Microsoft Windows NT Server Enterprise Edition
The easiest operating system for your largest, and most mission critical enterprise servers
Evaluation Guide
A Guide to Evaluating Microsoft Windows NT Server, Enterprise Edition
Abstract
This guide provides overview information about Windows NT Server, Enterprise Edition, a new release of Windows NT Server which combines all of the integrated, comprehensive, easy capabilities of Windows NT Server with high availability, enhanced performance, and comprehensive services making it the most complete platform for today’s enterprise distributed applications.
For the latest information on Microsoft Windows NT Server, Enterprise Edition, visit www.microsoft.com/ntserver.
Microsoft Windows NT Server, Enterprise Edition Version 4.0
Introduction
Windows NT Server
4 GB RAM Tuning (4GT)
8-processor SMP license
Microsoft Cluster Server (MSCS)
Microsoft Transaction Server (MTS) version 1.1
Microsoft Message Queue Server (MSMQ)
Windows NT Server Enterprise Edition features at a glance
4 Gigabyte RAM Tuning
8-processor SMP License
Microsoft Cluster Server
Microsoft Cluster Server Benefits
High Availability
Easy Manageability
Comprehensive Application Support
Broad Industry Support
Clustering Defined
Why Clustering is Important
Clustering Example: Data Availability in the Retail Industry
Clustering Example: Scalability in the Financial Services Industry
Cluster Server Architecture
Microsoft Cluster Server Technical Architecture
How Clusters Maintain Availability
Resources and Groups
Microsoft BackOffice
Cluster Application Development
Microsoft Transaction Server
Lower-Cost Server Development
More Deployment Choices
Easier Management
Microsoft Message Queue Server
A Message Queuing Analogy
When to Use MSMQ
Example Uses of MSMQ
Key MSMQ Features and Benefits
Microsoft Windows NT Server, Enterprise Edition Version 4.0
Windows NT Server, Enterprise Edition is a new member of the Windows NT Server family designed to build on the benefits of Windows NT Server 4.0 adding enhanced performance & scalability, higher availability, and expanded services for developing enterprise applications. The product is made up of the following components:
Windows NT Server
The foundation of Windows NT Server Enterprise Edition, is Windows NT Server,
an integrated, comprehensive, and easy-to-use server operating system. Windows
NT Server provides fast file and print services, robust application support,
standards-based communications features, and complete Internet and intranet
functionality.
4 GB RAM Tuning (4GT)
With standard Windows NT Server, the per-process address limit is 2 gigabytes
(GB) of random access memory (RAM). The 4GT feature of Windows NT Server,
Enterprise Edition increases this limit to 3 GB without introducing new APIs.
The result is higher performance for applications working with large data sets.
8-processor SMP license
Licensed for use on up to 8-processor symmetric multiprocessing (SMP)
servers. (Up to 32-processor support is available from some vendors selling
original-equipment-manufacturer versions of Windows NT Server, Enterprise
Edition.)
Microsoft Cluster Server (MSCS)
MSCS, when run on a validated two-server cluster configuration, automatically
recovers from application or server failures to keep your data and applications
online. It also enables you to move workload for balancing loads and to unload
servers for planned maintenance without downtime.
Microsoft Transaction Server (MTS) version 1.1
MTS supports a powerful environment that makes it easier to develop and
deploy high performance, scalable, and robust enterprise, Internet, and intranet
applications. MTS defines an application programming model for developing
distributed component-based applications. It also provides a run-time
infrastructure for deploying and managing these applications. MTS 1.1 includes
MTS 1.0 plus MTS Service Pack 2A. The MTS Service Pack 2A includes a new client
configuration utility, support for "Cedar" type libraries, and bug fixes.
Microsoft Message Queue Server (MSMQ)
MSMQ is a fast store-and-forward service that enables applications running at
different times to communicate across heterogeneous networks and systems that
may be temporarily off line. Applications send messages to MSMQ, and MSMQ uses
queues of messages to ensure that the messages eventually reach their
destinations. MSMQ provides guaranteed message delivery, efficient routing,
security, and priority-based messaging.
