ABSTRACT
Over the past decade or so, Microsoft has introduced a great many operating systems as it has attempted to move from a strictly desktop company to one that could effectively service the needs of the enterprise. That road has certainly been a bumpy one, but the releases over the past couple of years, particularly Windows 2000 Server, indicate that the company is serious about establishing its enterprise credentials. In this chapter, we take a look at the various Windows operating systems of the past and present, focusing on those of most relevance to disk management and servers. The discussion covers Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows 2000 Advanced Server, and Windows 2000 Datacenter Server. Windows 2000 Server is given the lion’s share of coverage, as it is likely to be around for a long time to come. It represents a major shift up the server hierarchy for Microsoft due to its scalability, reliability, and manageability, as well as the incorporation of Active Directory (AD), which makes Windows directory management far easier than previously.
