Thread: Configuring Server, Roles

After you install your server operating system and verified that the installation was successful, the next step is to configure the various services that server provides this wizard start automatically when first time you logon to the Window Server 2003 otherwise

• Click on the Start button, and then place mouse-pointer on the Programs option. A menu appears. Place mouse pointer over the Administrator Tools, then click on the Configure Your Server.

• Configure Your Server Wizard dialog box appears.
Click on the Next button.

• Preliminary Configuration information dialog box will appear click on the Next button.

• Server Role information dialog box will appear (FigWS-2). This page helps to configure the various roles that server will play. Just select one of the server and click over the Next Button. The wizard takes you though one or more pages that ask for configuration information for the server role you selected.


The following points describe the server roles.

• File Server: It allows creating share folders that network users can access. You can set up indexing services that help users quickly find their files.

• Print Server: This allows you to share printers connected to the server with network users.

• Application server: If you want server to host web sites, you need to configure the application server role.

• Mail server: This provides the basic e-mail features based on the standard Internet mail protocols.

• Terminal server: This provides the facility that other user can run application on the server computer as if they were working at the server.

• Remote Access/VPN server: This enables dialup connections and Virtual Private Network connections which work like dialup connections but operate over the internet rather then over a private phone line.

• Domain Controller: This enables Active Directory and designates the server as a domain controller so that it can manage user accounts, logon activity, and access privileges.

• DNS server: This configures the computer as the DNS server for network so that it can resolves internet name. you need your own DNS server for large network, for smaller network your ISP's DNS server is used.

• DHCP server: A DHCP server assigns IP address to computers automatically so that you don.'t have to manually configure an IP address. On many networks, the router that provides the network connection to the internet doubles as a DHCP server or you can say that DHCP's are used and for small network you don't need two DHCP servers.

• Streaming Media Server: Streaming media server is use to set up Digital media over the network. One common use of streaming is for online conferencing.

• WINS Server: This allows the server to translate' NetBIOS name to IP addresses. All windows networks should have at least one WINS server. For small networks only one WINS server is used otherwise for a large network two or three WINS servers are required.