Windows NT Server Enterprise Edition features at a
glance
The following table provides a brief list of features in Microsoft Windows NT Server Enterprise Edition.
Windows NT Server Enterprise Edition - Features At A Glance
| Feature | Description | |
| Performance & Scalability | ||
| 4 Gigabyte RAM Tuning | With standard Windows NT Server, the per-process address limit is 2 gigabytes (GB) of random access memory (RAM). The 4GT feature of Windows NT Server, Enterprise Edition increases this limit to 3 GB without introducing new APIs. The 4GT does this by reducing the potential RAM allocated to the Windows NT kernel from 2 GB to 1 GB | |
| 8-processor SMP License | Licensed for use on up to 8-processor symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) servers. (Up to 32-processor support is available from vendors selling original-equipment-manufacturer versions of Windows NT Server, Enterprise Edition.) | |
| Microsoft Cluster Server | ||
| Provides high availability | Quick, automatic recovery from server or application failures, usually in just seconds. | |
| Complete automatic failover & restart services | Automatically detects hardware and communications failures, recovers resources from failed servers, moves the IP address to the recovery server, restarts failed applications, and re-establishes client connections. | |
| Administrator can easily move applications to another server | Administrators can easily take a server offline for maintenance, permitting "rolling upgrades" of system & application software without interrupting services. | |
| Runs on standard server hardware | Runs on standard server hardware from a variety of vendors for choice and competitive pricing. Cluster Server does not require exotic, expensive interconnects – it can use standard Ethernet – but is also able to exploit faster standard interconnects such as Tandem ServerNet if available. | |
| No requirement that either server be in an idle “standby” mode | Both servers in the cluster are available to run productive work, so there is no wasted "spare" server waiting for a failure. | |
| Easy installation, setup, and administration | Fast, easy installation because Cluster Server is based on standard hardware and familiar Windows software. Easy setup and administration using Windows-based user interface. | |
| Requires little or no changes to existing services and applications | Automatic recovery is provided for file/print services and even for unmodified applications (using a point-and-click Wizard.) No coding is required for basic failover functions. | |
| Easy, cost-effective development of cluster-aware applications | Clustering API is an extension to the Win32 API, the most widespread client-server programming interface used today. Benefits: easy to learn, easy to find programmers, and large market opportunities for cluster-aware development. | |
| Microsoft Transaction Server | ||
| Accessible three-tier application model | Developers build distributed business
solutions from software components. Services separate network programming and server “plumbing” from business logic. Applications can be built as “single-user” but deployed as “multi-user.” |
|
| ActiveX language support | Transaction Server supports tools that produces ActiveX DLL’s, including Microsoft Visual C++, Microsoft Visual Basic, and Microsoft Visual J++. | |
| Two new APIs and two new interfaces | ActiveX developers already skilled in COM
have to learn only two new APIs to deploy solutions in the Transaction
Server run-time environment. Extensive knowledge of COM APIs and Win32 APIs is not required. Supports CoCreateInstance and Create Object, the two common ActiveX APIs used in Visual C++ and Visual Basic, respectively. |
|
| Automatic thread and process management | Developers do not have to create processes or threads as part of their application. | |
| Object instance management | Provides just-in-time object activation, allowing server resources to be used efficiently in high-performance applications. | |
| Component packaging | Packages provide an easy mechanism to collect components into a single application unit, with common security, management, and deployment characteristics. | |
| Database connection pool | Manages a pool of database connections that can be shared by multiple clients. | |
| Shared Property Manager | Multiple concurrent users can easily share global resources. | |
| Automatic transactions through DTC | Integration with the Microsoft Distributed
Transaction Coordinator provides a robust transaction management
infrastructure. This transaction processing infrastructure enables high-performance server applications. Transaction support is transparent to the programmer. |
|
| Process isolation | Administrators can configure components across systems processes for enhanced integrity. | |
| Distributed security service | Transaction Server leverages Windows NT security to control application access and use. | |
| Integration with DCOM | Developers and administrators can deploy distributed component applications using standard technology. | |
