Installation instructions

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Installation Instructions 1-1
This document provides setup and general information for installing the
Microsoft
®
Windows
®
Server 2003, Enterprise Edition 64-Bit operating
system (hereafter known as Windows Server 2003) on your 64-bit Intel
®
Itanium
®
-based Dell™ PowerEdge™ system.
NOTE: The Windows Server 2003 operating system can only be installed on
a PowerEdge system with one or more 64-bit Intel Itanium processors.
This document covers the following topics:
• 32-bit application compatibility
• Using the Windows Server 2003 CD to perform a clean installation of
the operating system
• Performing a clean installation of Windows Server 2003 with an
existing Windows operating system
• Important information
• Getting help
• Using Dell Technical Support Services
NOTE: Before you begin, review the documentation that came with your
operating system for important product information.
32-Bit Application Compatibility
Windows Server 2003 is designed and optimized on the new 64-bit
Explicitly Parallel Instruction Set Computing (EPIC) instruction set of
the Intel
64-bit processors. Although Windows Server 2003 is
backward-compatible with 32-bit Windows-based server applications, the
32-bit application performs much better on 32-bit versions of Windows
Server 2003.
Microsoft strongly recommends that customers deploy 32-bit Windows-
based server applications on 32-bit versions of Windows, such as Windows
Server 2003, Enterprise Edition.