What's New in Windows Server 2003 and ProLiant Architecture and Tools · · · · · 70 NIC:Network Interface Controller info (adapters, type, version, and so on). NTDOMAIN:Domain information (domain name, site name, DC name and address). PAGEFILE:Pagefile data (current usage, location, peak usage). IRQ:IRQ assignments, including a status of each. QFE:Be careful! This lists all the hotfixes, security updates, and so on installed on the system, which is quite a lengthy list on most systems. Beyond the basics, there are WMI service providers that permit you to gather information about the Windows infrastructure, such as AD and DNS. You can execute some fairly complex commands to extract information. My first introduction to WMI was by a colleague, Frank Blando, who authored Chapter 13, "High Availabiltiy in Windows Server 2003," and the "Windows Management Instru- mentation (WMI)" section of Chapter 10 of this book. In his demo, Frank had concocted a very long WMI command and executed it. This command ran the Cluster Administrator, extracted information from it, formatted it in HTML format, saved the HTML file to the wwwroot directory, and then re- freshed the data every five minutes. He could then use a browser to view the cluster data. Setting this up on an internal or even an external server would allow you to monitor cluster events without messing with the snap-in and event logs. It was quite impressive. Realize that these APIs are the same ones called by any other tool, but now you have some easy ways of customizing them. Some of the available providers include · · · · Active Directory Provider:MicrosoftActiveDirectory Trust Health Provider:MicrosoftHealthMonitor DNS Provider:MicrosoftDNS Cluster:MSCluster A more extensive description and code samples are provided in Chapter 10. New Features in ProLiant Architecture and Tools Since the mid-sixties, the de-facto standard for the rate of increase in processing power has been "Moore's Law." Today, next-generation processors are powering servers to a new era of exponential increase in performance. ProLiant Servers are stepping up the pace with new processor technology called x86 Extensions. The Opteron Processor from AMD (Advanced Micro Devices) and Xeon Processors with EM64T (Extended Memory 64-bit Technology) from Intel bring new processor power and technology to ProLiant. In addition to these new processors for ProLiant, this section highlights some of the new features and technologies in ProLiant Servers, Server Options, and ProLiant Essentials Software that com- plement the features found in Window Server 2003. New x86 Processors from AMD and Intel with 64 bit Extensions Throughout its life, the X86 processor architecture has been extended many times. One of the most exciting new developments for Industry Standard Servers is the latest extension to the platform. The updated architecture is based on 64-bit extensions to the industry-standard x86 instruction set, allowing today's 32-bit applications to run natively on 64-bit extended processors such as the AMD Opteron and the Intel Xeon with Intel Extended Memory 64 Technology (EM64T). At the same time, new 64-bit applications are executed in 64-bit mode, which processes more data per clock cycle, allows greater access to memory breaking the four gigabyte memory barrier, and speeds numeric calculations. The end result is a platform that leverages the existing wealth of 32-bit applications while also providing a smooth migration path to 64-bit computing.