| Integration with Microsoft Internet Information Server | Developers can build distributed applications using HTML, HTTP, and Active Server Pages. | |
| Support for multiple databases and resource managers | The architecture supports multiple types of resource managers, including relational databases from different software vendors, file systems, and document storage systems. | |
| Integration with Microsoft SQL Server |
Microsoft SQL Server supports the OLE
Transactions two-phase commit protocol, for fast Transaction Server
applications. Integration of DTC with SQL Enterprise Manager provides common management for SQL Server and Transaction Server applications. |
|
| “Fat” and “thin” client support | Transaction Server applications can be accessed by Win32 “fat” clients and HTML “thin” clients at the same time. | |
| No client footprint | Client applications require no client libraries or client runtime. | |
| Dynamic configuration | New clients and servers can be dynamically added and dropped from a distributed application. | |
| Transaction Server Explorer | GUI management console Easier deployment, with the ability to:
Easier management, with the ability to:
|
|
| Microsoft Message Queue Server | ||
| ActiveX support | MSMQ provides a set of ActiveX components that implement a convenient application programming interface to all MSMQ features. ActiveX support makes it easy access MSMQ from Microsoft Transaction Server, Microsoft Internet Information Server and Active Server Pages, and a wide range of popular programming languages such as Microsoft’s Visual Basic®, Visual C++®, Visual J++™, and Microfocus Cobol. | |
| Guaranteed message delivery | MSMQ guarantees that messages will eventually be delivered even when networks go down, receiving applications are off-line, and when machines fail. This enables developers to focus on business logic and not on sophisticated error recovery programming. | |
| Transaction support | Application developers can include MSMQ operations within transactional units of work that contain other activities such as database updates. This ensures that MSMQ operations commit or abort along with other resources in a transaction to preserve data integrity. | |
| One time, in-order delivery | MSMQ can make sure that messages are delivered exactly one time, and that messages are delivered in the order that they were sent. If messages are delivered more than one time, or out of order, many different kinds of problems can occur within the receiving application. | |
| Message routing services | MSMQ will deliver messages using the ‘lowest cost’ route that is currently available. When networks fail, MSMQ automatically uses the ‘next lowest cost’ route to deliver messages. Routing eliminates single points of failure and provides additional resiliency. | |
| Dynamic configuration | The MSMQ Explorer provides a GUI-based interface for managing all machines in a MSMQ environment from a single point of control, and uses a directory service to maintain configuration information. This reduces the cost of administering an MSMQ environment because administrators in a central location can add, delete, move and manage queues dynamically. | |
| Integration with Windows NT Security | MSMQ controls access to queues by integrating tightly with the Windows NT Access Control List mechanism, and ensures message privacy and integrity by using the Windows Crypto API for message encryption and digital signatures. | |
| Notification services | MSMQ can notify sending applications that messages were received and processed, or that a message could not be processed correctly. This lets applications take the appropriate corrective action when failures occur. MSMQ can also journal messages automatically to provide audit trails of activity. | |
| Asynchronous RPC Support | MSMQ enables programmers to make one-way Microsoft RPC calls over MSMQ. With this feature, MSMQ delivers RPC requests to server applications asynchronously so that client applications can move on to other tasks without waiting for responses. | |
| Support for MAPI and Microsoft Exchange | Allows MAPI-based applications to interoperate with MSMQ applications, via the MSMQ MAPI Transport Provider and MSMQ Exchange Connector | |
Applications developed for the Windows NT Server platform continue to grow both in terms of size and performance demands. For applications that are I/O intensive, such as database management systems (DBMS), the use of a larger process space can provide considerable performance benefits as time-intensive I/O access to media is reduced. This can result in improvements of 20% or more in throughput as measured by tests such as the Transaction Processing Council TPC-C benchmark.
With the current Windows NT Server product, the per-process address limit is 2 GB. The 4GT feature increases this limit to 3 GB without introducing new APIs. This is done by reducing the potential RAM allocated to the Windows NT kernel from 2 GB to 1 GB.
