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Remember the Servicing Channels
A while ago, I wrote an article about the Semi-Annual Channel (SAC) to explain the Windows Server product releasing on a six-month cadence. Windows Server 2019 belongs to the Long-Term Servicing Channel which only has new releases every few years. It is the direct descendant of Windows Server 2016. However, it brings many features from the SAC into the LTSC. It also showcases many items that have only appeared in Insider Builds.
The presence of the GUI marks the primary difference between LTSC and SAC. In case you’ve heard any rumors or had any concerns about Microsoft removing the GUI in Windows Server, you can lay them to rest right now. Windows Server 2019 has a GUI, as will all LTSC builds into the foreseeable future.
An Overview of Windows Server 2019’s Direction
You can read through the article that I linked above for Microsoft’s take on the new release. I’ll briefly recap the highlights with a few points of my own.
Hybrid Cloud Goal
I have no real idea how much interest small businesses have in hybrid solutions. I doubt that many businesses, regardless of size, have zero cloud footprint anymore. However, an authentic hybrid solution may not (yet?) make sense to the typical small business. But, given the intended multi-year lifespan of LTSC, this might be the version that plugs you in — even if that happens on some future date.
Honestly, I think that this might be the area of Windows Server 2019 with the greatest impact. The line between Azure and on-premises continues to blur and I believe that this release will serve as the gateway.
New Security Features
Windows Server 2019 includes several interesting features. On the Hyper-V front, we will get three new features related to Shielded VMs:
- VMs running Linux can be shielded
- If you have administrative credentials to the guest operating system, you will be able to use VMConnect
- You will be able to designate Encrypted Networks in your software-defined networks to protect inter-server traffic
Outside of Hyper-V, you also get Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection baked right in. If you’ve only met Windows Defender on client platforms, then you’re in for a treat. For us Hyper-V admins, ATP allows us to stop worrying that our antivirus program will trash our Hyper-V hosts or virtual machines.
Advanced Linux Interoperability
If you’ve already tinkered with the Linux Subsystem for Windows on Windows 10, then you’re ready for the next one. Windows Server 2019 sports LSW as well. I have a few ideas for this one myself, but I would really like to hear what other people plan to do with it.
One thing to point out: WSL does not involve containers or virtual machines (so, no nesting concerns, either). WSL really is your Linux distribution running right on top of the Windows kernel. As you can imagine, that involves some trickery to get everything to mesh. You might occasionally detect a seam. For instance, you cannot set up a WSL instance to run daemons and other background operations. However, for situations where it has a use, you certainly can’t argue with this sort of resource usage:
For situations where WSL does not address your Linux problem, you still have containers and virtual machines.
Increased Focus on Hyper-Convergence
Windows Server 2019 does not add a huge amount of capability to Windows Server for hyper-convergence. The greatest new power it offers pertains to management. The Honolulu project includes a high-powered graphical interface for Storage Spaces Direct. In addition to control, it includes displays of performance history.
One thing that Windows Server 2019 does not change is S2D’s target customer. You still need Datacenter Edition and multiple physical systems. In order for those systems to perform acceptably, you’ll need more than gigabit networking as well. With all of S2D’s wonders, small businesses will not be able to afford to buy in anytime soon.
Other Items
If you get a copy of the preview, then you’ll also eventually stumble upon the Insider’s announcement page where you’ll find a few other listed features and goals. I found several enticing items.
In-Place Upgrades
In-place upgrades have been available forever. In your experience, how often have they resulted in a reliable, trouble-free system? For me, not often. Even though you can run an in-place upgrade more quickly, almost everyone chooses to perform a completely new installation and migrate services and data. Prior to virtualization, we typically bought new physical systems as replacements to old and replaced our operating systems instead of upgrading them. Virtualization upset the balance. But, we still chose new installs.
Microsoft has been working very hard to make in-place upgrades into a viable choice. I don’t know how that will work out. It may take many more iterations for them to gain our trust, and it would take very little for them to lose it. I will try this out, but I won’t intentionally try to influence anyone’s expectations.
Cluster Sets
A cluster set is essentially a cluster of clusters. This technology was designed to break individual resources free of any single cluster in order to dramatically increase the scale of clustering.
