Microsoft touts heavy-duty Win 2000

DALLAS - Microsoft last week began snapping together the pieces that the company hopes will help build the Windows 2000 operating system into a mainstay of mission-critical computing.

At the company's TechEd '99 conference, Microsoft detailed clustering, server consolidation, large memory and workload management technologies for the DataCenter version of Windows 2000. The technologies address availability and reliability requirements for the next iteration of Windows NT.

DataCenter is Microsoft's high-end version of Windows 2000 and is targeted for the core of corporate computing infrastructures, which is a new realm for the company. DataCenter will be released some 90 to 120 days after the shipment of another version, called Advanced, due later this year.

"If we make a mistake with Windows 2000, it's a disaster, so we're not going to make a mistake," said Brian Valentine, vice president of NT development, during a keynote address at the event.

With that attitude in mind, Microsoft joined IBM in demonstrating clustering technology for IBM's Netfinity servers that extends NT 4.0 clustering from four to eight nodes. IBM used the Microsoft Cluster Service (MSCS) API to develop what it is calling Netfinity Availability Extensions for MSCS, which IBM will ship this summer. The technology also is being adapted for DataCenter.

Microsoft, which has only tested four-node clustering for DataCenter, is keeping an eye on IBM and others.

"Hardware vendors that want to test multinode on their platforms will have to show complete compatibility with our API," says Michel Gambier, product manager for NT server. "We will closely monitor that."

Microsoft also plans to certify hardware for DataCenter to ensure compatibility with the operating system.

"We need to hear more about clustering advancements, and we definitely want Microsoft to test and certify hardware," says Steve Dunlap, president of Digitech Solutions, which plans to use Windows 2000 to support Web hosting services.

In addition to IBM, NuView used TechEd '99 to unveil its Cluster X for Windows Load Balancing Services. The technology also supports MSCS and lets network administrators manage multiple clusters from a single console.

Microsoft used the event to highlight DataCenter's large memory capacity and its ability to support multiple application servers on a single box. Using an eight-processor Pen-tium III machine with 8G bytes of RAM, DataCenter was able to support three instances of SQL Server during a demonstration. It was the first public display using Intel's Physical Address Extension technology, which supports large memory stores. Microsoft officials say memory gains will help simplify management.

Also, Microsoft and Sequent introduced the Process Control Tool, a workload management utility that lets users assign server resources.

The tool, which will be included free with DataCenter, is based on the Java Object API and allows computing resources to be reserved or assigned to certain processes. Process Control Tool also allows groups of processes to be tied to specific processors.