Windows2003 Server as a workstation OS?

[xenos500]

Originally posted by: spyordie007
I was actually looking to find out from twista since he is the one who's been posting most of the "server as a workstation" stuff.

BTW are you sure that's not 120 days?

-Spy

yea ok, 120 days

 

[Twista]

/end for real.

 

[stash]

What, now you're flaunting your piracy?

I'm not going to play license cop, and I really dont give a sh*t what you do, but don't brag about it here.

 

[bigshooter]

I'm running server 2k3 as a workstation primarily because I had downloaded it and didn't want to take the time to download winxp off msdn. I'm one of the fortunate few who who has a generous boss who ponied up for an MSDN subscription. I was having issues with my development/test XP box, the newest NVIDIA drivers hosed it (i've been known to play a game or two on it) and I had the cd readily available. I love it, it's fast (with a lot of services turned off) and stable. I haven't run into any areas where I would prefer having WinXP or even Win2k back on it. One of these days I'll probably replace my win2k domain with the box running as a Win2003 domain, but for right now I'm happy with a fast/stable work box.

 

[EeyoreX]

I love it, it's fast (with a lot of services turned off) and stable. I haven't run into any areas where I would prefer having WinXP

My Windows XP is fast and stable. And I disabled all of one service (the Messenger Service). I have experienced one blue screen. It was my fault, as I was attempting to use a driver that was bad. I've been running XP since it's release. With "a lot" of services turned off, you essentially already have Windows XP on it, so there is no need to prefer it I suppose.

\Dan

 

[PowerMacG5]

Originally posted by: Nothinman

EDIT: I would not reccomend making use of this feature unless you have your server on a very good UPS and make regular backups of important data (noting that your screenshot has it turned on under your install of Windows 2003 Server turned into XP Pro.). I would also reccommend against using this on your system drive on any hardware. Else a single loss of power, BSOD, or otherwise could result in system corruption.

I wouldn't worry about it that much, the only thing that might be problematic is the registry since if any of system hives get corrupted you can't boot but in the past that could happen just with normal usage and not many people got hit. Unless you have stability problems or very flakey power it's usually worth the risk, all the people using RAID 0 have a better chance of data loss and there's a lot of them around.

Well, one common thing that could be corrupted by having Write Caching enabled is an Active Directory database, but since these people are breaking the license agreement by using Windows Server 2003 as a Workstation, they are most likely not using AD.

Originally posted by: bigshooter
I'm running server 2k3 as a workstation primarily because I had downloaded it and didn't want to take the time to download winxp off msdn. I'm one of the fortunate few who who has a generous boss who ponied up for an MSDN subscription. I was having issues with my development/test XP box, the newest NVIDIA drivers hosed it (i've been known to play a game or two on it) and I had the cd readily available. I love it, it's fast (with a lot of services turned off) and stable. I haven't run into any areas where I would prefer having WinXP or even Win2k back on it. One of these days I'll probably replace my win2k domain with the box running as a Win2003 domain, but for right now I'm happy with a fast/stable work box.

So you spent the time to disable services and tweak Windows Server 2003 to be XP? I must applaud you for breaking the license agreement in two ways. You broke the MSDN license agreement, and you broke the EULA on Windows Server 2003. Windows Server 2003 with services turned off, is essentially Windows XP. I agree EeyoreX. I have been running XP since RC1 was released, and have never had a problem or a blue screen on my own boxes. I have seen Stop errors on other boxes, but they were not Windows fault, they were user error. I don't even bother disableing the Messenger service for home use, because it really doesn't use any of my cycles. Have fun breaking your license agreement.

 

[spyordie007]

Well, one common thing that could be corrupted by having Write Caching enabled is an Active Directory database, but since these people are breaking the license agreement by using Windows Server 2003 as a Workstation, they are most likely not using AD.

This is why the AD install disables write cashing during the install.

I currently have 2K3 server on 2 servers, both are DCs and one is also a database server. I have both of them on a good solid enterprise-level UPS but still dont want to risk runing them with the write cashe enabled (the last thing I need is corrupt databases). I guess I would rather have fast reliable SCSI drives with the write cashe disabled on my servers than slow less-reliable IDE drives with it enabled (horay for Fujitsu 15k MAS SCSI!).
However if they were something less prone to data loss such as web or file servers I would tend to agree with Nothinman's statement. I do however generally shy from running RAID-0 on my servers due to the lack of redundancy, for our file servers we use SCSI RAID-5 arrays with the write cashe enabled (the OS is not on the array) and the data is backed up daily.

So you spent the time to disable services and tweak Windows Server 2003 to be XP? I must applaud you for breaking the license agreement in two ways. You broke the MSDN license agreement, and you broke the EULA on Windows Server 2003. Windows Server 2003 with services turned off, is essentially Windows XP.

I doubt Microsoft is going to much care that he is using his licensed copy on a desktop machine rather than a dedicated server, but you are right in saying that what you end up with is more or less Win XP Pro. and that you really have nothing to gain by running 2K3 server on your desktop.

-Spy

 

[Nothinman]

Well, one common thing that could be corrupted by having Write Caching enabled is an Active Directory database, but since these people are breaking the license agreement by using Windows Server 2003 as a Workstation, they are most likely not using AD.

I even think that's being overly paranoid, unless the box is crash happy or the power is real flakey it shouldn't matter unless their caching algorithms randomly lose data.