Of course, I tend to keep my focus more on how Microsoft technologies can help smaller businesses — the kind that won’t even approach the 64-node counter of a standard cluster. That said, I want to investigate some possibilities of the technology to see if it might have some other uses.
My Take on Windows Server 2019
The divergence of SAC from LTSC creates an interesting situation for many of us. If you’re in a small business that doesn’t use SAC, you probably also don’t need many of these new features. Finding them in 2019 probably doesn’t change much for you, either. If you’re in a larger organization that has adopted SAC, then you could just continue using SAC. LTSC adds the protection of long-term support, but that’s about it.
For the smaller organizations, the appeal of the GUI is nice. But, what else is there for you?
In my mind, I’ve begun thinking of these two channels like this:
- SAC: Use for Microsoft-only uses, such as Active Directory, DHCP, DNS, file serving, Hyper-V, etc.
- LTSC: Use to operate third-party line-of-business applications
From the feature sets, I don’t really know what Windows Server 2019 gets you — where’s the value-add from an upgrade? I expect that most small and large institutions will take it only organically. However, don’t forget that Microsoft always keeps the greatest focus on the current version of Windows. Aside from security fixes, things just sort of stop happening for older versions.
For those groups, I find two things enticing about Windows Server 2019 over Windows Server 2016:
- Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection
- Enhanced support for hybrid cloud
I think that organizations that skew more toward a “medium”-sized organization (no fixed definition exists) will get the most value out of Windows Server 2019. These organizations probably don’t keep up with the rapid release of SAC, but will still want access to the newer features. They get the dual comfort of support and a GUI.
That said, don’t lose track of the hybrid cloud focus. Windows Server 2019 just might start encouraging a wider audience to look into the impressive offerings of Azure.
How to Get Started
It’s time to have some fun! Get your own copy of the Windows Server 2019 Preview and make up your own mind.
Join the Insiders program: https://insider.windows.com/en-us/for-business-getting-started-server/
The keys for the preview:
- Datacenter Edition: 6XBNX-4JQGW-QX6QG-74P76-72V67
- Standard Edition: MFY9F-XBN2F-TYFMP-CCV49-RMYVH
The initial public announcement again: https://insider.windows.com/en-us/for-business-getting-started-server/
The Insiders announcement with other details: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Windows-Server-Insiders/Announcing-Windows-Server-2019-Preview-Build-17623/m-p/173715
Things to Remember
I’m never entirely certain how it happens, but some people seem to forget what “preview” means. I want everyone reading this article to keep some things in mind:
- “Preview” means “pre-release”. “Pre-release” means “not ready for release”. “Not ready for release” means “not production ready”. Do not use this software to hold up important services. Do not expect it to behave all of the time. For instance, when I installed into virtual machines on my 2016 system, the guest OS locked up so hard that VMConnect failed to work and I couldn’t even force the virtual machines offline. I had to reboot the host to get them to work (that fixed them). Preview releases are intended to get lots of people to play with the bits so that they can be massaged into a production-ready product.
- Preview installs cannot live forever. All of them have a concrete, time-bombed expiration date. Do not become overly attached to your preview installs.
- Preview releases update frequently. Insiders are already accustomed to that. Regular administrators might find it to be a bit of a shock.
- More preview releases will come. That would be a good time to test out in-place upgrade, no? You’ll know them by their build numbers. WS2019 starts with build 17623.
Your Mission
Try out the new build. Report back! Don’t report technical details to me though. I won’t mind hearing from you, of course, but I can’t do much for you. Use the Windows Insiders feedback forum: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Windows-Server-Insiders/bd-p/WindowsServerInsiders. However, I’d love to hear your general thoughts about Windows Server 2019. If you’re working with liver servers and want to protect your data reliably and securely, you can get free windows server backup though Altaro Physical Server Backup. Do the new features work well for you? Disappointed you didn’t get the upgrade you were expecting? Let me know in the comments below.
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About the Author
Eric Siron
12 thoughts on "Windows Server 2019 Preview: What’s New and What’s Cool"
Hi Eric,
Like you I’ve been reading about this with interest. Server 2016 had some pretty compelling improvements over 2012R2 (which was itself a stellar OS), but some of the much touted features turned out to be Datacenter Edition only, which really felt like Microsoft were just screwing their customers for every dollar they could – there’s no technical reason those features couldn’t be in Standard, and they’d add a heck of a lot of value and good will.
