Windows NT

Windows NT Server Operating System

Shutdown System

STOP 0x00000050 in Srv.sys when shutting down due to shutdown handler.

Cause:

After you log onto a computer running Windows NT Workstation and then immediately shut down the system, you may receive a STOP: 0x00000050 in Srv.sys. This behavior occurs because a shutdown handler was registered by Srv.sys and runs after Srv.sys has already been unloaded from the system. This occurs most frequently on multiprocessor computers which have more than one network card.

Solution:

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Windows NT version 4.0. This problem was corrected in the latest Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 U.S. Service Pack.

Services not closed properly during forced shutdown due to not enough time.

Cause:

Windows NT services are forced to terminate immediately during shutdown. Therefore some of these services are not closed properly. For example, a UPS power outage may force an immediate shutdown while the services are running; they cannot properly close in less than 20 seconds (forced shutdown time interval).

Solution:

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Windows NT Workstation. No workaround exists.

Wacom tablet driver does not unload at system shutdown due to old drivers.

Cause:

Older versions of Wacom's tablet drivers (Wacomkey.exe) are not designed to operate with Windows NT 4.0.

Solution:

Contact Wacom for updated versions of the drivers.

 

Windows NT hangs on shutdown with certain PCMCIA devices due to NT problem.

Cause:

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem with Windows NT 4.0. No further cause information is available.

MOM Settings Not Saved During Windows NT Shut Down

The information in this article applies to:

·        Microsoft Office for Windows, versions 4.0, 4.2, 4.3

·        Microsoft Windows NT, version 3.1

 

 

Windows NT Startup boot menu does not

  appear due to startup configuration.

 

  Cause:

The system startup is configured to boot Windows NT without displaying the Startup boot menu.

 

 Solution:

  Open the Control Panel and double-click the 'System' icon. Click the 'Startup/Shutdown'

  tab and enter a number greater than zero in the 'Show list for' box.

 

       1) Open the Control Panel.

          * Click 'Start' on the Windows taskbar. (The 'Start' menu appears.)

* Select 'Settings' and select 'Control Panel'. (The 'Control Panel' window appears.) 

       2) Double-click the 'System' icon. (The 'System Properties' dialog box appears.)

       3) Click the 'Startup/Shutdown' tab.

       4) Select the desired startup operating system in the 'Startup' drop-down list box in

            the 'System Startup' group.

       5) Enter a number greater than zero in the 'Show list for' box.

       6) Click 'OK'.

 

 INFORMATION

 

  The configuration on the controller card needs to be set to less than one gigabyte (GB).

  Consult the manual or OEM regarding configuration settings.

 

  Keywords          :

  Version           : 3.50 3.51

  Platform          : WINDOWS

  Issue type        :

 

Serial Printers May Print Garbage During

   Windows NT Startup

 

 

  WORKAROUND

 

  To work around this problem, make sure that the power is off on the printer before you

  start Windows NT. After Windows NT is loaded, then turn the printer back on.

 

  You can also specify "/noserialmice:com(n)" on the BOOT.INI file.

 

  STATUS

  Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Windows NT version 3.1 and Windows 

  NT Advanced Server version 3.1. This problem has been corrected in the latest U.S. 

  Service Pack for Windows NT and Windows NT Advanced Server version 3.1. For  

  information on obtaining the Service Pack, query on the following word in the 

  Microsoft Knowledge Base (without the spaces):

SYMPTOMS

 

  After installing Windows NT 4.0 on a Toshiba laptop computer, you may receive error

  messages involving the Scivdd.dll file when you start your computer. These error 

  messages may be similar to:

 

       X m. An installable Virtual Device Driver Failed Dll

       initialization.

 

       16 bit Windows Subsystem

       Hidden Console of WOW VDM

       An installable Virtual Device Driver failed Dll initialization.

       Choose 'Close' to terminate the application.

