2006-07-27 22:45:16 UTC
SQL Server 2000 works with Windows NT and Windows 2000 failover clustering to support immediate failover to a backup server in continuous operation. SQL Server 2000 also introduces log shipping, which allows you to maintain a warm standby server in environments with lower availability requirements.
Same Server Across Windows 2000, Windows NT, Windows 98, and Windows Millennium Edition Platforms
The same programming model is shared in all environments, because the SQL Server 2000 database engine runs on Windows NT Workstation, Windows NT Server, Windows 2000 Professional, Windows 2000 Server, Windows 2000 Advanced Server, Windows 2000 Datacenter Server, Windows 98, and Windows Millennium Edition.
In general, an application written for an instance of SQL Server 2000 operating in one environment works on any other instance of SQL Server 2000. The Microsoft Search service is not available on the Windows NT Workstation, Windows 2000 Professional, Windows Millennium Edition, or Windows 98 operating systems. SQL Server databases on those platforms do not support full-text catalogs and indexes. Applications running on these operating systems can, however, make use of the full-text capabilities if they connect to an instance of SQL Server 2000 on a different computer that supports them.
The differences in the behavior of SQL Server 2000 when running on the different operating systems are due mainly to features not supported by Windows Millennium Edition or Windows 98. Generally, these features, such as asynchronous I/O and scatter/gather I/O, do not affect the data or responses given to applications. They just prevent instances of SQL Server running on Windows Millennium or Windows 98 from supporting the same levels of performance as are possible for instances of SQL Server on Windows NT or Windows 2000. Instances of SQL Server on Windows Millennium Edition or Windows 98, however, do not support failover clustering and cannot publish transactional replications.