Questions about Windows Server
In this entry we are going to comment on all the doubts about Windows Server that arrive in my mail. Remember, after viewing the article, share it on social networks if you think it is interesting and press “Like”.
Current Available Versions of Windows Server
The current available versions of Windows Server 2016 provide solutions to most common business needs.
- Windows Server 2016 Datacenter : Ideal to provide a data center with high performance virtualization.
- Windows Server 2016 Standard : For physical or low-volume virtualization scenarios.
- Windows Server 2016 Essentials : For SMBs with up to 25 users and 50 devices, remember that this one has cuts over the full versions.
- Windows Server 2016 MultiPoint Premium Server : Allows multiple user access to one PC, only available with an academic license.
- Windows Storage Server 2016 : System for dedicated storage. Available in Standard and Workgroup versions.
- Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2016 – Bare-metal based virtualization hypervisor such as ESXi or Citrix.
Now we are going to discover the most outstanding new features of Windows Server 2016, which until October 2, 2018 was the latest version available. Let us remember that Windows Server 2019 was launched on the market on October 2, 2018 , but since it is such a recent release, we will leave the details of this new version for another post.
In any case, the versions that are being used in the professional field are usually 2012 and 2016. For this reason, although they are not the latest versions, they are the most used and, therefore, the ones that are essential to know.
What’s new in Windows Server 2016
- Storage Space Direct «S2D» storage, it is a new software-based storage system that allows us to have shared storage from Local Hard drives without the need for expensive SAN for this purpose. Very useful for the creation of our Cluster.
- QoS: The Quality Service, QoS (Quality of Service) , can be used as a bandwidth management point of a “Local/Wifi” network focused on an Active Directory infrastructure by creating QoS profiles, it is distributed with the group policy at the general level. QoS policies can be applied to a computer or to a user.
- Native Containers. The main containers will allow us to isolate the software between the different Hyper-V containers with the Hyper-V role installed. They can be implemented both in Core versions and in graphical environments. Among the system requirements for it to work, you need: 4GB of RAM, Server 2016, a processor with Intel VT-X and a host container with 2 virtual processors.
- NanoServer. This is a new option that allows us to build a Windows 2016 OS (Container) with a weight of only 500MB, we must bear in mind that an installation of the Core version will be about 6GB in weight. This version of Nano Server is available to launch Windows Server services such as IIS, WEB Servers, Server Files. Not functional for Active Directory. It is exclusively for light or light services. it only installs the kernel of the operating system and allows us to incorporate packages independently.
- Storage Replicate : It will allow us to replicate volumes at the block level both synchronously and asynchronously.
An Important Update for Hyper-V and storage clusters, allows adding Windows 2016 nodes to a 2012 R2 cluster, operating in Windows Server 2012 R2 mode until all nodes have been upgraded to Windows 2016
- Server-Core : It is one of the variants of Windows Server 2016 that is installed without a Graphical Interface, it is managed from Powershell. Also known as Core Mode. It is very useful to minimize the attack on our servers since it lacks a graphic environment or Desktop Experience and for installations on more basic or less powerful hardware.