 

The problem occurs because the Scivdd.dll file is hard coded to look for other DLLs in  

  The Winnt\System32 folder. When they are not found, the DLL does not load and you 

  receive the error message.

 

 

 MORE INFORMATION

  This problem can affect all 16-bit programs run under Windows NT. This includes not 

  Only character-based programs, but 16-bit Windows-based programs as well.

 

  The third-party product discussed in this article is manufactured by a vendor 

  Independent of Microsoft; we make no warranty, implied or other- wise, regarding this

  product's performance or reliability.

 

 

Dual-booting Windows NT and Windows 95

 

 If you've tried it before, you're likely aware that dual-booting Windows NT and Windows 95 can be a messy situation, particularly if you're working with a PC that's already running Windows NT. Configuring an x86 PC to boot multiple operating systems must be done very methodically to avoid potential problems. In this article, we'll help you prepare your Windows NT partition for dual-booting. We'll also show you how to successfully configure your PC to boot both Windows NT and Windows 95.

 

 The details of dual-booting

 

 Both Windows NT and Windows 95 are full-featured operating systems; therefore they're unable to anticipate the other's presence. Each operating system uses one or more file systems to organize data within its volumes, but the only file system that they both recognize is FAT. Therefore, before configuring your system, you'll have to decide whether you want to give up the advanced security features of Windows NT's NTFS file system and the storage advantages of Windows 95's FAT32.

 

 An NT Partition Boot Sector will support one or more instances of Windows NT and one additional operating system. Therefore, you could potentially have Windows NT 3.51, Windows NT 4.0, and Windows 95 all booting from the same system partition. Windows NT also allows you to triple-boot Windows NT, Windows 95, and MS-DOS from a single Windows NT Partition Boot Sector. If you wanted to install more operating systems, you'd have to change the system partition.   

 

 

 The steps

 

 When installing both Windows NT and Windows 95 to boot from the same system partition, it's best to install Windows 95 first and then Windows NT. When Windows NT is installed first, you can run into difficulties if the Windows 95 installation replaces the Windows NT Partition Boot Sector with its own. However, the most likely scenario is that you already have Windows NT installed and you want to add Windows 95. If this is true, you must first configure Windows NT to dual-boot with MS-DOS before

 installing Windows 95.

 

 Configuring Windows NT and MS-DOS

 

 When installing MS-DOS on a Windows NT system partition, MS-DOS overwrites the  Windows NT Partition Boot Sector with its own information. Therefore, make sure you have the repair disk on hand when completing this procedure so you can restore the Windows NT partition.

 

To install MS-DOS, simply boot from the A drive with your MS-DOS installation disks  and the Setup program will launch. Follow the onscreen instructions for installing the program, and remove the floppy disks when complete.

 

 Restoring the Windows NT Boot Sector

 

Once MS-DOS is completely installed, replace the MS-DOS Partition Boot Sector with the Windows NT Partition Boot Sector. To do so, boot the PC with the Windows NT Setup boot disk. When prompted, insert Setup disk 2 and the Windows NT Setup displays the list of Setup options shown in A.

 

 

Settings in the Startup Group

 

   MORE INFORMATION

 

  There are procedures below for selecting and restoring Performance Monitor window

  settings and view each time you start Windows NT. Before following them, however,

  consider the following:

 

   While there is a way to cause the log file to start automatically, you may want to plan

   carefully before configuring a log file to begin at Windows NT start-up. The log file 

   increases in size very quickly, and you could easily begin to use up too much disk  

   space. If that is not your concern, then you can save the workspace as described below  

   while the log file is actually collecting data ( i.e. running). Therefore when the 

  Workspace setting file is opened, it will also be running.

 

 

Normal Use

 

Memory Management

 

Protection Model

 

The OS/2 subsystem implements the protection between OS/2 applications. It constructs their address spaces (both the flat address space and LDTs) and implements the same protection as exists in OS/2.

