Friday, July 13, 2018

Windows Server 2019 Preview Build 17709. First Preview of new Hyper-V Server.

Windows Server 2019 Insider Preview Build 17709 contains the first preview of  Microsoft Hyper-V Server.

From the Windows Server Insiders:

What’s New

Click here to see the full list of new functionality introduced in earlier builds of Windows Server. 

Containers

Group Managed Service Accounts We've improved the scalability and reliability of containers that use group managed service accounts (gMSA) to access network resources. You should see fewer authentication errors when using a single gMSA with multiple container instances. Additionally, you no longer need to set the container's host name to be the same as the gMSA. We also fixed a bug that prevented you from using gMSAs with Hyper-V isolated containers.

 

New base image: Windows

We're adding a new base image to the Windows Server container collection. In addition to NanoServer and WindowsServerCore container images, the new Windows image is now available. This image carries even more components than its NanoServer and ServerCore siblings, meaning it can support applications that have additional API dependencies. To learn more and get started, go to https://aka.ms/windowscontainer.

Available Content

Current build:
  • Windows Server 2019 Preview is available in ISO format in 18 languages, and in VHDX format in English only.  The following keys allow for unlimited activations:

Datacenter Edition
 6XBNX-4JQGW-QX6QG-74P76-72V67
Standard Edition
 MFY9F-XBN2F-TYFMP-CCV49-RMYVH
  
  • Windows Server vNext Semi-Annual Preview The Server Core Edition is available in English only, in ISO or VHDX format. The images are pre-keyed -  no need to enter a key during setup.
  • Microsoft Hyper-V Server
  • Server Core App Compatibility FoD Preview
  • Windows Admin Center Preview 1806
Symbols are available on the public symbol server – see Update on Microsoft’s Symbol Server blog post and Using the Microsoft Symbol Server. As before, matching Windows Server container images will be available via Docker Hub. For more information about Windows Server containers and Insider builds, click here
This build will expire December 14th, 2018

How to Download 

To obtain the Insider software downloads, registered Insiders may navigate directly to the Windows Server Insider Preview download page.  If you have not yet registered as an Insider, see GETTING STARTED WITH SERVER on the Windows Insiders for Business portal.

Thursday, October 13, 2016

Windows Server 2016 is now generally available

Microsoft has released Windows Server 2016. In addition, System Center 2016 also hit GA.

MSDN Subscriber downloads page
Technet Evaluation Center

Hyper-V Server also available:
Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2016

Here is what's new in Hyper-V on Windows Server 2016

New functionalities in Hyper-V:

  • Compatible with Connected Standby
  • Discrete device assignment 
  • Encryption support for the operating system disk in generation 1 VMs
  • Host resource protection
  • Hot add and remove for network adapters and memory
  • Linux secure boot
  • Nested virtualization
  • Networking features
  • Production checkpoints 
  • Rolling Hyper-V Cluster upgrade
  • Shielded virtual machines 
  • Start order priority for clustered virtual machines
  • Virtualization-based security for Gen 2 VMs
  • Windows Containers 
  • Windows PowerShell Direct

Updated functionalities in Hyper-V:

  • Hyper-V Manager improvements
  • Integration services delivered through Windows Update 
  • More memory and processors for generation 2 VMs and Hyper-V hosts
  • Shared virtual hard discs
  • Storage QoS
  • Virtual machine configuration file format
  • Virtual machine configuration version 
RSAT for Windows 10 was also updated on 10/12/2016


Additional information:

Release notes: Important Issues in Windows Server 2016  technet

Getting Started with Hyper-V Server 2016 technet

Windows Server 2016 Editions technet

General Availability of Windows Server and Hyper-V Containers in Windows Server 2016 Server & Tools

The Ultimate Guide to Windows Server 2016  MSFT

Compare features in Windows Server versions MSFT

Getting Started with Windows Containers msdn

What's new in Hyper-V on Windows Server 2016 technet

Another big step in Hybrid Cloud – Windows Server 2016 general availability  technet

Nano Server in the Azure Gallery and VM Agent Support technet

Pricing and Licensing for Windows Server 2016

Azure Images: SQL Server 2016 on Windows Server 2016

Press

Microsoft's Windows Server 2016 hits general availability  ZDnet

Microsoft’s Windows Server 2016 is now generally available techcrunch

First look at Windows Server 2016: 'Cloud for the masses'? We'll be the judge of that

4 no-bull reasons Windows Server 2016 is a big deal  infoworld

Why (and how) Microsoft is circling its hybrid-cloud wagons  ZDnet








Tuesday, September 27, 2016

Windows Server 2016 RTM

The new Windows Server 2016 was launched on September 26 at Ignite conference in Atlanta, along with System Center 2016.

