Windows Server (formerly Windows NT Server) is a group of server operating systems (OS) that has been developed by Microsoft since 1993. The first OS that was released for this platform is Windows NT 3.1 Advanced Server, an edition of Windows NT 3.1. With the release of Windows Server 2003, Microsoft started releasing new versions under the name Windows Server. The latest release of Windows Server is Windows Server 2022, which was released in 2021.
Microsoft's history of developing operating systems for servers goes back to Windows NT 3.1 Advanced Server. Windows 2000 Server is the first OS to include Active Directory, DNS Server, DHCP Server, and Group Policy.
Windows NT 3.1 Advanced Server was released on July 27, 1993[citation needed] as an edition of Windows NT 3.1, an operating system aimed towards business and server use. As with its Workstation counterpart, Windows NT 3.1 Advanced Server was a 32 bit rewrite of the Windows kernel that retained a similar use interface to Windows 3.1. Unlike the latter, however, Windows NT 3.1 Advanced Server was a complete operating system that did not need to be run from DOS. Windows NT 3.1 Advanced Server, like its Workstation counterpart, featured new features such as multiuser support and preemptive multitasking.[3]In 1994, Microsoft released Windows NT Server 3.5. It introduced TCP/IP and Winsock support integrated into the operating system, alongside the ability to use FTP. It also supported VFAT.[citation needed]
In 1996, Microsoft released Windows NT Server 4.0. It added the new user interface introduced in Windows 95 the previous year. In addition, it dropped support for the PowerPC, Alpha, and MIPS architectures. Microsoft updated Winsock to version 2 and IIS 2.0 and FrontPage are included.[citation needed]
Traditionally, Microsoft supports Windows Server for 10 years, with five years of mainstream support and an additional five years of extended support. These releases also offer a complete desktop experience. Starting with Windows Server 2008, Server Core and Nano Server configurations were made available to reduce the OS footprint.[14][15] Between 2015 and 2021, Microsoft referred to these releases as "long-term support" releases to set them apart from semi-annual releases (see below.)
For sixteen years, Microsoft released a major version of Windows Server every four years, with one minor version released two years after a major release. The minor versions had an "R2" suffix in their names. In October 2018, Microsoft broke this tradition with the release of Windows Server 2019, which should have been "Windows Server 2016 R2". Windows Server 2022 is also a minor upgrade over its predecessor.[16][17]
Following the release of Windows Server 2016, Microsoft attempted to mirror the lifecycle of Windows 10 in the Windows Server family, releasing new versions twice a year which were supported for 18 months. These semi-annual versions were only available as part of Microsoft subscription services, including Software Assurance, Azure Marketplace, and Visual Studio subscriptions,[27] until their discontinuation in July 2021.[28][27]
The semi-annual releases do not include any desktop environments. Instead, they are restricted to the Nano Server configuration installed in a Docker container,[15][27] and the Server Core configuration, licensed only to serve as a container host.[15][27]
The Annual Channel was first announced on July 2023, with the first version being released on September the same year. Unlike the Semi-Annual releases, each Annual Channel release would receive six months of extended support in addition to the 18 months of regular support. Annual releases are made available every twelve months, hence the name. Datacenter is the only edition available.
Windows Server File Servers host billions of files across millions of customers for storage and retrieval of files with built-in scale. Security, quotas, back-up, replication, and recovery are all built into the operating system.
Windows Server hosts millions of apps, from simple IIS web apps to complex apps like SharePoint, Exchange, database, and 3rd party products with integrated security, high availability, and replication across servers and clusters.
On-premises licenses for Windows Server 2008 and 2008 R2 Extended Security Updates ended on January 14, 2023. For those customers who need more time to upgrade and modernize their Windows Server 2008 and 2008 R2, we now provide free extended security updates only on Azure. With this, customers have until January 14, 2024 to upgrade to a supported release. Available for customers on Azure, including Azure Virtual Machines, Azure Dedicated Host, Azure VMWare Solutions, Azure Nutanix Solution, and Azure Stack HCI.
Windows Server 2012 and 2012 R2 Extended Support will end on October 10, 2023. Customers who migrate workloads to Azure will have access to Extended Security Updates for both SQL Server 2012 and Windows Server 2012 and 2012 R2 for three years after the End of Support dates for no additional charge above the cost of running the virtual machine. Eligible customers will be able to purchase Extended Security Updates for their on-premises environment.
Azure Hybrid Benefit is a licensing benefit that helps you to significantly reduce the costs of running your Windows Server workloads in the cloud. It works by letting you use your on-premises Software Assurance-enabled Windows Server and SQL Server licenses on Azure. Get 180 days of dual-use rights between on-premises and the cloud.
Monitor, analyze, diagnose, and optimize database performance and DataOps that drive your business-critical applications. Unify on-premises and cloud database visibility, control, and management with streamlined monitoring, data integration, and tuning across multiple vendors.
Modernize your service desk with intelligent and automated ticketing, asset, configuration, and service-level agreement (SLA) management; a knowledge base; and a self-service portal with secure remote assistance. SolarWinds offers an easy-to-use IT service management (ITSM) platform designed to meet your service management needs to maximize productivity while adhering to ITIL best practices.
Ensure user experience with unified performance monitoring, tracing, and metrics across applications, clouds, and SaaS. Robust solutions offering rich visualization, synthetic and real user monitoring (RUM), and extensive log management, alerting, and analytics to expedite troubleshooting and reporting.
Reduce attack surface, manage access, and improve compliance with IT security solutions designed for accelerated time-to-value ranging from security event management, access rights management, identity monitoring, server configuration monitoring and patching, and secure gateway and file transfer.
When it comes to networking, Windows Server has become the standard. For the last 16 years, Microsoft has released a major version of Windows Server every four years and a minor version every two years. The minor versions can be recognized with the suffix R2. The Windows operating system is persistently updated to add new functionality to match the needs of today's users. Administrators need to understand how their server has evolved and upgraded. The list of all major and minor Microsoft Windows Server versions is as follows:
Windows Server performance monitoring refers to different processes through which you can accurately measure key metrics. With the basic built-in tools in Windows Server, you can analyze and troubleshoot common issues such as CPU, memory, hard disk, and more. However, you need third-party tools to monitor your Windows Server, measure critical metrics, and identify issues.
SolarWinds was founded by IT professionals solving complex problems in the simplest way, and we have carried that spirit forward since 1999. We take pride in relentlessly listening to our customers to develop a deeper understanding of the challenges they face. Our digital agility solutions are built to help companies of any size accelerate business transformation today and into the future.
This document explains how to install, configure and run Apache 2.4 under Microsoft Windows. If you have questions after reviewing the documentation (and any event and error logs), you should consult the peer-supported users' mailing list.
This document assumes that you are installing a binary distribution of Apache. If you want to compile Apache yourself (possibly to help with development or tracking down bugs), see Compiling Apache for Microsoft Windows.
The Apache HTTP Server Project itself does not provide binary releases of software, only source code. Individual committers may provide binary packages as a convenience, but it is not a release deliverable.
Apache is configured by the files in the conf subdirectory. These are the same files used to configure the Unix version, but there are a few different directives for Apache on Windows. See the directive index for all the available directives.
The default configuration of the source distribution expects the server to be installed into \Apache24. This can be customized at compilation time, but it's important that ultimately the ServerRoot in httpd.conf match the actual installation root. Binary distributions may customize either the default installation root or the overall layout of the initial configuration.
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