Requirements for three different Windows NT operating system products and three server classes are designated in these guidelines. The operating system products include:
The server classes in this guide are the same as in Version 1.0: Basic Server, Enterprise Server, and SOHO Server. (For more information, see Chapter 1, “Overview of Server Design Issues.”) For ease of use in this guide, Basic, SOHO, and Enterprise class requirements are all defined together in the main body of the document, rather than in separate chapters.
Any class of server can run any server operating system product. Furthermore, there are no direct relationships that define which operating system product can or should run on each specific class of server. However, server platforms might need to meet additional requirements to meet the goals of a specific server class or to be a good target platform for a specific operating system.
The following examples show the format for differentiating server class-specific or operating system-specific requirements in this guideline. The first example is the simplest, where the requirement (or recommendation) applies to all classes of servers and all operating systems.
| Ex.1. System and components support dates beyond 2000 |
| Required |
| The BIOS, real time clock, CMOS, and the system as a whole must work correctly for dates from now to past the year 2000. |
The second, more complex example presents specific requirements for different server classes and operating system products. The server types are defined in the left column, and the column headings designate specific operating system products.
| Ex. 2. System includes intelligent RAID controller | |||
| Windows NT Server | Enterprise Edition | Small Business Server | |
| Basic Server: | Recommended | Required | Recommended |
| SOHO: | Optional | Required | Optional |
| Enterprise: | Required | Required | Required |
| An intelligent RAID controller provides the benefit of reduced demands on the host processor or processors…. | |||