One thing I was always disappointed by was the limitation of nano-server to Datacenter Edition. Seriously Microsoft, why? Nano-server would be a great tool for anyone trying to run efficient VMs, but in order to do so you’ve got to absolutely pay through the nose for the privilege.
Unfortunately this announcement has me more concerned than excited – there are few compelling new features or improvements in the Standard edition, while the last line on their announcement page included this gem:
“It is highly likely we will increase pricing for Windows Server Client Access Licensing (CAL).”
Given that Server CALs are the same price (and product) irrespective of the version (if you need more CALs for 2012R2, you buy 2016 CALs – 2012R2 CALs haven’t been available since 2016 was launched), even if you’re not upgrading, the cost of licensing your environment is about to go up. Thanks Microsoft.
Regarding cloud, and hybrid cloud, for SMBs I see this growing fairly gradually, for a while at least – it is still cheaper to run on-premises domains if designed right over the life of the server. Azure pricing is worked out in comparison to the highly inflated retail price of lazy enterprise vendors, while actual servers with the same or better specs can be acquired for a fraction of what the big vendors are trying to charge.
Azure also isn’t a good fit if your on-premises server is just running basic network operation tasks like domain control – even if you have a four-nines SLA on your broadband (even expensive business fibre in Australia typically only provides 99.95% uptime, which is a joke), is that a risk you can afford to take? Heck, Azure itself has had significant periods of unavailability. Frankly unless you’re operating somewhere that has exceptionally reliable fibre I would only consider Azure for domain replication, not operation.
But then, Microsoft have to try to gouge all the profit they can out of the next couple of cycles of Server OS – within five years there will be a new option for businesses of all sizes. Google have just updated their product stack for GCS, and it essentially blows every other cloud vendor out of the water – more cost efficient, faster, more scalable, more targeted pricing, easier to understand, far more reliable, easier to work with, far more secure, substantially more powerful… It wins on all levels.
Today, that is only useful for cloud workloads – what was previously run in datacentres. But in three to five years I expect they will be offering a product that will not just encroach on, but replace Microsoft’s traditional business operations product stack – everything from OS to authentication, account management, desktop apps; everything – they’ve been building the foundation for this for years, but some key technologies and factors will converge soon that will make this an extremely compelling option for endpoint deployments (what has traditionally been seen as ‘on-premises’ systems). Microsoft’s inability to innovate on price and complexity of their licensing system will only accelerate this shift.
Make no mistake, the cloud is coming, but I’m not certain Microsoft have done anything like enough to remain relevant in the ‘real’ post-PC, post-‘on-premises’ world.
As it stands now, not many people can really put Nano to efficient use. I think that most really just wanted a Server Core that was smaller than Server Core, but Nano doesn’t match the description. Microsoft has heard those requests and has been working to shrink Core.
I would like to see Microsoft replace all other licensing with CALs. Kill the editions and core counting and just release a singular Server line. CALs would need to be more expensive, sure, but it makes a better case for use-based charges. Would be difficult to implement, but better for customers. I do not pretend to understand why S2D and some other components are Datacenter-only, but my past interactions with members of the Windows Server team makes me think that those decisions were not made capriciously.
Moving existing workloads to Azure is definitely a hard sell, to be sure. I think that many people overlook all of the non-traditional things that Azure can offer, though. People keep asking, “How can I do in Azure what I do in my own data center?” when they would get better answers by asking, “How can Azure augment my current operations?” I feel that, leveraged correctly, 2019 can help people to efficiently balance the things that need to stay on-prem with the new Azure capabilities.
Hello Eric,
Thanks for the contribution.
It is now nice to see Microsoft Enterprise Services with Windows Server 2019 Standard Edition available. For example, Speicherreplikat. Yes Memory Replica is only available to the server-to-server replica in the standard edition, but that’s enough for most small businesses. Yes, sometimes colleagues say Windows Server Datacenter is too expensive. But with the Windows Server Datacenter Edition we get Storage Replica, Hyper-V, Hyperconverged, Storage Spaces Direct and so on. These are really top enterprise features. If you want to get this through other manufacturers, you pay not a little. Most of the price, I think, get customers when they use Hyper-V with many Windows VMs. Then the license model is not so bad. But as far as licenses are concerned, that’s a special topic.
Thanks again for the post.