Download Windows Server 2016 RTM here

Download System Center 2016 RTM here

Pricing and licensing for Windows Server 2016 here

The Ultimate Guide to Windows Server 2016 here

Free ebook: Introducing Windows Server 2016 here

Windows Server 2016 TP5 Comparison Guide here

Additional Information


Windows Server Containers 101 Poster docs.com

Ignite 2016 – Windows Server 2016 Virtualization and Containers Recordings

Microsoft Virtual Machine Manager and support for .NET Framework technet

Windows Server 2016 RTM, System Center 2016 RTM and Azure Stack TP2 – now available  technet

Top 10 features in Windows Server 2016 sysadmins need to know about  gfi

Microsoft Ignite: Windows Server 2016 and System Center 2016 Launch Party  PCMag

Windows Server 2016 set for mid-October release  theinquirer

The best new features in Windows Server 2016  infoworld

Microsoft releases Server 2016, complete with commercial Docker engine  theregister

Microsoft Windows Server 2016 to be generally available in mid-October  ZDNet

Docker containers are coming to Windows   networkworld

Introducing Docker for Windows Server 2016  docker

Ignite sessions online


Failover Clustering @ Ignite 2016

Don’t Miss These Sessions at Ignite

Windows Server 2016 and System Center 2016 sessions at Ignite

All The Windows Server 2016 sessions at Ignite


Credit: Microsoft





Wednesday, March 2, 2016

Windows Server, Hyper-V, Azure links and related articles November 2015 - February 2016

Microsoft Download Center




Scripts




New Windows Server Licensing

Windows Server 2016 moving to per core, not per socket, licensing   ARS
Beware hidden costs of Microsoft's new Windows Server licensing  InfoWorld
Windows Server 2016 licensing FAQ ( PDF)  …

Server & Tools Blogs










Ben Armstrong's Blog




NanoServer



CANITPRO




TechNet

Building Your Hybrid Cloud - Nested Virtualization in Windows Server 2016 
Windows Server 2012 R2 AD FS - Federated Web SSO (Part 9)

Microsoft Azure-blog





Petri




Virtualizationadmin




4sysops




Blogs




          Deploying Nano Server to Microsoft Azure  A. Brisebois













Computerworld



InfoWorld




WindowsNetworking





Videos

Windows Server 2016 TP 4, Nano Server, Containers, Azure

Azure Automation DSC Part 2 - Configurations Basics (Channel 9)
Azure Automation DSC Part 1 - Introduction (Channel 9)

 Building Your Hybrid Cloud - Nested Virtualization in Windows Server 2016 (Channel 9) 


Top Ten Windows Server 2016 Features (Channel 9)

Exploring Nano Server for Windows Server 2016 with Jeffrey Snover  (Channel 9)

Container Fundamentals | Part 5 - Hyper-V Containers (Channel 9)
Container Fundamentals | Part 4 - Resource Management (Channel 9)
Container Fundamentals | Part 3 - Shared Folders (Channel 9)
Container Fundamentals | Part 2 - Images, Networking & Portability (Channel 9)
Introducing Hyper-V Containers (Channel 9)
Container Fundamentals | Part 1 - Introduction (Channel 9)

Storage Spaces Direct - Deploying End-to-End (Channel 9)
Windows Server 2016 Preview: Storage Spaces Direct Overview (Channel 9)

Demo: Nano Server Developer Experience (Channel 9)
Demo: Building a Nano Server VHDX for a Hyper-V VM (Channel 9)
Demo: Nano Server in a Container running IIS & ASP.NET 5 (Channel 9)
Creating AppX Packages for Nano Server with the WiX Toolset (Channel 9)

Storage Spaces Direct - Deploying End-to-End (Channel 9)
Storage Replica - Reversing Replication (Channel 9)
Storage Replica - Creating a Storage Replica Partnership (Channel 9)
Storage Replica - Running the Test Report (Test-SRTopology) (Channel 9)

Cool features in Hyper-V that you must investigate (Channel 9)

Windows Server 2012 R2

How to Setup and Use Windows Server 2012 R2 Essentials  (Channel 9)

How to Reduce Cost and Grow Your Business with Virtualization in Windows Server 2012 R2 – Part 1  (Channel 9)

Related Posts



micrsoft-linux-distro
via Microsoft


Tuesday, December 8, 2015

How to manage free Hyper-V Server and Windows Server Core


Microsoft released Windows Server 2016 TP4, making lots of exciting new features available to the public. How to access all the different versions of free Hyper-V Server and Windows Server Core if you need to maintain older versions on site? Managing everything from a command line is very time-consuming.

