Server: An Introduction A server is any combination of hardware or softwaredesigned to provide services to clients.

When used alone, theterm typically refers to a computer which may be running a serveroperating system, but is commonly used to refer to any softwareor dedicated hardware capable of providing services.For example, a file server is a computer and storage devicededicated to storing files. Any user on the network can store fileson the server. A print server is a computer that manages one ormore printers, and a network server is a computer that managesnetwork traffic. A database server is a computer system thatprocesses database queries.Servers are often dedicated, meaning that they perform noother tasks besides their server tasks. On multiprocessingoperating systems, however, a single computer can executeseveral programs at once. A server in this case could refer to theprogram that is managing resources rather than the entirecomputer.Server may be of Application Servers, Audio/Video Servers, ChatServers, Fax Servers, FTP Servers, Groupware Servers, IRC Servers,Mail Servers, News Servers, Proxy Servers, Servers, Web Servers. Windows Server 2000: Windows 2000 is a line of operating systems produced byMicrosoft for use on business desktops, notebook computers, andservers. Windows 2000 is a continuation of the Microsoft Windows NT

family of operating systems, replacing Windows NT 4.0. Four editions of Windows 2000 are Professional, Server, Advanced Server, andDatacenter Server. Features of Windows Server 2000: Windows 2000 introduced many of the new features of Windows98 such as Windows Desktop Update, Internet Explorer 5,OutlookExpress, NetMeeting, FAT32 support, Windows Driver Model,InternetConnection Sharing,[28] Windows Media Player, WebDAV support[31]etc. NTFS 3.0 Microsoft released the version 3.0 of NTFS as part of Windows2000; this introduced disk quotas (provided by QuotaAdvisor), file-system-level encryption, sparse files and reparse points. Sparse filesallow for the efficient storage of data sets that are very large yetcontain many areas that only have zeros. Encrypting File System The Encrypting File System (EFS) introduced strong file system-level encryption to Windows. It allows any folder or drive on an NTFSvolume to be encrypted transparently by the user. Active Directory

A new way of organizing Windows network domains, or groups of resources, called Active Directory, is introduced with Windows 2000 toreplace Windows NT's earlier domain model. Active Directory'shierarchical nature allowed administrators a built-in way to manageuser and computer policies and user accounts, and to automaticallydeploy programs and updates with a greater degree of scalability andcentralization than provided in previous Windows versions. It is one of the main reasons many corporations migrated to Windows2000.[citation needed] User information stored in Active Directory alsoprovided a convenient phone book-like function to end users. ActiveDirectory domains can vary from small installations with a few hundredobjects, to large installations with millions. Active Directory canorganise and link groups of domains into a contiguous domain name

space to form trees. Groups of trees outside of the same namespacecan be linked together to form forests.Active Directory services could only be installed on a Windows2000 Server, Advanced Server, or Datacenter Server computer, andcannot be installed on a Windows 2000 Professional computer.However, Windows 2000 Professional is the first client operatingsystem able to exploit Active Directory's new features. As part of anorganization's migration, Windows NT clients continued to functionuntil all clients were upgraded to Windows 2000 Professional, at whichpoint the Active Directory domain could be switched to native modeand maximum functionality achieved. Editions of Windows 2000 server: Windows 2000 Professional Windows 2000 Server Windows 2000 Advanced Server Windows 2000 Datacenter Server Hardware Requirements for Windows 2000 (minimum) Windows 2000 Professional Minimum Requirements Processor 133 MHz or higher Pentium-compatible CPU

Memory 64 megabytes (MB) of RAM recommended minimum; more memorygenerally improves responsiveness HardDisk 2GB hard disk with a minimum of 650MB of free space CPUSupport Windows 2000 Professional supports single and dual CPU systems Windows 2000 Server