Windows Server 2016

Windows Server 2016

A version of the Windows NT operating system
A screenshot of Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview 5 Desktop
Developer	Microsoft
Source model	Proprietary software
Latest preview	Technical Preview 5 (Build 10.0.14300 (1511)) / April 27, 2016
Update method	Windows Update, Windows Server Update Services, SCCM
Platforms	x86-64
Kernel type	Hybrid (Windows NT)
Preceded by	Windows Server 2012 R2 (2013)
Official website	www.microsoft.com/en-us/server-cloud/products/windows-server-2016/

Windows Server 2016^[1] is an upcoming server operating system developed by Microsoft as part of the Windows NT family of operating systems, developed concurrently with Windows 10. The first early preview version (Technical Preview) became available on 1 October 2014 together with the first technical preview of System Center,^[2] and is currently in public beta testing. The final release date for the server is expected to be in Q3 2016,^[3] that is, not released simultaneously with the client operating system Windows 10 as was the case with the last three operating system releases.

Features

Windows Server 2016 has a variety of new features, including

• Active Directory Federation Services: It is possible to configure AD FS to authenticate users stored in non-AD directories, such as X.500 compliant Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) directories and SQL databases.^[4]
• Windows Defender: Windows Server Antimalware is installed and enabled by default without the GUI, which is an installable Windows feature.^[5]
• Remote Desktop Services: support for OpenGL 4.4 and OpenCL 1.1, performance and stability improvements; MultiPoint Services role (see Windows MultiPoint Server)^[6]
• Storage Services: central Storage QoS Policies; Storage Replicas (storage-agnostic, block-level, volume-based, synchronous and asynchronous replication using SMB3 between servers for disaster recovery).^[7] Storage Replica replicates blocks instead of files; files can be in use. It's not multi-master, not one-to-many and not transitive. It periodically replicates snapshots, and the replication direction can be changed.
• Failover Clustering: cluster operating system rolling upgrade, Storage Replicas^[8]
• Web Application Proxy: preauthentication for HTTP Basic application publishing, wildcard domain publishing of applications, HTTP to HTTPS redirection, Propagation of client IP address to backend applications^[9]
• IIS 10: Support for HTTP/2
• Windows PowerShell 5.0^[10]
• Soft Restart, a Windows feature to speed up the booting process by skipping hardware initialization, and resetting software only.^[11]
• Telnet server is not included.

Networking features

• DHCP: as Network Access Protection was deprecated in Windows Server 2012 R2, in Windows Server 2016 the DHCP role no longer supports NAP^[12]
• DNS:
  • DNS client: service binding – enhanced support for computers with more than one network interface^[13]
  • DNS Server: DNS policies, new DDS record types (TLSA, SPF, and unknown records), new PowerShell cmdlets and parameters^[14]
• Windows Server Gateway now supports Generic Routing Encapsulation (GRE) tunnels^[15]
• IP address management (IPAM): support for /31, /32, and /128 subnets; discovery of file-based, domain-joined DNS servers; new DNS functions; better integration of DNS, DHCP, and IP Address (DDI) Management^[16]
• Network Controller, a new server role to configure, manage, monitor, and troubleshoot virtual and physical network devices and services in the datacenter^[17]
• Hyper-V Network virtualization: programmable Hyper-V switch (a new building block of Microsoft's software-defined networking solution); VXLAN encapsulation support; Microsoft Software Load Balancer interoperability; better IEEE Ethernet standard compliancy^[18]

Hyper-V

• Rolling Hyper-V cluster update: unlike upgrading clusters from Windows 2008 R2 to 2012 level, Windows Server Technical Preview cluster nodes can be added to a Hyper-V Cluster with nodes running Windows Server 2012 R2. The cluster continues to function at a Windows Server 2012 R2 feature level until all of the nodes in the cluster have been upgraded and the cluster functional level has been upgraded.^[19]
• Storage quality of service (QoS) to centrally monitor end-to-end storage performance and create policies using Hyper-V and Scale-Out File Servers
• New, more efficient binary virtual machine configuration format (.VMCX extension for virtual machine configuration data and the .VMRS extension for runtime state data)
• Production checkpoints
• Hyper-V Manager: alternate credentials support, down-level management, WS-Management protocol
• Integration services for Windows guests distributed through Windows Update
• Hot add and remove for network adapters (for generation 2 virtual machines) and memory (for generation 1 and generation 2 virtual machines)
• Linux secure boot
• Connected Standby compatibility
• Storage Resiliency feature of Hyper-V is formed for detecting transitory loss of connectivity to VM storage. VM's will be paused till the time the connectivity is re-established.^[20]