This feature benefits applications that run on powerful machines with more
than 2 GB of physical RAM and that can take advantage of a larger address space.
Windows NT Server, Enterprise Edition supports 4GT on Intel Architecture servers. Microsoft is developing a very large memory (VLM) technology for 64-bit processors, such as the Digital Alpha and Intel Merced, which will be included in Windows NT Server 5.0. VLM and 4GT are mutually exclusive since they employ different algorithms. Note that 4GT works only on 32-bit processors, so it does not increase the addressable memory of Windows NT Server beyond its current limit of 4 GB. In contrast, VLM will exploit the 64-bit architecture of processors like Digital Alpha to support up to 32 GB of addressable memory, a potential eight-fold improvement for memory-intensive applications.
No new APIs are required for 4GT support. However, it would be ineffective to automatically provide every application with a 3 GB address space. To provide a selective use of 4GT, executables that must see the 3 GB address space are required to have the bit IMAGE_FILE_LARGE_ADDRESS_AWARE set in their image header. This can be done using the Imagecfg tool that is included in the \Support directory on the Windows NT Server, Enterprise Edition compact disc. For example, to modify the target file DBMSApp.exe:
Imagecfg -l DBMSApp.exe
Note that the linker also has a new switch (/ LARGEADDRESSAWARE) to link executables with the IMAGE_FILE_LARGE_ADDRESS_AWARE bit. Setting this bit and then running the application on a system that does not have 4GT support should not affect the application.
Windows NT Server Enterprise Edition is licensed for use on up to 8-processor symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) servers. Windows NT is designed to use up to 32 processors. Up to 32-processor support is available from vendors selling original-equipment-manufacturer versions of Windows NT Server, Enterprise Edition on systems, which contain additional CPUs.
Microsoft Cluster Server (MSCS) is a product that provides maximum availability of applications and other resources to clients on a network. Using Cluster Server, you can ensure that when a computer running Windows NT Server on your network experiences problems or must be taken down for maintenance, another server will be there to continue client operations where the first server left off. Unlike other solutions, which require administrators to script failure recovery policies for individual applications and devices, Cluster Server permits graphical setup and automatically manages the policies of whole groups of resources at the operating-system level.
Microsoft Cluster Server Benefits
Automatic detection of failures
Automatic recovery from failures
Minimal user impact
Fast cluster setup
Simple definition of “virtual servers”
Graphical management of server workload
Comprehensive Application Support
“In the box” support
Support for non-cluster-aware applications
Platform for cluster-aware applications
Microsoft is working with the following partners in who are developing Cluster Server-compatible clusters, which will be available, when Cluster Server releases.
Other system vendors announcing plans to offer Cluster Server clusters in 1997:
Microsoft is committed to providing a computing platform specifically designed for today’s enterprise business applications, while anticipating the needs of the most demanding information systems of tomorrow. To meet these diverse requirements, Microsoft is has worked with leading technology vendors that provide increased availability and scalability of Information Technology (IT) services through clustering technology.
Many enterprise customers now use clustering technology to provide greater availability and scalability for their high-end mission-critical applications such as customer order entry. However, these clustering solutions are complex, difficult to configure, and use expensive proprietary hardware. Microsoft and its industry partners are working to bring the benefits of clustering technology to mainstream client/server computing.
In broad terms, a cluster is a group of independent systems working together as a single system. A client interacts with a cluster as though it is a single server. When a system in the cluster fails, the cluster software responds by dispersing the work from the failed system to the remaining systems in the cluster.
It is estimated that system downtime costs U.S. businesses $4.0 billion per year[1]. The average downtime event results in a $140,000 loss in the retail industry and a $450,000 loss in the securities industry[2]. Clustering promises to minimize downtime by providing an architecture that keeps systems running in the event of a system failure. Clustering also gives organizations the ability to set up separate servers as a single computing facility, thus providing flexibility for future installation growth.
Clustering Example: Data Availability in the Retail Industry
The point-of-sales system is the heartbeat of any retail operation. It provides critical ongoing access to the store’s database of products, codes, names, and prices. If the point-of-sale system fails, cashiers cannot log sales and the operation loses money, customers, and its reputation for quality service.
