The early look at Windows Server 10 reveals many expected enhancements and nice surprises
Alongside Microsoft's Oct. 1 release of the Windows 10 Technical Preview,
the company offered early previews of the next iteration of Windows
Server and System Center. With final releases not expected until the
summer of 2015, these extremely early technical previews are a marked
departure from the norm for Microsoft. Far from being feature complete
or even stable, the Windows Server Technical Preview nevertheless
presents a way to become familiar with new features coming down the
pike, and to put the UI changes through their paces.
As you'd expect, Windows Server Technical Preview largely builds on
virtualization, storage, networking, and management capabilities
introduced with Windows Server 2012. But it also holds a few nice
surprises. Here is a quick tour of the highlights -- for now. We're sure
to see much more in the coming months.
Start menu and the UI
Debate over the switch from the Windows 7 Start menu to the Start screen
in Windows 8 has been nonstop since day one, but if the Start screen
proved to be a bad fit for laptops and workstations, it makes even less
sense for servers. Fortunately the new Start menu isn’t limited to the
Windows 10 client, but is also present in the Windows Server Technical
Preview. While server users won’t benefit much from Windows 8-style live
tiles, the new Start menu (accessed by clicking the Windows button) is
unobtrusive and familiar.
The other big changes in the UI are focused on multitasking. First is
support for virtual desktops (not to be confused with remote desktops),
which can be used to group like applications into separate desktop
instances. The ability to snap windows to the edges of the screen is
also enhanced in the technical preview. Instead of simply splitting the
screen in half like in Windows 7 and Windows 8, you can split the screen
into quarters. This feature is clearly more beneficial to desktop users
(hopefully most of your server management isn’t done from the console),
but anything that makes an admin’s workflow smoother and more efficient
is welcome.
Technical Preview offers fast access to all apps and files.
The command line and PowerShell
Thanks to PowerShell, more and more admins are driving their Windows
servers from the command line. Microsoft is improving the experience
there too. In current versions of Windows, selecting text or doing a
simple copy and paste into the Windows command line is not only a pain,
but can introduce line breaks, tabs, and inconsistent or unexpected
characters. These inconsistencies are gone in the Windows Server
Technical Preview. Now when you paste incompatible special characters
such as slanted quotes into the command line, they are automatically
cleaned up and converted into their command-line-safe equivalents.
Microsoft is aware that PowerShell is a major selling point of the
Windows Server platform right now and is taking measures to ensure the
whole experience is optimized and pain free. The Windows Server
Technical Preview includes PowerShell 5, which is a significant release
offering critical new features, as well as updates to features that have
been around for a while. The biggest new feature in PowerShell 5 is
OneGet, which brings package management capabilities to Windows.
Another major new area of improvement is the ability to manage network
switches from within PowerShell, a nod to Microsoft’s efforts to
leverage automation throughout the data center. Other PowerShell
enhancements include updates to Desired State Configuration and the
ability to natively manage zip archive files.
Like the old Windows 7 Start menu, the new Start menu in Windows Server
Technical Preview offers fast access to all apps and files.
Windows Defender
Windows Defender, Microsoft’s free antimalware solution, was originally
licensed only for home use, then integrated into the OS with Windows 8.
The Windows Server Technical Preview includes Windows Defender natively,
though the UI element is optional. Many corporate customers will likely
prefer an enterprise antimalware solution, but there are clear benefits
to having Windows Defender enabled natively. Having antimalware
protection from the get-go is a big deal, and the ability to manage it
through PowerShell is another notable win for system administrators.
Command Prompt property settings that make life much easier on the command line.
Hyper-V
Without a doubt, one of Microsoft’s most rapidly evolving platforms,
Hyper-V continues to receive major attention in the Windows Server
Technical Preview. The first new feature is the ability to perform a
rolling upgrade to a Windows Server 2012 R2 Hyper-V cluster, upgrading
cluster nodes to the Windows Server Technical Preview one by one. Once
all nodes have been updated, the functional level of the entire cluster
can then be upgraded to support a number of new Hyper-V features.
For starters, virtual machines running on Windows Server Technical
Preview use a new configuration file format. The new format promises to
be both more efficient (when reading and writing the data) and safer,
preventing data corruption due to storage failure. Checkpoints for
point-in-time snapshots are now supported in production workloads, due
to the use of backup technology within the guest OS. Windows-based
virtual machines will use the Volume Snapshot Service, while Linux VMs
flush their file system buffers during checkpoint creation.
Hyper-V Manager receives some love in the Windows Server Technical
Preview, gaining the use of WS-MAN, and the ability to access a
different set of credentials to connect to a remote host. Additionally,
virtual network adapters and memory are now treated as hot-swap capable,
so it's easier to perform critical VM changes on the fly. Finally,
virtual machines hosted in the Windows Server Technical Preview now
support Connected Standby.
