SEATTLE - Microsoft plans this summer to offer special licenses to users who want to run the Beta 2 version of the Longhorn Server operating system in specific roles within their networks.

The company said last week at its annual Windows Hardware Engineering Conference that it would offer Go Live licenses for Longhorn Server Beta 2 to subscribers of the Microsoft Developer Network and TechNet. The licenses would let those users run Longhorn Server Beta 2 and Internet Information Server (IIS) 7.0 in production. (Microsoft's beta licenses usually forbid testers from running the code in production environments.)

The company also detailed hardware error-checking features and security features, and said Longhorn would have a Beta 3 early next year. It did not say how the Go Live licenses would be constructed or what the cost would be, but it plans to restrict the rollouts to certain server functions or roles.

Microsoft is attacking the server operating system market from bottom to top with versions of Longhorn designed for everything from small businesses to data center deployments. The company says it hopes Longhorn will help continue 15 consecutive quarters of revenue growth in its server and tools business.

Longhorn has a new feature called Server Manager that lets administrators configure servers with only the components they need for specific tasks, such as file servicing, Web serving, DNS or DHCP. Server Manager includes 17 roles.

"In Beta 2 almost all the roles are enabled, but not all the pieces are there for every role," said Jeff Price, senior director for Windows Server Product Management. "Testers put the server through its paces for the deployment scenarios they want, but they can't go to production because of our licenses." Price said Microsoft is still working through what roles will be released first and would reveal more details at the company's annual TechEd conference scheduled for the week of June 12.

In addition to the Beta 2 rollout, Microsoft said the first release of Longhorn Server, slated for the second half of 2007, would be the last that comes in a 32-bit version. Starting with Longhorn Server R2 in 2009, the server will only ship in a 64-bit version. Microsoft is converting most of its application servers to the 64-bit platform, with SQL Server and Exchange 2007 leading the way. Price added that Microsoft was not revealing what features are planned for Longhorn R2.