 

Some of the memory management limitations of OS/2 1.x are removed. The most important of these is the limit of 16 MB of physical RAM; the OS/2 subsystem uses the large memory capability of Windows NT. This translates into increased performance for applications that can use the additional memory, such as Microsoft's SQL Server. SQL

Server asks for the physical memory available in the system at setup time. It then uses this number to determine the level of caching it will use. In OS/2, you can't use more than 16 MB; however, in the OS/2 subsystem in Windows NT, you can use 32 MB (for example) and double your caching capability.

 

Segment Swapping

 

The OS/2 subsystem uses the Windows NT paging mechanism; no segment swapping is performed. Segment swapping is inferior to paging and exists in OS/2 only to support the 80286 processor, which is not supported for Windows NT.

 

PC NTMMTA: No Limitations on Memory Management

 

 

 

  MORE INFORMATION

  Some of the memory management limitations of OS/2 1.x are removed. The most 

   Important of these is the limit of 16 MB of physical RAM. The OS/2 subsystem uses

   the large memory capability of Windows NT. As a result, you get an increase in

   performance, and the applications can use the additional memory.

 

Windows NT Virtual Memory Manager Uses FIFO

 

 On page 193 of "Inside NT," Helen Custer states that the Windows NT virtual memory

  manager uses a FIFO (first in, first out) algorithm, as opposed to a LRU (least recently

  used) algorithm, which the Windows virtual memory manager uses. While it is true that

  FIFO can result in a commonly used page being discarded or paged to the pagefile, there

  are reasons why this algorithm is preferable.

 

  Here are some of the advantages:

  FIFO is done on a per-process basis; so at worst, a process that causes a lot of page

  faults will slow only itself down, not the entire system.

 

  LRU creates significant overhead--the system must update its page database every

  single time a page is touched. However, the database may not be properly updated in 

  certain circumstances. For example, suppose that a program has good locality of 

  reference and uses a page constantly so that it is always in memory. The operating 

  system will not keep updating the timestamp in the page

 

   database, because the process is not hitting the page table. Therefore this page may age 

   even though it is in nearly constant use. Pages that are "discarded" are actually kept in  

   memory for a while, so if a page is really Used frequently, it will be brought back into 

   memory before it is written to disk.

 

 

 

Research

Two years ago, the company's Cape Town-based IT division, FoschiniData, was given the task of researching the whole area of data access and recommending a way forward.

Les Keith, one of the division's senior system engineers, and his team took the project on and started to investigate the most cost-effective way of getting all the stores online. "We looked at several options, from pure routed networks to satellite communications," says Keith. "They were all expensive, and we refused to believe that we couldn't find a reasonable alternative.""Normally, the cheapest way to get point-to-point communications is to install a leased line. Overseas, corporates have access to ISDN or X25, but in southern Africa these services are not available everywhere, and where you can get them, the costs are very high," continues Keith. "In addition, this approach is only viable on a regional basis, which still left us with a non-national infrastructure."

Even on a regional basis, if Foschini had decided to install routers in all of its remote stores, total capital outlay would have been between $1 million and $1.5 million.

 

 

Personal Web Server Features

 

Microsoft® Personal Web Server is a desktop Web server for Windows NT® Workstation and Windows® 95 that makes it easy for you to publish your personal home page, share documents with your workgroup or build Web applications for Windows NT Server's built-in Web server, Internet Information Server (IIS), right from your own computer.

 

 

RAS Features in Windows NT 3.5

Microsoft's Remote Access Server first shipped with LAN Manager 2.1 in 1991. It was included with the Windows NT 3.1 operating system, and has now been significantly enhanced for Windows NT 3.5. RAS features the following capabilities:

·        Multiprotocol routing via PPP support

·        Internet support

·        Improved integration with NetWareŇ networks

·        Increased number of simultaneous connections

·        Software data compression

·        Data encryption

·        Availability of the RAS APIs

Windows NT Workstation 3.5 can dial into an Internet-connected computer running Windows NT Server 3.5, or to any one of a variety of industry-standard PPP or SLIP-based Internet servers.

