Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 (SP2) was released today. SP2 includes a rollup of previous updates and fixes, as well as new features for both Server 2003 and Windows XP Pro x64. For details and to download the service pack, click here .
New features include:
- Windows Deployment Services (WDS), the new version of Remote Installation Services (RIS), which is a handy tool for anyone deploying Windows Vista.
- Scalable Networking Pack, which reduces OS-related bottlenecks associated with network packet processing. This functionality helps improve performance for workloads such as file storage, backup, Web serving, and media-streaming.
- Wi-Fi Protected Access 2, which simplifies connecting to Wi-Fi hotspots.
- New IPsec Filter Management reduces the IPsec filter set needed for managing a Server and Domain Isolation deployment. IPsec Filter Management reduces the number of filters from hundreds to as few as two.
- Firewall-per-port authentication lets you secure traffic between extranet environments and internal assets that are protected via IPsec domain isolation.
- Microsoft Management Console (MMC) 3.0, which included improved error handling.
- MSConfig enhancements, which gives you a single launching point for support tools to facilitate server diagnostics.
- Windows virtualization performance improvements for Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003 and for SQL Server