What's new in Microsoft Services for NFS

  • Article

Applies To: Windows Server 2003 R2

Microsoft Services for Network File System (NFS) provides many improvements that make it easier than ever to integrate Windows and UNIX networks effectively.

Active Directory Lookup

The Identity Management for UNIX Active Directory schema extension, available in Microsoft Windows Server 2003 R2, includes UNIX user identifier (UID) and group identifier (GID) fields, which enables Server for NFS and Client for NFS to look up Windows-to-UNIX user account mappings directly from Active Directory. Identity Management for UNIX simplifies Windows-to-UNIX user account mapping management in Active Directory.

Note

After this release, the User Name Mapping component will no longer ship with Microsoft Services for NFS.

64-bit support

You can install Microsoft Services for NFS components on all editions of Windows Server 2003 R2, including 64-bit editions.

Enhanced server performance

Microsoft Services for NFS includes a file filter driver, which significantly reduces common server file access latencies.

UNIX special device support

Microsoft Services for NFS supports UNIX special devices (mknod).

Enhanced UNIX support

Microsoft Services for NFS now supports the following versions of UNIX:

  • Sun Microsystems Solaris version 9

  • Red Hat Linux version 9

  • IBM AIX version 5L 5.2

  • Hewlett Packard HP-UX version 11i

Deprecated features

To streamline and simplify Microsoft Services for NFS, the following features were removed from this release:

  • Gateway for NFS

  • Server for PCNFS

  • All PCNFS components of Client for NFS