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I've found 3 servers running on Windows 2003 server for more than 10 years, I'm defining what the machine are used for but I don't know much about system administration. would you know the best practices to determine the usefulness of my machines?

Pierre Kore
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  • Do you mean usefullness as in: "How usefull is Windows Server 2003 in general", or the purpose of the machine like a webserver, fileserver and such. – Lutzer Feb 13 '18 at 12:08
  • The purpose of the machine. I had no documentation and i don't know where start to find out. – Pierre Kore Feb 13 '18 at 12:30
  • Check programs and features, check services.msc (for any non-default services), check the windows task scheduler, check the filesystem for any extraordinary stuff, etc. There are _many_ places something can run on your machine...I hope you are looking through them to get them replaced, as Server 2003 is EOL for 2,5 years now – Lenniey Feb 13 '18 at 13:05

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Ok, so there are a few different steps you start with. Be aware, that if you are not a system administrator, you may be denied access to the machine, or cannot follow al the steps because of user restriction. As you've said "I don't know much about system administration" I'll try to keep the technical jargon to a minimum, but I'm assuming that you know a few basic IT terms and give a few warnings here and there.

Start by logging on to the machine via RDP. From here on out, try the following:

  • Click start > Manage your server

In this "server manager" you can check if there are certain roles are installed for the server. Things like IIS (Internet Information Service) for a website, File server for files, Application server for specific application roles, Directory services for Active Directory etc. etc.

If there are no specific roles installed, maybe it's a server that handles backup or a custom application.

  • Click start > Control panel > Add or remove programs

BE AWARE that if you have admin privileges, you can break programs while in this screen. Do not remove or change anything here.

Here you can find a list of all the installed programs. Maybe there is a software package installed that you know, or don't.

At this point, i'll recommend to try and find a more skilled IT admin to handle the search for you. Things like trying to find if a Task scheduler is setup, or custom services are running for non-installed programs. Maybe it has a static IP address and there is documentation somewhere that has that specific IP. Server 2003 (r2) is very, very old and I would decommission it ASAP if you can and migrate anything you find to Server 2016, or maybe server 2012 R2.

EDIT:

a more simple and practical sollution would be here https://serverfault.com/a/661005/419122, it's less technical and can be more effective.

Lutzer
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