The easiest way to manage multiple versions of Hyper-V is to use vtUtilities.

vtUtilities support multiple versions of Windows Server which means you can run WinServ 2016 TP3, WinServ 2008/2008R2, WinServ 2012/2012R2 side by side.


One of the greatest  advantages of vtUtilities is that you can manage Windows Server 2008R2/2012R2 as well as Windows Server 2016 (now available as Technical Preview) from Windows 10 as well as from Windows 7 and Windows 8. Please note, what Windows Server 2016 is still under development and thus technical support is not available for this version of Windows.

Here are configurations supported by vtUtilities :

Hypervisor version                          Windows version

WinServ 8R2                                    Windows 7, Windows 8/8.1
WinServ 2012                                   Windows 7, Windows 8/8.1, Windows 10
WinServ 2012R2                              Windows 7, Windows 8/8.1, Windows 10
WinServ 2016TP4                            Windows 7, Windows 8/8.1, Windows 10




vtUtilities present a number of capabilities what go far beyond the basic maintenance tasks such as creating or removing virtual machines and managing them locally and/or remotely. 


The tool offers a unified  GUI console that provides centralized administration of Hyper-V hosts, virtual networks & clusters and can replace such tools as Hyper-V Manager, Failover Cluster Manager, PowerShell and RSAT.

vtUtilities can be installed locally on Hyper-V host allowing to troubleshoot and fix network connections and related problems what cannot be resolved via remote management.




vtUtilities designed to  provide the GUI for 


  • Replication, including support for extended replica
  • Guest migration
  • VHDX
  • Virtual Fibre Channel Adapters
  • Virtual Network Management ( including the management of virtual connections and bindings)
  • Advanced Virtual Switch Management (including port-level access control)
  • File system views and operations
  • Guest configuration management (including support for Gen 2 virtual machines)
  • Server manager view
  • New virtual machine wizard, Import virtual machine wizard
  • Hyper-V settings management
  • Diagnostic and troubleshooting (including real-time performance monitoring of host and guesta, access to Hyper-V event log and asynchronous Hyper-V tasks history)
  • Failover Clustering for high availability 




The latest version of vtUtilities features a GUI with integrated Cluster Management. 


Hyper-V clustering is supported on Widows and Hyper-V Servers 2008 R2, 2012, 2012 R2 and features support for cluster summery information (including failover clustering events) and
cluster nodes management.

You can connect to the existing clusters by using vtUtilities 'Select View' dialogue:



Discover all Hyper-V clusters in AD:



Overview cluster summery information and get easy access to the selected Windows failover cluster events
View and manage status of cluster nodes
View and fully manage cluster roles



Virtual Machines result view in vtUtilities Cluster Manager displays a list of all VMs configured for high availability with a possibility to start/stop a corresponding cluster node, move VM or its storage to a different cluster node, configure (add) another VM from any cluster node as highly available or remove cluster role for highly available VM.



Hyper-V Replica Broker

Installation of vtUtilities

The product requires a 64-bit versions of Windows 7, Windows 8/8.1 or Windows 10 and any version of Windows Server you're intending to use: Windows Server 2008 R2, 2012, 2012 R2 and the latest Windows Server 2016 TP3.
vtUtilities also can be used on 64-bit versions of Windows what don't support Hyper-V role.
Other prerequisites include x64-based processors and .NET 3.51 or later.
See our getting started guide for instructions.

Pricing 

One-time fee $120 for a permanent license.

Trial

A 7-day free trial for registered customers can be downloaded here  vtUtilities Free Trial

vtUtilities are certified for Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2012 R2 and listed in Windows Server Catalog

Thursday, November 19, 2015

Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview 4

Microsoft released Technical Preview 4 of Windows Server 2016

Download link: 


From Microsoft site:
"A highlight of this technical preview is the first public build of Hyper-V Containers, a deployment option for Windows Server Containers,"
What's new in Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview 4