Storage enhancements
Windows Server 2012 introduced Storage Spaces, a method of pooling
physical storage devices (hard drives or SSDs) into logical volumes in
order to boost performance and reliability. Windows Server 2012 R2 added
automated tiering, with pools of SSDs being used for the most
frequently accessed data and spinning hard drives for less frequently
used data.
Two major features added in the Windows Server Technical Preview are
aimed at common use cases for Windows Server-based storage. The first,
Storage QoS (Quality of Service), leverages PowerShell and WMI (Windows
Management Instrumentation) to build policies managing prioritization
and performance of virtual hard disks. The second, Storage Replica,
brings block-level replication to Windows Server. Storage Replica
provides high availability and can even be used to build multisite,
fail-over clusters. Between Storage QoS and Storage Replica, the Windows
Server Technical Preview shows Microsoft is serious about making
Windows Server a viable option for all of your storage needs.
Virtual networking
Windows Server 2012 introduced several new capabilities for building
complex virtual networks and allowing clients to connect to their own
isolated virtual network through the use of multitenant site-to-site
VPN. This was pitched as a way for service providers to build their own
cloud service on the Windows Server platform, but the configuration was
complex and primarily handled within PowerShell. The Windows Server
Technical Preview brings this functionality into a new server role
called the Network Controller. The Network Controller role provides the
ability to automate the configuration of networks both physical and
virtual, as well as handle numerous other aspects of your networking
environment.
incorporates virtual networks, physical networks, and network services.
Identity and access management
Possibly one of the more exciting features coming to the next version of
Windows Server is more control over the permissions provided to users
with elevated rights. Microsoft has not said much publicly about the
additional level of security, only that time-based access and more
fine-grained permissions will be available. However, one could speculate
that this will be based on PowerShell’s JEA (Just Enough Admin) feature
set. JEA allows administrator access to be limited to specific
PowerShell cmdlets, specific modules, or even certain parameters within a
cmdlet.
Additionally, JEA is configured using a local administrator on the
server, preventing network-level permissions from being cached on the
server and potentially being used in a pass-the-hash attack. Regardless
of how these features look and feel in the final product, they will be a
welcome addition for IT shops.
MultiPoint Services
In conjunction with Remote Desktop Services, MultiPoint Services support
multiple users logging into the same computer. Rather than requiring a
thin client or additional hardware, MultiPoint Service clients are
connected directly to the server using standard USB and video devices.
This functionality was originally shipped as Windows MultiPoint Server
2012, a product aimed at schools that allows a teacher to manage what is
shown on student displays. Now it comes along for the ride in Windows
Server Technical Preview.
DNS Policies
An announced feature that is nowhere to be found in the current release
of the technical preview, DNS Policies will presumably allow you to
manage how and when your DNS server responds to client queries.
Microsoft states that DNS responses can be configured based on time, the
public IP of the DNS client performing the query, and other parameters.
There are several scenarios in which this type of functionality could
be useful, such as load balancing or custom responses based on
geography. I imagine this having a similar feel to the policy-based DHCP
functionality introduced in Windows Server 2012.
IP Address Management
IPAM (IP Address Management) was introduced in Windows Server 2012 as a
way to monitor and manage DHCP and DNS services. The focus in both
Windows Server 2012 and Windows Server 2012 R2 was clearly on DHCP and
the IP address space. The Windows Server Technical Preview enhances
existing functionality for DNS servers and your IP address space, but
also allows you to manage DNS zones and resource records on both Active
Directory-integrated and file-backed DNS servers.
Web Application Proxy
First appearing as a core Windows service in Windows Server 2012 R2, Web
Application Proxy functions as a reverse proxy, allowing external
clients to access Web applications internal to the corporate network.
The Windows Server Technical Preview promises new capabilities in Web
Application Proxy, including the ability to handle HTTP-to-HTTPS
redirection and additional support for claims-based or integrated
Windows authentication.
Windows Server next
Where is Windows Server Technical Preview taking us? Microsoft pitched
Windows Server 2012 and Windows Server 2012 R2 as the basis for our
private cloud. Major features introduced or substantially enhanced in
Windows Server 2012 -- such as Hyper-V, Storage Spaces, IP Address
Management, and multitenant site-to-site VPN -- were geared specifically
to companies looking to gain efficiency through consolidation and
automation.
The Windows Server Technical Preview is a clear progression of this
vision, as most of the features enumerated here bring something new to
the table when it comes to building and managing a hybrid or private
cloud.
Source: http://www.infoworld.com
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