In this case, clustering technology can deliver high system availability. The clustering solution would allow a pair of servers to access the multi-port storage devices (Disk Array) on which the database resides. In the event of a server failure[3] on Server 1, the workload is automatically moved to Server 2 and end-users are switched over to the new server—with no operator intervention and minimal downtime. Note that the disk array itself can be protected by the fault-tolerant disk technology built into Windows NT Server. The addition of clustering technology means that the overall system remains online.
Figure 1: Retail branch before failure
Figure 2: Retail branch during failure
Clustering Example: Scalability in the Financial
Services Industry
It has been said that a chief information officer’s two greatest fears are system success and system failure. If a system fails, the CIO’s staff is inundated with complaints. Conversely, if a system is successful, usage demands tend to outstrip the capacity of the system as it grows.
Clustering can greatly minimize system downtime. In addition, clustering can also help Information Technology (IT) departments design systems that can grow with the demands of an organization.
For example, billions of dollars have been poured into mutual funds companies in recent years. Although this type of growth is positive in financial terms, the technological burden of managing the corresponding information systems growth can be overwhelming. As a result, chief information officers and their staffs must develop systems that not only meet current system demand, but also provide for future system growth. Formerly, the system choices were rather limited: extremely expensive mainframes and minicomputers.
Windows NT Server clustering can provide a competitive advantage for the IT department. This technology allows faster system deployment, automatic re-tasking and easier maintenance with smaller staffs—all while using inexpensive PC components. These components are available from multiple sources, which not only ensures competitive pricing, but also ensures parts availability. Consequently, IT departments can incrementally expand their hardware without the burden of single-supplier shortages.
Clustering technology also gives IT departments greater flexibility. Multiple servers can be tied together in one system, and additional servers can be integrated into the system as usage requirements dictate. Windows NT Server clustering gives a choice to system architects that they have never enjoyed before—availability and scalability on inexpensive, mainstream platforms.
Microsoft Cluster Server is based on the concept of clusters. A cluster is a pair of computers, called nodes, both running Windows NT Server and Cluster Server. These two servers appear to the rest of the network as a single entity: a powerful, highly available “virtual” server. Clients connect to a cluster without knowing which computer is actually distributing their services.
Clusters provide high availability by detecting hardware and software malfunctions and automatically shifting data and processing to healthy nodes. Because a cluster is identified on the network as a single entity, services can move between nodes and whole nodes can even be replaced, all while clients continue to see only one server.
A typical cluster
A cluster is made up of the following components:
The SCSI-attached disks contain the data required by the applications running on either node. Some SCSI-attached disks called quorum disks, also store data used to manage the cluster.
Both nodes in a cluster must connect to the following two network types:
Microsoft Cluster Server Technical Architecture
How Clusters Maintain Availability
Microsoft Cluster Server uses a process called fail-over to provide highly available services to all clients on your network. Fail-over is the process of transferring control of one or more client resources (applications, disks, print spoolers, and so on) from one node to another.
When a node fails, certain applications, disks, and other client resources in use by that computer “fail-over” to the other cluster node. When a node fails, clients using cluster resources either see no change in activity or else need to reconnect, depending on the resources they are using. When the failing node is replaced or returned to working condition, some or all of the same resources can “fail-back,” which means that they are transferred back to the control of the original computer.
As a cluster administrator, you decide the fail-over behavior for all resources in a cluster. You control these behaviors using Cluster Administrator. Cluster Administrator is a graphical console you can use either from one of the nodes or from another computer running Windows NT Server or Workstation to perform various cluster management tasks.
Microsoft Cluster Server clusters are populated by various resources. A resource is any physical or logical entity that is used to provide a service to clients of the cluster, such as an application or SCSI-attached disk.
Resources run on only one node at a time. Each node in a typical cluster is responsible for hosting a certain number of resources. When a node or resource fails, Cluster Server transfers some resources to the other node, and maintains their availability to clients. Depending on what operations the clients were performing, they might see minimal interruption or they might need to reconnect to the cluster.