  • What's New in Nano Server. Nano Server now supports the DNS Server and IIS server roles, as well as MPIO, VMM, SCOM, DSC push mode, DCB, Windows Server Installer, and the WMI provider for Windows Update. Its Recovery Console supports editing and repairing the network configuration. A Windows PowerShell module is now available to simplify building Nano Server images.
  • Windows Containers: Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview now includes containers, which allow many isolated applications to run on one computer system. They build fast and are highly scalable and portable. Two different types of container runtime are included with the feature, each with a different degree of application isolation. Windows Server Containers achieve isolation through namespace and process isolation. Hyper-V Containers encapsulates each container in a light weight virtual machine. For some additional information on containers, see Containers: Docker, Windows and Trends.
  • What's new in Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) in Windows Server Technical Preview. Active Directory Domain Services includes improvements to help organizations secure Active Directory environments and provide better identity management experiences for both corporate and personal devices.
  • What’s New in Active Directory Federation Services. Active Directory Federation Services (AD FS) in Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview includes new features that enable you to configure AD FS to authenticate users stored in Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) directories. For more information, see Active Directory Federation Services Overview [Role/Tech Overview].
  • What's New in Failover Clustering in Windows Server Technical Preview. This topic explains the new and changed functionality of Failover Clustering. A Hyper-V or Scale-out File Server failover cluster can now easily be upgraded without any downtime or need to build a new cluster with nodes that are running Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview.
  • What's new in Hyper-V on Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview. This topic explains the new and changed functionality of the Hyper-V role in Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview, Client Hyper-V running on Windows 10, and Microsoft Hyper-V Server Technical Preview.
  • Windows Defender Overview for Windows Server Technical Preview. Windows Server Antimalware is installed and enabled by default in Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview, but the user interface for Windows Server Antimalware is not installed. However, Windows Server Antimalware will update antimalware definitions and protect the computer without the user interface. If you need the user interface for Windows Server Antimalware, you can install it after the operating system installation by using the Add Roles and Features Wizard.
  • What's New in Remote Desktop Services in Windows Server 2016. For the Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview, the Remote Desktop Services team focused on improvements based on customer requests. We added support for OpenGL and OpenCL applications, and added MultiPoint Services as a new role in Windows Server.
  • What's New in File and Storage Services in Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview. This topic explains the new and changed functionality of Storage Services. An update in storage quality of service now enables you to create storage QoS policies on a Scale-Out File Server and assign them to one or more virtual disks on Hyper-V virtual machines. Storage Replica is a new feature that enables synchronous replication between servers for disaster recovery, as well as stretching of a failover cluster for high availability..
  • What's New in Web Application Proxy in Windows Server Technical Preview. The latest version of Web Application Proxy focuses on new features that enable publishing and preauthentication for more applications and improved user experience. Check out the full list of new features that includes preauthentication for rich client apps such as Exchange ActiveSync and wildcard domains for easier publishing of SharePoint apps.
  • What's new in the Windows console. The underlying console host (Conhost.exe) has been updated in several ways, adding new and different functionality to the Windows command prompt, the Windows PowerShell prompt, and any other character-mode applications. For details, see What's New in the Windows Console in Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview and Console Improvements in the Windows 10 Technical Preview , but you should take note of these important changes:
    • The new console functionality is enabled by default. If an existing application doesn't work properly with the new console, you can select Use legacy console on the Options tab and then restart your application. You can also control individual aspects of the new functionality with registry keys; see details at the linked topics.
    • Console windows can be resized dynamically with the mouse. This could cause issues with some console applications.
    • Quick Edit mode is enabled by default. If this conflicts with your application, you can disable it on the Options tab.
    • There are new keyboard shortcuts for copy, paste, and history navigation. If these conflict with your application, you can disable them on the Options tab (look for Enable CTRL key shortcuts and Extended test selection keys).
    • The default font type for new console windows is TrueType. You can still use raster fonts, but they won't scale properly on some displays.
    • Text wraps and reflows by default when you resize a window. If necessary, you can disable this on the Layouts tab.
    • In some cases, after upgrade installation, fonts in the console window might be very small. To adjust this, use the Fonts tab.
  • What’s New in Windows PowerShell 5.0. Windows PowerShell 5.0 includes significant new features—including support for developing with classes, and new security features—that extend its use, improve its usability, and allow you to control and manage Windows-based environments more easily and comprehensively. Multiple new features in Windows PowerShell Desired State Configuration (DSC) are also described in this topic.
  • What's New in Networking in Windows Server Technical Preview. The majority of what you’ll find for networking is new in TP3. We bring a scalable network controller for programming policies, an L4 load balancer for high availability and performance, enhanced gateways for hybrid connectivity, and an underlying network fabric that converges RDMA traffic together with tenant traffic, DNS policies that control how your DNS servers respond to incoming requests, and better integration of DNS and IPAM.

Additional Information