Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 (32 bit) is out!

[ayoub_ibrahim]

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=22CFC239-337C-4D81-8354-72593B1C1F43&displaylang=en

[Jammrock]

I'm going to wait a few weeks to check the fall out on it before I give it a shot...

[MultimediaMan]

I've installed it on several platforms at work, and the results are encouraging. As far as "new features" are concerned the biggest is the Data Execution Bit, and increased base security settings in general.

I've successfully put it on single (slow) P3s to Hyperthreaded dual P4 Xeon Blade servers.

The update itself it noteworthy: nearly 300MB. They did fix a number of Terminal Services issues as well as DRAMATICALLY increasing the speed of file searches.

More as I find it.

[Jammrock]

I've installed it on several platforms at work, and the results are encouraging. As far as "new features" are concerned the biggest is the Data Execution Bit, and increased base security settings in general.

I've successfully put it on single (slow) P3s to Hyperthreaded dual P4 Xeon Blade servers.

The update itself it noteworthy: nearly 300MB. They did fix a number of Terminal Services issues as well as DRAMATICALLY increasing the speed of file searches.

More as I find it.

Yeah, was talking to one of my companies super techs and he really liked it. I'm loading it up on my server right now.

*crosses fingers*

Jammrock

[xortam]

I've been out of the picture for quite some time now but what does 2003 give me over 2000? I think I heard there were some media streaming enhancements but I try not to run any of the DRM stuff on my 2000 box anyway. Any reason I should upgrade it to 2003?

[MultimediaMan]

Terminal Services is even better than before; Shadow Volumes are nice for fileservers, if a little odd to implement.

RIS for 2003 is redone and easier to administer.

Generally the OS is faster than 2000, particularly networking.

[Jammrock]

More security features, easier to administrate Active Directory (drag 'n' drop finally works), better confguration wizards, more command line options (MS claims that all GUI-based wizards, commands, and functions in WinS2k3 have a command line counterpart).

Jammrock

[MultimediaMan]

MS makes the (valid) claim that all GUI options are available from the CLI: what they don't tell you up front is most of those commands are Visual Basic Scripts - make sure Users do not have rights to them to avoid heartache.

Some good news: you can copy nearly all of the *.vbs scripts from the %systemroot%\Windows\System32 in a Windows Server 2003 directory and paste them into a Win2K box to get the same functionality.

Our Unix Teams are starting to get miffed with me as I am sending text screendumps to them that even they cannot argue with.

Just remember to put the cscript command in front of the *.vbs file...

Example: Listing printers

C:\WINDOWS\system32>cscript prnmngr.vbs -l
Microsoft (R) Windows Script Host Version 5.6
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation 1996-2001. All rights reserved.


Number of printers enumerated 0

C:\WINDOWS\system32>

Checking the Event Log:

C:\WINDOWS\system32>cscript EVENTQUERY.vbs /R 5-10 /L Application
Microsoft (R) Windows Script Host Version 5.6
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation 1996-2001. All rights reserved.


------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Listing the events in 'application' log of host 'BELLEROPHON'
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Type          Event  Date Time                Source            ComputerName
 ------------- ------ ------------------------ ----------------- --------------
 information   1000   4/3/2005 11:09:56 AM     LoadPerf    BELLEROPHON
 information   1001   4/3/2005 11:09:56 AM     LoadPerf    BELLEROPHON
 information   1000   4/3/2005 11:09:56 AM     LoadPerf    BELLEROPHON
 information   2444   4/3/2005 11:09:25 AM     MSDTC      BELLEROPHON
 information   4104   4/3/2005 11:09:25 AM     MSDTC      BELLEROPHON
 information   1000   4/3/2005 11:09:21 AM     LoadPerf    BELLEROPHON


C:\WINDOWS\system32>

Very handy.

[Marshmallowman]

Sounds handy indeed, is there any online reference for al the commands?

[MultimediaMan]

Of course:

Try Here.

[agallag]

Better yet, visit the Script Center. There's a script for just about everything you can imagine.

[Marshmallowman]

cool...thanks for that

[agallag]

I should also mention, make sure you follow the link from the script center page to the Script Repository. That's where all the sample scripts reside.