Windows Server 2003 SP2 Released by Microsoft

Published: March 14, 2007

by Alex Woodie

Microsoft yesterday announced the release of Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 (SP2), an iterative release of the operating system that brings new enhancements in the area of security, networking, and database performance. The service pack, which Microsoft had originally planned to get out the door by the end of 2006, updates the full spectrum of X86-, X64-, and IA64-based Windows Server products, including Windows XP Professional and Compute Cluster Server.

Microsoft has been working on Windows Server 2003 SP2 since late 2004, following the completion of the Windows security overhauls that culminated with Windows Server 2003 SP1 and Windows XP SP2, which finally shipped in the summer of 2004. In between time, Microsoft's Windows developers in Redmond, Washington, have gotten Windows Server 2003 Release 2 (R2) out the door, and more recently shipped Windows Vista.

Whereas Windows Server 2003 R2 brought substantial new functionality that Microsoft decided customers must pay for, and Windows Server 2003 SP1 was a critical security update, SP2 reinstates Microsoft's standard practice of including more nominal enhancements in service packs, in addition to neatly wrapping up all the fixes into one handy download.

Depending on your workloads, the features in SP2--a free download for legitimate owners of licensed software--could provide real benefits to your computing environment.

Chief among the new enhancements is Windows Deployment Service (WDS), an updated and redesigned version of Remote Installation Services (RIS) that Microsoft says will bring improved security surrounding image stores and better administrative and management features. It will also be required to support the remote deployment of Windows Vista.

SP2 also introduces version 3.0 of the Microsoft Management Console (MMC), which brings "richer functionality" and a new interface for third-party "snap-ins." Discoverability has also been enhanced with the MSConfig tool, Microsoft says.

The new service pack also brings the new Scalable Networking Pack, which will enable the use of a TCP offloading engine (TOE) to offload processing of TCP requests from the main processor. Customers running network backup and data replication, file serving and remote file access, and iSCSI environments should benefit the most from the TOE.

SP2 also improves the performance of heavy SQL Server 2005 database workloads, and will improve performance of Windows Server 2003 while it is running as a multiprocessor guest operating system, according to Microsoft.

On the security front, SP2 brings support for the new wireless security standard, Wi-Fi Protected Access 2 (WPA2). It will also include finer control of firewall operations, including "firewall per port" authentication that will secure traffic between Extranets and internal assets protected via IPsec domain isolation.

It's also worth noting that the SP2 updates don't apply just to Windows Server 2003, they apply to all Windows products that are based on the Windows Server 2003 code. This includes all 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Storage Server R2, Windows Unified Data Storage Server, Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003 SP1, Windows Small Business Server 2003 R2, and Windows XP Professional x64 Edition.

RELATED STORIES

Windows Server 2003 SP2 Will Be 'Limited Scope'

Microsoft Gets Windows Server 2003 R2 Out the Door

                     Post this story to del.icio.us
               Post this story to Digg
    Post this story to Slashdot