Nano Server

Microsoft announced a new installation option, Nano Server, a minimal footprint installation option of Windows Server. It excludes the graphical user interface, WoW64 (support for 32-bit software) and Windows Installer. It does not support console logon, either locally or via Remote Desktop Connection. All management is performed remotely via Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) and PowerShell. Microsoft engineer Jeffrey Snover claims that Nano Server had 93 percent lower VHD size, 92 percent fewer critical security advisories, and 80 percent fewer reboots than Windows Server.^[21][22]

Development

Microsoft has been reorganized by Satya Nadella, putting the Server and System Center teams together. Previously, the Server team was more closely aligned with the Windows client team. The Azure team is also working closely with the Server team.^[23]

Releases

Preview releases

A public beta version of Windows Server 2016 (then still called vNext) branded as "Windows Server Technical Preview" was released on October 1, 2014; the technical preview builds are aimed toward enterprise users. The first Technical Preview was first set to expire on 15 April 2015 but^[24] Microsoft later released a tool to extend the expiry date, to last until the second tech preview of the OS in May 2015.^[25] The second beta version, "Technical Preview 2", was released on May 4, 2015. Third preview version, "Technical Preview 3" was released on August 19, 2015. "Technical Preview 4" was released on November 19, 2015. "Technical Preview 5" was released on April 27, 2016.

Public release

Windows Server 2016 is expected to be released to manufacturing in Q3 2016.^[3] Unlike its predecessor, Windows Server 2016 is licensed by the number of CPU cores rather than number of CPU sockets—a change that has similarly been adopted by BizTalk Server 2013 and SQL Server 2014.^[26]

Version history

Legend:

Old version

Older version, still supported

Latest version

Latest preview version

Future release

Table of versions: Windows Server 2016
Version	Branch	Release date	Highlights
Old version, no longer supported: 6.4.9841	Technical Preview[2]	October 1, 2014	First release
Old version, no longer supported: 10.0.10074[27]	Technical Preview 2	May 4, 2015	Nano Server installation option[28][29] Hyper-V: hot add and remove memory and NIC; resilient virtual machines to keep running even when their cluster fabric fails[30] Rolling upgrades for Hyper-V and Storage clusters[28][30] Networking: Converged NIC across tenant and RDMA traffic; PacketDirect on 40G[30] Storage: Virtual Machine Storage Path resiliency; Storage Spaces Direct to aggregate Storage Spaces across multiple servers; Storage Replica[30] Security: Host Guardian Service, helping to keep trust and isolation boundary between the cloud infrastructure and guest OS layers; Just Enough Administration, restricting users to perform only specific tasks[30] Management: PowerShell Desired State Configuration; PowerShell Package Manager; Windows Management Framework 5.0 April Preview and DSC Resource Kit[30] Other: Conditional access control in AD FS; application authentication support for OpenID Connect and OAuth; full OpenGL support with RDS for VDI; Server-side support for HTTP/2, including header compression, connection multiplexing and server push[30]
Old version, no longer supported: 10.0.10514	Technical Preview 3	August 19, 2015	Windows Server Containers[31] Active Directory Federation Services (AD FS): authentication of users stored in Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) directories[31]
Old version, no longer supported: 10.0.10586	Technical Preview 4[32]	November 19, 2015	Nano Server 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.[33] Hyper-V Containers encapsulates each container in a light weight virtual machine.[33]
Latest preview version of a future release: 10.0.14300	Technical Preview 5[34]	April 27, 2016	Mostly general refinements. Greater time accuracy in both physical and virtual machines. Container support adds performance improvements, simplified network management, and support for Windows containers on Windows 10. Nano Server: an updated module for building Nano Server images, including more separation of physical host and guest virtual machine functionality as well as support for different Windows Server editions. Improvements to the Recovery Console, including separation of inbound and outbound firewall rules as well as the ability to repair configuration of WinRM. Networking: traffic to new or existing virtual appliances can now be both mirrored and routed. With a distributed firewall and Network security groups, this enables dynamically segmented and secure workloads in a manner similar to Azure. One can deploy and manage the entire Software-defined networking (SDN) stack using System Center Virtual Machine Manager. Docker can be used to manage Windows Server container networking, and associate SDN policies not only with virtual machines but containers as well. Remote Desktop Services: a highly available RDS deployment can leverage Azure SQL Database for the RD Connection Brokers in high availability mode. Management: ability to run PowerShell.exe locally on Nano Server (no longer remote only), new Local Users & Groups cmdlets to replace the GUI, added PowerShell debugging support, and added support in Nano Server for security logging & transcription and JEA (Just Enough Administration). Shielded Virtual Machines: New "Encryption Supported" mode that offers more protections than for an ordinary virtual machine, but less than "Shielded" mode, while still supporting vTPM, disk encryption, Live Migration traffic encryption, and other features, including direct fabric administration conveniences such as virtual machine console connections and Powershell Direct. Full support for converting existing non-shielded Generation 2 virtual machines to shielded virtual machines, including automated disk encryption. Shielded virtual machines are compatible with Hyper-V Replica.

