Microsoft Corp chose its TechEd 99 conference in Dallas, Texas, to begin establishing some of the high-end credentials it will need when it launches Windows 2000 Data Center, scheduled to ship between 60 to 90 days after Windows 2000 itself. Along with IBM Corp’s Cornhusker extensions to Microsoft Cluster Services, which extends NT clustering support up to eight nodes from the current two-node limit (CI No 3666), Microsoft announced on Friday the first stage of what it said would be multi-year agreement with Sequent Computer Systems Inc, to provide partitioning and workload management software integrate in with its Windows 2000 operating system.
Sequent, which has long had equivalent software for its Unix-based multiprocessor server range, has already developed Process Control, an application to enable an administrator to manage multiple applications across available system resources, and demonstrated it at TechEd on Friday. The application will be shipped as part of Windows 2000 Data Center rather than sold separately. It uses the new Job Object application programming interface provided by Microsoft to support management tools for such tasks as scheduling, memory allocation and processor configurations allocated to particular applications. Microsoft says the software will help users cut operational costs by consolidating multiple applications onto a single symmetrical multi-processor server.
Sequent says the deal fits nicely with its own strategy to deliver Windows for high-end systems using its mixed mode environment NUMAcenter machines, capable of supporting both Unix and NT on a single server. It points out it is now working on the development efforts for both Windows 2000 Data Center server and co-developing the Unix-based Project Monterey for Intel’s IA64 architecture.
At TechEd, Microsoft used a prototype Intel Pentium III Xeon server with eight processors and 8Gb of main memory – the first time it’s shown SQL Server 7 running beyond its previous 4Gb physical memory limit. Windows 2000 Data Center supports Intel’s PAE physical address extensions on 32-bit platforms, which enables support for up to 64Gb of physical memory, up 16 times over NT 4.0. PAE support is built into the Windows 2000 kernel, which reduces paging operations, and Advanced Windowing Extensions from Microsoft enable software developers to customize applications to support larger memory sizes. Microsoft said the technology would help customers to make a smoother transition over to Intel’s 64-bit processors.
Microsoft has put up white papers and a guide to best practices for high availability clustering on its website, and also plans to launch a new tool it calls Uptime today, for measuring system availability rates. Microsoft also expects to launch a COM+ load balancer in the future, and says there are third party management tools available from companies such as NuView Inc. It says it is working on a unified set of management tools for high-end systems, but these won’t appear with the initial versions of Data Center 2000. The standard version of Windows 2000 is still scheduled to ship by the end of the year, says Microsoft, which would set Data Center’s release for around March 2000.
