Windows Server 2003 Technology Primer - Performance and Functionality Improvements
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A network end user would likely never notice many new features added to Windows Server 2003, and in many cases a network administrator would not even be aware that the technologies were updated and improved. These technologies help the network operate more efficiently and effectively, so a user might experience faster network performance. However, even if the network was able to respond twice as fast, a process that used to take three seconds to complete and now takes less than two seconds to complete is not something a user would particularly notice. The key benefit typically comes in the area of overall network bandwidth demand improvements, or for very large organizations, the performance improvements require the organization to add additional servers, processors, and site connections to scale an enterprise with systems.
Global Catalog Caching on a Domain Controller
One of the significant back-end improvements to Windows Server 2003 is the server's capability to cache global catalog information on domain controllers. In a Windows 2000 environment, for users to access the global catalog to view mail accounts and distribution lists, an organization typically put a global catalog server out to every site within the organization. This distributed global catalog server function minimized the ongoing traffic of users querying the catalog over a WAN connection every time they wanted to send an email to someone else in the organization; however, it meant that directory replication occurred to global catalogs in the enterprise to keep the directory synchronized. With Windows Server 2003, an organization can place just a domain controller in a remote location, and the global catalog information is cached to the remote system. This provides the best of both worlds where the caching of the global catalog means that the directory information is readily available to remote users, but because it is just a cache of the information and not a fully replicated copy, synchronization and distribution of catalog information are done only when initially requested, and not each time a change is made to the directory.
Fine-Tuning on Global Catalog Synchronization
Another behind-the-scenes update to Windows Server 2003 is the fine-tuning done to the way global catalog full syncs are conducted. A global catalog full sync occurs when the entire global catalog is replicated from global catalog server to global catalog server. In organizations with very large global catalogs, this replication could duplicate several megabytes of information to every global catalog server in the network, which could have a significant impact on overall network performance.
In Windows 2000, global catalog full syncs were conducted any time attributes were added to partial attribute sets (PAS). In simplified terms, this meant that if an organization had a distribution list with 5,000 names on it and the administrator added just one more name to the list, all 5,001 names were replicated from global catalog to global catalog.
With Windows Server 2003, changes can be made to partial attribute sets with only the modified attribute replicated to global catalog servers throughout the organization. This allows administrators to add a 5,001st name to a distribution list with only that single name replicated across the WAN. Similar partial replication is conducted on several other Windows Server 2003 infrastructure objects and are highlighted in Chapter 7, "Active Directory Infrastructure."
Ability to Disable Compression on High-Speed Links
Another component that users almost never realize after a migration to Windows Server 2003, but of significance to server administrators, is the ability to disable compression on high-speed links between global catalog servers. In Windows 2000, before information was replicated between servers, the information was first compressed. This compression saved on server-to-server LAN or WAN traffic bandwidth, but Windows 2000 servers were affected by increased CPU utilization when the information had to be compressed and then uncompressed when data was replicated between servers.
With Windows Server 2003, an administrator can disable the compression process, thus allowing information to replicate server to server natively. Although this replication might take up LAN or WAN bandwidth, network administrators with very high speed 100 megabit or gigabit backbones with plenty of bandwidth might prefer to use underutilized LAN/WAN bandwidth than to take up CPU utilization during the middle of the day. This function, by itself, is rarely noticed by users, but combined with several other performance-improving functions in Windows Server 2003, an organization can use it to improve overall network performance in its enterprise.
The capability to tune and optimize compression links and other networking factors is covered in Chapter 7 on the Active Directory infrastructure as well as in Chapter 35 on performance tuning and optimization.
 This chapter is from Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Unleashed, by Rand Morimoto, et al. (Sams Publishing, 2004, ISBN: 0672326671). Check it out at your favorite bookstore today.
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