Active Directory, Second Edition

Windows 2000 Versus Windows Server 2003

While the first version of Active Directory available with Windows 2000 was very stable and feature-rich, it still had room for improvement, primarily around usability and performance. With Windows Server 2003, Microsoft has addressed many of these issues. To utilize these features you have to upgrade your domain controllers to Windows Server 2003 and raise the domain and forest functional levels as necessary.

The difference between Windows 2000 Active Directory and Windows Server 2003 Active Directory is more evolutionary than revolutionary. The decision to upgrade to Windows Server 2003 is a subjective one, based on your needs. For example, if you have a lot of domain controllers and Active Directory sites, you may want to take advantage of the improvements with replication as soon as possible. Or perhaps you’ve been dying to rename a domain, a capability available in Windows Server 2003 Active Directory. On the whole, Microsoft added or updated more than 100 features within Active Directory, and we will now discuss some of the more significant ones.

Tip

For more information on migrating to Windows Server 2003 from Windows 2000 check out Chapter 14.

Some of the new features are available as soon as you promote the first Windows Server 2003 domain controller into an existing Windows 2000 Active Directory domain. In Table 1-2, the features available when you do so are listed along with descriptions. Note that these features will apply only to ...