Acknowledgments - A reference for Designing Servers and Peripherals for the Microsoft® Windows nt® Server Operating...

Acknowledgments
Microsoft and Intel would like to acknowledge the special contributions of the following companies to this document:
Compaq Computer Corporation
Dell Computer Corporation
Hewlett-Packard Corporation
International Business Machines Corporation
NEC Corporation
Siemens Nixdorf, Incorporated
Chapter 1
Overview of Server Design Issues
This chapter is an introduction to the system classes and issues related to server hardware guidelines for systems designed to work with the Microsoft Windows NT Server 5.0 operating system. This document addresses design issues for commodity servers; in general, these servers contain up to four microprocessors and use a variety of industry standard technologies.
Introduction to Design Issues
The intent of this guide is to provide information about designing servers, hardware, and software that take best advantage of the Windows NT Server operating system.
This guide represents a collection of system definitions and requirements for bus and device design. The requirements and recommendations emphasize features and attributes of a system that can perform extremely well under Windows NT Server. These guidelines emphasize the following areas:
Performance. The ideal way to specify performance capabilities would be to specify performance against specific benchmark tests. However, the available benchmark tests do not allow for direct comparison of systems unless used with identical client setup and software configurations, which are not currently defined. Wherever possible, requirements in this guide are defined according to the benchmark performance goals. When reliable benchmark tests are not available, specific hardware configurations are defined to achieve the performance capabilities necessary for servers that are compliant with the requirements defined in this guide.
Reliability. To fulfill its function, the server system must run all the time, with fault-tolerance capabilities and features to smoothly replace a failed drive. High availability is an extremely important feature for all servers, although this feature might be manifested differently according to how the server is used. However, certain baseline goals are desirable for each class of server, so various elements of these requirements address reliability and high-availability needs for servers.
Robustness and capacity. For many server applications, good scalability and serviceability become extremely important. This guide specifies some requirements related to components, such as RAM and processor capabilities, to address robustness issues. Additional requirements or recommendations provide for expansion capabilities in the server system.
Ease of use and ease of maintenance. Various requirements seek to address issues related to ease of use and ease of maintenance — two factors that strongly affect the TCO for servers.
Security. Some requirements ensure security of user data or access to system components.
When working to meet these requirements and when choosing to support additional hardware design recommendations, the designer must continually weigh cost versus performance. In defining these guidelines, extra attention has been given to this concern.
Intel and Microsoft are dedicated to strategic industry relationships that deepen and strengthen support for evolving the platform. Both companies work with industry groups to define standards for new technologies. In support of this evolution of server platforms, Microsoft has become involved in the following efforts:
Designing operating system support for new bus and device classes to ensure that new technologies can quickly reach a broad market.
Enhancing the Windows NT Server operating system to make it easy for both hardware and software developers to exploit operating system capabilities.
Offering the HCL and other programs to help customers identify hardware and software designs that take advantage of the Windows NT Server operating system.
The system design requirements defined in this guide support a synergy among server hardware, the Microsoft Windows NT Server operating system, and Win32-based software. These requirements for systems and components are based on the following goals:
System platforms, buses, and devices meet industry standards and specifications for each bus type and device class.
Systems and devices meet minimum performance requirements.
Systems and devices meet ease-of-use and physical design guidelines.
Systems and devices are supported by device drivers that follow guidelines defined in the Windows NT 5.0 DDK for behavior, installation, and removal.
Systems and devices support Plug and Play compatibility and OnNow power management for configuring and managing all system components under the Windows NT Server 5.0 operating system.
Designing Systems for Windows NT Server
The requirements and recommendations in this guide are defined in relation to classes of server systems and components used with the Microsoft Windows NT Server operating system.
Windows NT Server is a preemptive, multitasking operating system that includes security and networking services as fundamental components of the base operating system. Windows NT Server runs on both complex instruction set computing (CISC) and RISC processors. Windows NT Server also supports high-performance computing by providing kernel support for computers that have symmetric multiprocessor configurations.
Under Windows NT Server 5.0, new Plug and Play capabilities and OnNow power management capabilities are made available for ACPI-compliant server systems. Other major hardware initiatives for Windows NT 5.0 include the following:
Support for new bus and device classes, including USB, IEEE 1394, Human Interface Device (HID) class, and Fibre Channel
Support for Microsoft Cluster Server
Online volume management, hierarchical storage management (HSM), Windows NT Media Services (NTMS), and improvements in backup and recovery support
Support for Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) as part of the Zero Administration initiative for Windows, reducing hardware ownership costs
Support for I2O architecture
For information about Windows NT Server 5.0 features and capabilities, see http://www.microsoft.com/ntserver/.
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