Active directory 2003 and active directory 2008 differences?

One of the really exciting new ones is the concept of the read-only domain controller. Before with AD, as compared with NT 4.0 in particular, every domain controller has a writable copy of your directory. You can make a change anywhere and it will propagate throughout the environment. At the same time, all of [the domain controllers] have secrets like your passWord. Right now with Windows Server 2003, if that server security is physically compromised and gets stolen and it's not secure, then you have a huge security issue in that all the passWord for that domain are in the DNCs. So the only approach you can take is to make everyone change their passWord. That's a big deal if you have 100,000 people on that domain.

With the new read-only domain controller feature, this change is two-fold. First you can now define which passWords are stored locally. Now if the server gets stolen, you only have to have 100 people change their passWords versus 100,000.

Second, you can't make any changes on that domain controller (DC), because it's read only.

1.we can install Windows 2008 server either in full version(install all services& applications) or server core(only install minimal required services), but in 2003 we can only install fully O.S.

2.Windows server 2008 use Hyper-V application & Roles concept for better productivity but server 2003 does not have such features.

1)2008 is combination of vista and Windows 2003r2. Some new services are introduced in it

1. RODC one new domain controller introduced in it

[Read-only Domain controllers.]

2. WDS (Windows deployment services) instead of RIS in 2003 server

3. shadow copy for each and every folders

4.boot sequence is changed

5.installation is 32 bit where as 2003 it is 16 as well as 32 bit, that's why installation of 2008 is faster

6.services are known as role in it

7. Group policy editor is a separate option in ads

2) The main difference between 2003 and 2008 is Virtualization, management.

2008 has more inbuilt components and updated third party drivers Microsoft introduces new feature with 2k8 that is Hyper-V Windows Server 2008 introduces Hyper-V (V for Virtualization) but only on 64bit versions. More and more companies are seeing this as a way of reducing hardware costs by running several 'virtual' servers on one physical machine. If you like this exciting technology, make sure that you buy an edition of Windows Server 2008 that includes Hyper-V, then launch the Server Manger, add Roles.

3) In Windows Server 2008, Microsoft is introducing new features and technologies, some of which were not available in Windows Server 2003 with Service Pack 1 (SP1), that will help to reduce the power consumption of server and client operating systems, minimize environmental byproducts, and increase server efficiency.

Microsoft Windows Server 2008 has been designed with energy efficiency in mind, to provide customers with ready and convenient access to a number of new power-saving features. It includes updated support for Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) processor power management (PPM) features, including support for processor performance states (P-states) and processor idle sleep states on multiprocessor systems. These features simplify power management in Windows Server 2008 (WS08) and can be managed easily across servers and clients using Group Policies