* Windows Server 2003 goes headless
The Case of the Headless Server. Sounds like we might be talking about a decapitated waiter, but in reality it’s really about rack-mounted as well as blade servers – the kind with no attached monitor or keyboard.
Twenty years ago I didn’t have a server room. The server sat on a table in my office. Then we got a second server. Soon, there were computers and monitors, as well as keyboards and mice, all over my office. So we gave them their own office, which had better lighting and air conditioning than mine. We had nice racks with each server/monitor combination getting its own shelf usually with a keyboard tucked up next to it for easy access.
As server boxes got smaller, we realized that monitors and keyboards took up an inordinate amount of space for something that was rarely used. So we put in Keyboard-Video-Mouse (KVM) switches so we could share a keyboard/monitor/mouse among two or more servers. If you use KVM switches, how many times have you pressed “restart” on the wrong server?
Windows Server 2003 makes the need for keyboards, monitors and mice almost a thing of the past.
Expanding on the Remote Installation tools in Windows 2000 (which allowed you to install Win 2000 Professional remotely), Win 2K3 allows remote installation of the server software itself. In addition, each server includes a version of Terminal Services allowing across-the-wire management and control as if you were seated at the (presumably now nonexistent) keyboard.
Of course, if the server crashes (and that should happen less often, since Win 2K3 is much more robust), then Terminal Services won’t help. For that scenario, Microsoft has provided Emergency Management Services (EMS), a way to plug in a serial port based terminal device directly to the hardware to administer out-of-band, text based services that can resurrect (or safely restart) the server.
Of course, you will need special hardware for your headless servers. Most standard PCs still require a keyboard be plugged in before they will boot. Visit the Microsoft Server Appliance Kit (the official name for headless servers is the “server appliance”) at https://www.microsoft.com/windows/powered/serverappliances/ to learn more about the requirements of a headless server. Thoughtfully, there are even tools to convert your standard “needs-a-keyboard-monitor-and-mouse” computer to a headless server by disabling those things so they can’t even be used if they are attached (sounds like good security to me!).
