 4 Gigabytes (GB) of RAM—depending on motherboard—which is split between the Operating System (OS) applications and the; e.g. 2 GB for OS and 2 GB for applications.

With 64-bit processors (both Intel and AMD offer them) one of the most striking features is the amount of memory the system can support. Intel and AMD 64-bit architecture will allow system motherboard architecture (chipset, bus(s) etc.) to address up to (2) terabyte (TB); that is 2000GB, of memory. This ability becomes important when we discuss virtual and cloud computing, both of which are touted as the wave of the Data Center future. Virtual computing eats RAM, and cloud computing count in large part on virtual computing to achieve economy of scale.

Also consider that databases, also known for their particular affinity for lots of RAM are multiplying like spots on a Dalmatian; even medium sized companies like mine store vast amounts of information on databases. Consider as well that the year-old Microsoft Exchange 2007 was released on 64-bit architecture only primarily to take advantage of the more robust RAM usage; i.e. the program will consume as much RAM as you can throw at it.

This is one of the reasons why an increasing numbers of business and organizations are moving to 64-but computing. They typically need to access increasing amounts of data and need servers that can support a greater number of larger files and can efficiently load large enterprise-class databases into RAM. The result is faster overall network throughput, data searches and records/data retrieval.

The Product

Fully five years after it introduction Windows 2003 Enterprise x64 Edition is still going strong in the enterprise, has seen two Service Packs, a Release 2 (R2) upgrade, and now a move to 64-bit computing. With the release of Windows 2003 Standard Microsoft announced that it was fully behind (finally) 64-bit computing in the enterprise.

Windows 2003 Enterprise x64 Edition supports up to 1TB of RAM and supports the following processors:

o AMD Opteron
o AMD Athlon 64
o Intel Xeon with Intel EM64T of Intel 64
o Intel Pentium with Intel EM64T or Intel 64

Windows 2003 Enterprise x64 Edition System Requirements:

o Minimum RAM: 512 MB
o Recommended Minimum RAM: 512MB
o Maximum RAM: 1TB
o Multiprocessor Support: Up to 8
o Disk Space for setup: 4.0GB

First Impressions

This is a serious NOS groomed for resource intensive applications like Microsoft Exchange Server 2007; file & print services, and heavy database crunching like that present in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) or Microsoft SQL Server 2005, or Microsoft Communication Server Enterprise editions. This is not an OS for gamers, or those interested in word processing and or surfing the web. Even on this single processor, 4GB of RAM, the NOS is fast.

Symmetric processing and multi-server clustering is really what Windows 2003 Enterprise x64 Edition is all about, that and it seamless support for up to 1 terabyte of RAM!

Under Windows 2000 the installation of server applets such as Windows Internet Naming Service (WINS), Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP), and Domain Naming Service (DNS), was accomplished during the installation of the NOS, but under Windows 2003, you decide after the install is complete and the NOS reboots into the management interface that suggests roles for the server, such as file & print, application, web server, active directory services, terminal services etc. I prefer to make those choices during the installation of the NOS; less work after the system reboots. Choosing to install the applets is simple and straightforward.

Installation of Internet Information Server (IIS) 6.0 (new version) is an option to include with Windows 2003 Enterprise x64 Edition. If you plan to install almost any application you will need to install IIS 6.0 as well.

I am very pleased with Windows 2003 Enterprise x64 Edition. I have thus far installed numerous instances—both clustered and stand-alone of the NOS with no problems to report. And it runs without incident; take that UNIX and Linux.


Recommended: Yes