Several basic types of resources are supported with the Cluster Server Beta 1 software:
In addition to these types, if you use the Cluster Server SDK you can add custom types to this list.
Cluster features will be integrated into existing Windows NT Server system management tools to enable system administrators who are already familiar with Windows NT Server systems to easily setup and configure their clusters. The initial product will include base operating system support for clusters, including components to configure, maintain, and monitor membership in the cluster, support for a cluster-wide name-space, communication, and fail-over support. Additional services will support the two primary cluster software models. As with all of the distributed services provided by Windows NT Server, ease of setup and cluster management tools will be a very high priority.
The Microsoft BackOffice family of products, such as Microsoft SQL Server™ and Microsoft Exchange Server, will initially be enhanced to support the cluster’s fail-over capability. Later releases of BackOffice will exploit the scalability aspects of cluster technology. SQL Server is planned to support a partitioned data model and parallel execution to take full advantage of the shared nothing environment.
Cluster Application Development
Microsoft development tools will be enhanced to support the easy creation of cluster-aware applications. Facilities will be provided for automatic fail-over of applications. It is also important to note that not all server applications will need to be cluster-aware to take advantage of cluster benefits. Applications that build on top of cluster-aware core applications, such as large commercial database packages (such as an accounting or financial database application on top of SQL Server), will benefit automatically from cluster enhancements made to the underlying application (such as SQL Server). Many server applications that take advantage of database services, client/server connection interaction, Internet/intranet web publishing, and file and print services will benefit from clustering technology without application changes.
The growth of the Internet and distributed computing will increase the demand for businesses to deploy solutions on servers. The Internet has grown into a widely- used environment for publishing and sharing information online. Businesses can achieve an even greater return on their online systems by moving beyond document sharing to running actual business functions online. Instead of simply publishing sales reports and product catalogs, businesses can operate accounting systems and order-entry systems on servers, with users accessing the shared business functions from browsers and desktop systems. This new environment of online solutions will require shared business applications running on servers.
Historically, there has been a problem with this vision. Building and deploying shared applications running on servers is much harder than on desktop systems. Server applications require a sophisticated infrastructure that is costly to develop and difficult to maintain. Server applications need to be more reliable than desktop applications, because the impact of system failure or data corruption on a server can effect an entire business, not just a single user. Server applications need to be as easy to deploy and maintain as desktop applications, without requiring special training or a costly infrastructure.
To solve these problems, Microsoft has developed Transaction Server, a product that combines the flexibility and low cost of desktop applications with the mission-critical transaction processing features normally found in high-end mainframe systems. Microsoft® Transaction Server is a component-based transaction processing system for developing, deploying, and managing high performance, scalable, and robust enterprise, Internet, and intranet server applications. Transaction Server defines an application programming model for developing distributed component-based applications. It also provides a run-time infrastructure for deploying and managing these applications.
Microsoft Transaction Server provides the easiest way to run scalable, robust applications on the Windows NT® Server operating system.
Microsoft Transaction Server delivers a series of “plumbing” features to drive down the complexity and cost of building applications on the server. These features enable developers to focus on building business logic without having to build an application infrastructure. The result is shorter development time, less complex programming, and easier deployment and integration.
Easier development only solves part of the problem that businesses will face with online server applications. Applications need to run reliably and recover from failures accurately. Otherwise, records can be corrupted and business disrupted. The type of reliability and transaction processing features that have been running on mainframe applications for twenty-five years are essential for the new generation of online application servers. Transactions are to application servers what brakes are to cars.
Easier development and mainframe-class reliability have limited benefits if businesses are forced to deploy the applications in rigid, static configurations. Transaction Server is designed for flexibility, providing businesses with lots of deployment choices based on their existing systems and continuously changing requirements.
Businesses have learned that the costs of deploying and managing a distributed application can far exceed the costs of developing and acquiring it. Transaction Server has been designed from the ground up to lower the costs and complexity of distributed applications by providing easier management.