 

Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0



Standard Features Windows® 95 User Interface
The Microsoft® Windows® 95 operating system user interface has been integrated into Microsoft Windows NT® Server 4.0 operating system, making the server interface easier to use and consistent with Windows 95 and Windows NT Workstation 4.0.



Administrative Wizards
Administrative wizards group the common server management tools into a single place and walk you through the steps for each task. Windows NT Server 4.0 includes wizards for things like adding user accounts, licensing, file and folder access, and so on.



Network Monitor
Powerful network diagnostic tool allows examining network traffic to and from the server at the packet-level. Allows capturing network of traffic for later analysis--making troubleshooting network problems easier.



System Policy Editor and User Profiles
These two features allow system administrators to manage and maintain users' desktops in a consistent manor. System policies are used for the standardization of desktop configurations and control the user work environment and actions.



Task Manager
An integrated tool for monitoring applications and tasks, and reports key performance metrics of the Windows NT system. It provides information on each application and process that are running on the workstation, as well as memory and CPU usage.



Internet Information Server
Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS) is the only World Wide Web server that is tightly integrated with the Microsoft Windows NT server operating system and is designed to deliver a wide range of Internet and intranet server capabilities.



Microsoft Index Server
Microsoft Index Server automatically indexes the full text and properties of files, including HTML, on your server--whether it’s an intranet, an Internet, or simply a file-and-print server.



Microsoft FrontPage
Designed for non-programmers, yet robust enough for experienced Web site developers, the Microsoft FrontPage web site creation and management tool is the fast, easy way to create and manage professional-quality Web sites.



RAS Multilink Channel Aggregation
With PPP-compliant channel aggregation, RAS enables clients dialing into Windows NT Server 4.0 to combine all available dial-up lines to achieve higher transfer speeds. For example, users can combine two or more ISDN B channels to achieve speeds of 128K.



Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol (PPTP)
PPTP provides a way to use public data networks, such as the Internet, to create a virtual private network connecting client PCs with servers. PPTP offers protocol encapsulation to support multiple protocols via TCP/IP connections and data encryption.



Improved Features File and Printer Sharing
Higher network throughpu--with up to 66% better performance on Fast Ethernet (100MB/sec) LANs. (Test results from NSTL.)



Improved Scalability
Better performance scalability on multiprocessor systems, especially those with more than four processors.



Printing Enhancements
Printing performance is improved through server-based rendering of non-Postscript print jobs. This results is a quicker return-to-application time and quicker return of control to the user after a print job is initiated.



Improved Windows NT Diagnostics Tool
An improved Windows NT diagnostics program allows for easy examination of the system. Includes information on device driver information, network usage and system resource’s such as IRQ, DMA, and IO address’, all presented in a easy-to-view graphical tool.



Improved Scalability
New application programming interfaces for server application developers and better server performance deliver improved throughput and scalability for server applications such as Microsoft SQL Server®.



Faster Internet Server
The combination of Windows NT Server 4.0 and Microsoft Internet Information Server 2.0 delivers up to 40% better Web server performance (Microsoft test results).

 


Security

 

You can restrict access to data managed by Microsoft® SQL Server™ OLAP Services via the security features. Using

security features, you can control who has access to data and the types of operations they can perform with the data.

OLAP Services supports a Microsoft Windows NT® integrated security system and allows you to assign access

permissions at the database and cube (including virtual cube) level.

Security is controlled via access control rights that are managed using roles. Access control rights determine the type of

access to data. Roles define categories of users with the same access control.

