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The minimum system requirements for Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition are as follow: Minimum supported processor speed — 133 MHz. Minimum recommended processor speed — 550 MHz. Maximum number of CPUs supported per Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition server — 4. Minimum amount of supported RAM — 128 MB.
Review the table on this page to determine the minimum and recommended system requirements needed to run Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition, Enterprise Edition, Datacenter Edition, and Web Edition.
- Overview
- Processor
- RAM
- Storage controller and disk space requirements
- Network adapter requirements
- Other requirements
This article outlines the minimum hardware requirements to run Windows Server. If your computer has less than the minimum requirements, you will not be able to install this product correctly. Actual requirements will vary based on your system configuration and the applications and features you install.
Unless otherwise specified, these minimum hardware requirements apply to all installation options (Server Core and Server with Desktop Experience) and both Standard and Datacenter editions.
Important
The highly diverse scope of potential deployments makes it unrealistic to state recommended hardware requirements that would be generally applicable. Consult documentation for each of the server roles you intend to deploy for more details about the resource needs of particular server roles. For the best results, conduct test deployments to determine appropriate hardware requirements for your particular deployment scenarios.
Processor performance depends not only on the clock frequency of the processor, but also on the number of processor cores and the size of the processor cache. The following are the processor requirements for this product:
Minimum:
•1.4 GHz 64-bit processor
•Compatible with x64 instruction set
•Supports NX and DEP
•Supports CMPXCHG16b, LAHF/SAHF, and PrefetchW
The following are the estimated RAM requirements for this product:
Minimum:
•512 MB (2 GB for Server with Desktop Experience installation option)
•ECC (Error Correcting Code) type or similar technology, for physical host deployments
Important
If you create a virtual machine with the minimum supported hardware parameters (1 processor core and 512 MB RAM) and then attempt to install this release on the virtual machine, Setup will fail.
Computers that run Windows Server must include a storage adapter that is compliant with the PCI Express architecture specification. Persistent storage devices on servers classified as hard disk drives must not be PATA. Windows Server does not allow ATA/PATA/IDE/EIDE for boot, page, or data drives.
The following are the estimated minimum disk space requirements for the system partition.
Minimum: 32 GB
Note
Be aware that 32 GB should be considered an absolute minimum value for successful installation. This minimum should allow you to install Windows Server 2022 using the Server Core installation option, with the Web Services (IIS) server role. A server in Server Core mode is about 4 GB smaller than the same server using the Server with Desktop Experience installation option.
The system partition will need extra space for any of the following circumstances:
Network adapters used with this release should include these features:
Minimum:
•An ethernet adapter capable of at least 1 gigabit per second throughput
•Compliant with the PCI Express architecture specification.
A network adapter that supports network debugging (KDNet) is useful, but not a minimum requirement.
A network adapter that supports the Pre-boot Execution Environment (PXE) is useful, but not a minimum requirement.
Computers running this release also must have the following:
•DVD drive (if you intend to install the operating system from DVD media)
The following items are only required for certain features:
•UEFI 2.3.1c-based system and firmware that supports secure boot
•Trusted Platform Module
•Graphics device and monitor capable of Super VGA (1024 x 768) or higher-resolution
Windows Server 2003, codenamed "Whistler Server", is the sixth version of the Windows Server operating system produced by Microsoft. It is part of the Windows NT family of operating systems and was released to manufacturing on March 28, 2003 [14] and generally available on April 24, 2003. [15]
- Service Pack 2 (5.2.3790.3959) / March 13, 2007; 16 years ago
- Windows Server
Oct 6, 2010 · A: R2 is primarily designed to combine the gold version of Windows Server 2003 with Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 (SP1) and the various out-of-band updates, now called Feature Packs, that Microsoft has shipped since Windows 2003 was first released. According to Microsoft, these Feature Packs include: Active Directory Application Mode (ADAM).
- Paul Thurrott
Recommendation and Reasoning. CPU. 133MHz. Dual processor with fastest available processor and bus speeds. Processors with larger L1 and L2 cache may improve performance for some applications through Terminal Services and should be tested thoroughly to determine the benefits.
Server Hardware Requirements. Windows Server 2003 requires a minimum hardware configuration to run. As with all software—particularly network operating systems—the more you exceed the minimum requirements in areas such as RAM, processor speed, and hard drive space, the faster the server supplies services to network users and the greater the number of roles one server can fill on the network.
