Introduction to Windows Server 2019 Preview

In the case of Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2016 was not yet fully popularized, yesterday the Windows Server team announced that Windows Server 2019 would be launched in the second half of 2018. At this stage, you can access the preview version via Microsoft's Insiders program. (Insiders location)

New features in Windows Server 2019:

Windows Server 2019 is built on a solid foundation of Windows Server 2016, and Windows Server 2016 is by far the fastest version of Windows Server. Since the release of Ignite 2016, the Windows server team has been busy getting insights from user feedback and product telemetry, and constantly refining new versions.

The Windows server team also spends a lot of time with customers to understand the challenges of the future and the direction of the industry. Four themes are consistent-hybrid, security, application platform and hyper-converged infrastructure. The Windows Server team brings a lot of innovation to these four topics in Windows Server 2019.

One, hybrid cloud scenario:

We know that migrating to the cloud is a journey, and often a hybrid approach that combines on-premises and cloud environments, which is meaningful to our customers. Expanding Active Directory in the cloud, synchronizing file servers and backups are just a few examples of customers extending their data centers to the public cloud today. In addition, the hybrid approach allows applications running locally to take advantage of the innovations in the cloud, such as AI and the internet of things. Hybrid cloud enables a long-term approach to the future -and that's why we think it will play a central role in cloud strategy for the foreseeable future.

On the ignite of September 2017, we announced a technical preview of project Honolulu-we re-conceived the Windows and Windows Server Management experience. Project Honolulu is a flexible, lightweight, browser-based, on-premises deployment platform and solution for management scenarios. One of our goals with Project Honolulu is to connect existing Windows Server deployments to Azure services, making them easier and easier. With Windows Server 2019 and Project Honolulu, customers will be able to easily integrate Azure services such as Azure Backup, Azure file synchronization, and disaster recovery, enabling them to leverage these azure services without disrupting their applications and infrastructure.

The Management dashboard for Project Honolulu for Azure Backup in Windows Server 2019 preview

Second, security:

Security remains a top priority for our customers. The number of network security incidents continues to grow, and the impact of these events is rapidly escalating. A Microsoft study showed that an attacker could penetrate the environment on average in just 24-48 hours after infecting the first machine. According to Fireeye/mandiant's report, an attacker could remain in an infiltration environment-without notice-on average up to 99 days. We continue to work to help our customers improve their security posture, which centralizes the experience of a global scale data center running Microsoft Azure,office 365 and some other online services.

Our security methods have triple protection, detection and response. We provide security features in all three aspects of Windows Server 2019. On the protect side, we introduced a shielded virtual machine in Windows Server 2016, which was warmly welcomed by our customers. Shielded virtual machines protect virtual machines (VMS) from attacks by compromised or malicious administrators in the schema, so only VM administrators can access virtual machines on known, healthy, and proven protection architectures. In Windows Server 2019, a shielded virtual machine will now support a Linux virtual machine. We are also expanding vmconnect to improve troubleshooting for Windows Server and Linux shielded VMs. We are adding an encrypted network so that the administrator can encrypt the network segment and use a switch to secure the network layer between the servers.

In the area of detection and response, in Windows Server 2019, we embed Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection (ATP), which provides preventative protection in the operating system, detects attacks, and attacks on 0. This enables customers to access deep cores and memory sensors, improve performance and tamper resistance, and enable response operations on the server machine.

Windows Defender ATP protection for computers running Windows Server 2019 Preview

Third, application platform:

The key guiding principles for our Windows Server team are the relentless focus on the developer experience. The two key aspects that are presented to the developer community are improvements to the Windows Server container and on Linux on the windows® subsystem (WSL) .

Since the introduction of containers in Windows Server 2016, we have seen its adoption momentum. Tens of millions of container images have been downloaded from the Docker hub. The team learned from feedback that a smaller container image size would significantly improve the experience of developers and IT professionals who are using containers to modernize existing applications. In Windows Server 2019, our goal was to reduce the Server Core base container image to One-third of the current size of 5 GB. This reduces image download time by 72%, further optimizing development time and performance.

We will also continue to improve the available options as we orchestrate the deployment of Windows Server containers. Kubernetes support is currently in beta, and in Windows Server 2019, we are making significant improvements to the compute, storage, and networking components of the Kubernetes cluster.

The feedback we keep getting from developers is the complexity of navigating the environment using Linux and Windows deployment. To address this issue, we have previously extended the Windows subsystem on Linux (WSL) to the build of Windows Server so that customers can run Linux containers side-by-side with Windows containers on Windows Server. In Windows Server 2019, we will continue to improve WSL to help Linux users bring scripts into Windows while using industry standards such as Openssh,curl&tar.

Kubernetes managing a container host running Windows Server 2019 Preview

Iv. Hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI):

Hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI): HCI is one of the newest trends in the server industry today. According to IDC data, the HCI market grew in 2016 and 64%,gartner said the market would reach $5 billion by 2019. This trend is mainly due to the fact that customers understand the value of x86 servers that use high-performance local disks to run their computing and storage needs at the same time. In addition, HCI provides the flexibility to easily scale out such deployments.

Customers looking for an HCI solution can use the Windows Server 2016 and Windows Server Software defined programs today. We work with industry-leading hardware vendors to deliver cost-effective, yet powerful HCI solutions through proven designs. In Windows Server 2019, we built this platform by adding scale, performance, and reliability. We have also added the ability to manage HCI deployments in the Honolulu project to simplify management and daily activities in the HCI environment.

Project Honolulu Hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) Management Dashboard in Windows Server 2019 Preview

Finally, Window server customers using System Center will be pleased to know that System Center 2019 is coming soon and will support Windows Server 2019.

Questions and Answers about Windows Server 2019:

Q: When can Windows Server 2019 be used universally?

A: Windows Server 2019 will be launched in the second half of 2018.

Q: Is Windows Server 2019 a long-term servicing Channel (LTSC) version?

A: Windows Server 2019 will mark the next version in our long-term servicing CHANNEL.LTSC. For most infrastructure scenarios, LTSC is still the recommended version of Windows Server, including Microsoft SQL server,microsoft SharePoint and Windows Server Software defined solutions such as workloads.

Q: What are the available installation options for Windows Server 2019?

A: As a LTSC version, Windows Server 2019 provides the desktop experience and Server Core installation options for the server-contrary to the half-yearly channel that provides only the Server Core installation option and the Nano server as the container image. This ensures that the application is compatible with existing workloads.

Q: Is there a half-yearly channel release in Windows Server 2019?

Answer: Yes. A biannual channel release scheduled for simultaneous Windows Server 2019 will bring container innovation and will follow the regular support lifecycle of the semiannual channel release (1 August). Q: Does Windows Server 2019 have the same licensing model as Windows Server 2016?

Answer: Yes.

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Introduction to Windows Server 2019 Preview