Windows Server 2016-system installation hardware and software requirements

This chapter supplements the minimum system requirements for installing Windows Server 2016.

If you choose to install through the Server Core option during installation, you should be aware that you do not have any GUI components installed and that you will not be able to install or uninstall them by using Server Manager. If GUI functionality is required, be sure to select the "Server with Desktop Experience" option when installing Windows Server 2016.

View operating System requirements

The following are the expected system requirements for Windows Server 2016. If the computer does not meet the "minimum" requirement, the product will not install correctly. The actual requirements will vary depending on the system configuration and the installed applications and features.

Unless otherwise specified, the minimum system requirements apply to all installation options (Server Core, server with desktop experience, and Nano server) as well as standard and Datacenter editions.

Important: Because of the variety of possible deployment scenarios, it is impractical to determine the "recommended" system requirements, but it is generally applicable. Consult the documentation for each server role that you want to deploy in order to obtain more detailed information about the resource requirements for a specific server role. For best results, schedule a test deployment to determine the appropriate system requirements for a specific deployment scenario.

1. Processor:

Processor performance depends not only on the processor's clock frequency, but also on the number of processor cores and the processor cache size. The following are the processor requirements for this product:

Minimum requirements:

• 1.4 GHz 64-bit processor

• Compatible with x64 instruction set

• Support for NX and DEP

• Supports CMPXCHG16B, LAHF/SAHF, and PREFETCHW

• Supports level two address translation (EPT or NPT)

• Coreinfo is a tool that you can use to confirm which of these features the CPU has.

2. RAM:

The following are the estimated RAM requirements for this product:

Minimum requirements:

• MB (2 GB for server with Desktop Experience installation option)

• ECC (Error correcting code) type or similar technology

Important: If you want to create a virtual machine with the minimum supported hardware parameters (1 processor cores, MB RAM), and then try to install this version on that virtual machine, the installation will fail.

To avoid this problem, do one of the following:

• Allocate more than a minimum of RAM to the virtual machine on which you want to install this version. After the installation is complete, you can change the RAM allocation according to the actual server configuration, with a minimum allocation of up to MB.

• Use SHIFT+F10 to interrupt this version of the boot process on the virtual machine. At the command prompt that opens, use Diskpart.exe to create and format an installation partition. Run Wpeutil Createpagefile/path=c:\pf.sys (assuming that the installation partition you created is C:). Close the command prompt and continue with the installation.

3. Storage controller and disk space requirements:

Computers running Windows Server 2016 must include a storage adapter that conforms to the PCI Express architecture specification. Persistent storage devices classified as hard drives on the server cannot be PATA. Windows Server 2016 does not allow ata/pata/ide/eide to be used to start a drive, page drive, or data drive.

The following are the estimated minimum disk space requirements for the system partition.

Minimum: + GB

Note : be aware that a value of up to GB should be considered as an absolute minimum for successful installation. Meeting this minimum value should be able to install Windows Server 2016 that contains the Web services (IIS) server role in Server Core mode. Servers in Server Core mode are about 4 GB more than the same server in a GUI-mode server.

The system partition will require additional space in any of the following scenarios:

• If the system is installed over a network.

• Computers that have more than GB of RAM also need to allocate additional disk space for paging files, hibernation files, and dump files.

4. Network adapter Requirements:

The network adapter that is used with this version should contain the following characteristics:

Minimum requirements:

• Ethernet adapter with at least gigabit throughput.

• Complies with PCI Express architecture specifications.

• Supports pre-boot execution Environment (PXE).

network adapters that support network debugging (KDNet) are useful, but not a minimum requirement.

Other requirements

The computer that is running this version must also have:

• DVD drive (if you want to install the operating system from DVD media)

The following are not strictly required, but some specific features require:

• UEFI 2.3.1C-based systems and firmware that supports secure boot

• Trusted Platform Modules

• Graphics devices and monitors that support super VGA (x 768) or higher resolution

• Keyboard and Microsoft? Mouse (or other compatible pointing device)

• Internet access (charges may apply)

Note: Although you must install a Trusted Platform Module (TPM) chip to use certain features, such as BitLocker Drive Encryption, it is not a hard requirement to install this version. If your computer uses a TPM, it must meet the following requirements:

• The hardware-based TPM must implement version 2.0 of the TPM specification.

• A TPM that implements version 2.0 must have an EK certificate:> by a hardware vendor provisioned to the TPM or > can be retrieved by the device during the first boot.

• The TPM that implements version 2.0 must be accompanied by a SHA-PCR library and the > will perform PCR 0 to 23 for SHA 256. You can accept a single switchable PCR library that is shipped with TPM > available for SHA-1 and >sha-256 metrics.

• The UEFI option to turn off the TPM is not required.

Windows Server 2016-system installation hardware and software requirements