Transaction Server Explorer: Transaction Server includes an integrated GUI management system, the Transaction Server Explorer that provides point-and-click wizards for component, package, transaction, security, and performance configuration and administration. Compared to traditional TP Monitors and Object Request Brokers, the Transaction Server Explorer represents a significant breakthrough in terms of ease-of-installation and management for server applications.
Microsoft Message Queue Server
Microsoft Message Queue Server (MSMQ), also known by its code name Falcon, makes it easy for application programs to communicate with other application programs quickly, reliably and asynchronously by sending and receiving messages. MSMQ offers a wide range of powerful and innovative features that are tightly integrated with the Windows® 95 and Windows NT® operating system platforms. MSMQ also offers interoperability with other key platforms and applications, such as IBM’s CICS and MQSeries, via products from Level 8 Systems.
MSMQ provides an easy way for applications to communicate with other applications over a network by sending and receiving messages. MSMQ messages can contain data in any format that makes sense to both the sender and the receiver. When an application receives a request message, it processes the request by reading the contents of the message and acting accordingly. If required, the receiving application can send a response message back to the original requestor.
While in transit between senders and receivers, MSMQ keeps messages in holding areas called queues – hence the name message queuing. MSMQ queues protect messages from being lost in transit and provide a place for receivers to look for new messages when they are ready. Most important, applications can use MSMQ to send messages and continue processing regardless of whether the receiving application is running or reachable over the network. The receiver may be unreachable because of a problem, or naturally disconnected, as is the case with the applications used by remote or mobile users. Whenever the network becomes available or the receiving application is ready to process requests, MSMQ will deliver any waiting messages – with the reliability required by mission-critical applications.
MSMQ offers a wide range of other features such as ActiveX™ support, dynamic routing and configuration, multiple delivery and acknowledgment options and integration with Windows NT security facilities -- making MSMQ the message queuing product of choice for applications running on Windows 95 and Windows NT. While focused on Windows 95 and Windows NT, MSMQ is also interoperable with other important platforms and products -- via products from Level 8 Systems.
A comparison of telephone conversations and electronic mail exchanges provides a good analogy. With a telephone conversation, callers can exchange information immediately and quickly. The telephone is much less useful, however, when one of the two parties cannot be contacted. The telephone line may have become severed, the other party may be busy doing other tasks, or simply out to lunch. In any case, the calling party must continue to dial the receiver periodically in order to deliver an important message. In the case of electronic mail, the calling party could simply send an e-mail and move on with other tasks, knowing that the receiver will eventually get the message and act appropriately. Of course, what makes e-mail a viable alternative to the telephone is the knowledge that messages will be delivered reliably and receivers will eventually read their mail and perform any required actions. Message queuing is like electronic mail, except senders and receivers are application programs instead of people – and messages are data instead of electronic letters.
MSMQ fundamentally is a product for asynchronous communication. The types of communication scenarios where MSMQ is likely to offer value include:
Key MSMQ Features and Benefits
The version of MSMQ included with Windows NT Server 4.0, Enterprise Edition differs from the version included in Windows NT Server 4.0, Standard Edition in 3 ways. In the standard edition, a single MSMQ server will accept no more than 25 concurrent MSMQ client connections, cost-based routing will not be supported and the MSMQ Connector will not be provided. The MSMQ Connector is required by some interoperability products such as Level 8 Systems bridge to IBM’s MQSeries. The standard version of MSMQ is expected to begin shipping with Windows NT Server 4.0 Standard Edition, and become available to existing registered users of Windows NT Server 4.0 – Standard Edition, later in 1997.
© 1997 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
The information contained in this document represents the current view of Microsoft Corporation on the issues discussed as of the date of publication. Because Microsoft must respond to changing market conditions, it should not be interpreted to be a commitment on the part of Microsoft, and Microsoft cannot guarantee the accuracy of any information presented after the date of publication.
This White Paper is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED IN THIS DOCUMENT.
Microsoft, the BackOffice logo, Visual Basic, Visual C++, Windows, and Windows NT are registered trademarks and ActiveX and Visual J++ are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.
Other product or company names mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.
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