Introduction

Your server hardware is the foundation on which Windows Server 2003 runs. Thus, the hardware configuration and its compatibility and interaction with the operating system play an important role in how well your Windows network operates. Even though Plug-and-Play makes working with hardware easier, it is important for the network administrator to understand how the hardware components are installed and configured, and how to manually assign resource settings (such as IRQs) and modify device properties and settings when necessary.

Device drivers are the software programs that act as liaison between the hardware and the operating system. Driver signing is a mechanism for ensuring that the driver files have been tested and have not been modified since they were tested, to prevent problems that can be caused by bad drivers. In this chapter, you will learn about driver signing and how to configure driver-signing options.

Inevitably, problems with hardware crop up from time to time. When those problems occur on a mission-critical server, it is essential that you be able to recognize and fix them as quickly as possible. Monitoring for problems helps you to head them off at the pass. We will show you how to use Device Manager, the Hardware Troubleshooting Wizard, Control Panel applets, and included command-line utilities to monitor your server hardware, and we will provide some basic troubleshooting guidelines with specifics on how to diagnose and resolve issues related to hardware settings, drivers, and driver updates.

Understanding Server Hardware Vulnerabilities

Server hardware...