 

Security attributes

Every securable object owns a set of Security Attributes (SA). An SA is an entity containing an owner SID, a group SID, and a Security Descriptor, possibly containing a DACL and an SACL. A thread may manipulate an object’s SA except for the SACL, but only if it requests and is granted the standard rights necessary to read and write to that object’s DACL (READ_CONTROL and WRITE_DAC). A user must be a member of the administrator group to read and write to the SACL (see Figure 4).

Setting Up Security Accounts

 

Each user needs to gain access to Microsoft SQL Server through a login account that establishes the ability to connect (authentication). This login then has to be mapped to a SQL Server user account used to control activities performed in the database (permissions validation). Therefore, a single login is mapped to one user account created in each database the login has to access. If no user account exists in a database, the user cannot access the database even though the user may be able to connect to SQL Server.

The login is created in Microsoft Windows NT rather than in SQL Server. This login (a Windows NT user or group account) is then granted permission to connect to SQL Server.

The login is created within SQL Server.

The SQL Server user accounts that map to logins (created in Windows NT or SQL Server), and permit access to the database, are always created within each SQL Server database.

Microsoft SQL Server logins, users, roles, and passwords can contain from 1 to 128 characters, including letters, symbols, and digits, (for example Andrew-Fuller, Margaret Peacock, or 139abc). Therefore, Microsoft Windows NT or Microsoft Windows 95/98 usernames can be used as SQL Server logins. However, certain symbols can be used only in Transact-SQL statements if the login, user, role, or password is delimited with double quotation marks ("), or square brackets ([ ]). Use delimiters in Transact-SQL statements when the SQL Server login, user, role, or password:

·        Contains, or begins with, a space character.

·        Begins with the $ or @ character.

Note It is not necessary to specify delimiters when entering logins, users, roles, and passwords into the text boxes of the SQL Server graphical client tools, such as SQL Server Enterprise Manager.

Additionally, a SQL Server login, user, or role cannot:

·        Contain a backslash (\) character, unless referring to an existing Windows NT user or group. The backslash separates the Windows NT computer or domain name from the username.

·        Already exist in the current database (or master, for logins only).

·        Be NULL, or an empty string ("").

See Also

In Other Volumes

"Delimited Identifiers" in Microsoft SQL Server Database Developer's Companion

Existing Microsoft Windows NT accounts (users or groups) are granted permissions to connect to Microsoft SQL Server before they can access a database. If all members of a Windows NT group will be connecting to SQL Server, you can grant permission to connect to SQL Server for the group as a whole. Managing group permissions is much easier than redundantly managing permissions for individual users. If a Windows NT group should not be granted permission collectively, you can grant permission to connect to SQL Server for each individual Windows NT user.

Users

When granting a Windows NT user access to connect to SQL Server, specify the Windows NT domain or computer name the user belongs to, followed by a backslash, and then the user. For example, to grant access to the Windows NT user Andrew, in the Windows NT domain LONDON, specify LONDON\Andrew as the username.

Local and Global Groups

There are two Windows NT groups: local and global.

Global groups contain user accounts from the Windows NT Server domain in which they are created. Global groups cannot contain other groups or users from other domains and cannot be created on a computer running Windows NT Workstation.

Common security pitfalls

There are a couple of things you need to know when implementing NT security in your application. For example, a Security Descriptor (SD) may or may not contain a Discretionary Access Control List (DACL). Although an SD with an empty DACL signifies that no one is allowed access to that object, an SD with no DACL indicates that no protection is desired for that object. Thus, anyone can be granted access to the object. Be careful not to confuse these two cases. By default, the source code accompanying this article creates an SD with an empty SACL and DACL. You must explicitly delete the DACL in order to get a nonexistent DACL.

 

Creating Security Roles

 

This topic describes procedures for enabling cube users to access cube data. For information about enabling administrators to access cube data and metadata, see Access Control. Microsoft® SQL Server™ OLAP Services uses Microsoft Windows NT® user accounts and groups to define roles for user access to databases and cube data. Essentially, you combine user accounts and groups into roles and then assign the

roles to cubes.