See also

• List of operating systems
• Comparison of operating systems
• History of operating systems
• History of Microsoft Windows

References

1. McAllister, Neil (4 May 2015). "Try to contain your joy: Microsoft emits Windows Server 2016 with nano-services". The Register. Retrieved 5 May 2015.
2. "Announcing availability of Windows Server Technical Preview and System Center Technical Preview". Server & Cloud Blog. Microsoft Server and Cloud Platform Team. March 17, 2015. Retrieved 2015-04-01.
3. Mackie, Kurt (4 December 2015). "Microsoft Floats Licensing Details on Windows Server 2016 and System Center 2016". Redmondmag.com. Retrieved 1 March 2016.
4. TechNet: Active Directory Federation Services Overview – AD FS in Windows Server Technical Preview
5. TechNet: Windows Server Antimalware Overview for Windows Server Technical Preview (Updated: February 19, 2015)
6. TechNet: What's New in Remote Desktop Services in the Windows Server Technical Preview (Updated: October 1, 2014)
7. TechNet: What's New in Storage Services in Windows Server Technical Preview (Updated: October 1, 2014)
8. TechNet: What's New in Failover Clustering in Windows Server Technical Preview (Updated: October 1, 2014)
9. TechNet: What's New in Web Application Proxy in Windows Server Technical Preview (Updated: October 1, 2014)
10. TechNet: What's New in Windows PowerShell (Updated: September 30, 2014)
11. System Center Central: Windows Server Technical Preview – New/Removed Windows Server Roles and Features
12. TechNet: What's New in DHCP in Windows Server Technical Preview (Updated: October 1, 2014)
13. TechNet: What's New in DNS Client in Windows Server Technical Preview (Updated: October 1, 2014)
14. TechNet: What's New in DNS Server in Windows Server Technical Preview (Updated: October 1, 2014)
15. TechNet: GRE Tunneling in Windows Server Technical Preview (Updated: October 1, 2014)
16. TechNet: What's New in IPAM in Windows Server Technical Preview (Updated: February 6, 2015)
17. TechNet: Network Controller (Updated: December 18, 2014)
18. TechNet: What's New in Hyper-V Network Virtualization in Windows Server Technical Preview (Updated: March 11, 2015)
19. TechNet: What's New in Hyper-V in Technical Preview (Updated: November 12, 2014)
20. TechNet Wiki: Hyper-V Features in Windows Server 2016
21. Windows Server Blog: Microsoft Announces Nano Server for Modern Apps and Cloud
22. Server & Cloud Blog: Microsoft Announces New Container Technologies for the Next Generation Cloud
23. Microsoft to release next generation of Windows Server in 2016
24. Windows IT Pro: Windows Server Technical Preview expires 15 April 2015
25. Neowin: Second tech preview of Windows Server 2016 coming next month
26. Bright, Peter (4 December 2015). "Windows Server 2016 moving to per core, not per socket, licensing". Ars Technica. Condé Nast. Retrieved 5 December 2015.
27. Berkouwer, Sander (5 May 2015). "The things that are better left unspoken. Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview 2 now available.". Dirteam.
28. The Register: Try to contain your joy: Microsoft emits Windows Server 2016 with nano-services
29. WinBeta: Microsoft shows off what's new in Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview 2
30. Windows Server Blog: What’s new in Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview 2
31. TechNet: What's New in Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview 3
32. TechNet: What's New in Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview 4
33. WinBeta: Microsoft has released Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview 4
34. TechNet: What's New in Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview 5

External links

• PluralSight: Windows Server vNext First Look – An introduction to the new features of the Windows Server vNext operating system
• Our Server Journey – video session describing the path that Windows Server has taken from its creation to the current day and where it is going from here
• Michael Pietroforte: Nano Server – Goodbye Windows Server?
• Microsoft Windows Nano Server, the future of Windows Server?