Would you like to avoid spending your weekends patching servers? The new Hotpatch feature in Windows Server 2022 Datacenter: Azure Edition addresses this pain point—it can reduce many IT teams’ headaches including reboot failures and coordinating multitier workloads. It increases productivity and end-user uptime and can reduce the vulnerability window that would result if an update is delayed.

To demonstrate how Hotpatching works, we’ve brought in an example from our very own Xbox team. In this article you’ll learn how Microsoft has been using Hotpatch with Windows Server 2022 Azure Edition to substantially reduce downtime for SQL Server databases running on Windows Server Azure virtual machines on an important set of backend services for the Xbox network.

Windows Server 2022

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What is Hotpatch?

Hotpatch for Windows Server 2022 Datacenter: Azure Edition allows you to apply every month’s “patch Tuesday” security updates, but does not require the server operating system to restart two out of three months.

While Hotpatch has been available on the Server Core option of Windows Server 2022 Azure Edition for some time, it has just become available in summer 2023 for the more widely used Desktop Experience option. You can see a demo of it in this on-demand session from Ignite.

Here’s what’s great about it:

• Higher availability and fewer restarts.
• Faster deployment of updates because the packages are smaller, install faster, and have easier patch orchestration using Azure Update Management.
• Better protection because the Hotpatch update packages are scoped to Windows security updates that install faster without restarting.

 When you enable Hotpatch, a baseline Cumulative Update is applied to the server. This update does require a reboot. After this point, your team can update easily, with fewer restarts, which can greatly reduce any vulnerability window. Check out this release documentation for details on the Hotpatch calendar.

How the Xbox network team uses Hotpatch

The Xbox network relies on several critical backend services hosted in SQL Server databases running on Windows Server Azure virtual machines. There are 18 different services hosted in this manner, with some services handled by two SQL Servers and others up to 120 SQL Servers. Some of these workloads have been in production for 15 years.

Of course, when you’re running backend services for a group of passionate gamers like Xbox network customers, it’s imperative to patch and restore services with as little downtime as possible.

Approximately 1,000 servers hosting these services started their journey on physical hardware when the services were first deployed, and more than 15 years later, through a process of rolling upgrades and migration, are now running in Azure hosted as infrastructure as a service (IaaS) Virtual Machines (VMs). According to senior service engineer Tim Dreyling, the team has found it “magnitudes easier to manage Windows Server on Azure VMs, over relying on data center support to address ‘machine’ issues.”

After migrating the backend Xbox network services from the earlier version of Windows Server 2022 Azure Edition to the version that supported Hotpatch, the team that supported these specific backend services went from an update cycle every month that could take weeks of careful orchestration to being able to apply Hotpatch updates across a fleet of nearly 1,000 servers in less than 48 hours two months out of every three.

“As a database administrator (DBA) this is the biggest thing to increase our service reliability and uptime since SQL Server Availability Groups were introduced with SQL Server 2012,” says Tim.

Hotpatch with Windows Server 2022 Datacenter Azure Edition isn’t just used with SQL Server with Xbox network backend services, but is also used on IaaS VMs running Active Directory DS Domain Controllers and VMs hosting web services roles.

While your services might not have the complexity and scale of the Xbox network, we think you’ll quickly see the Hotpatch advantage of minimizing reboot downtimes while ensuring the services you host are reliable, protected, and available.

Hotpatch is currently available on Azure Edition (see below for details), but the team has more innovations in the works, and many ways to access cloud innovation in your hybrid cloud environment by connecting your servers to Azure Arc.

In case you weren’t able to join us at Ignite, you can watch two Windows Server-focused sessions on-demand. These talks cover Hotpatching and the Xbox example discussed above, along with a number of new and upcoming features for our Windows Server and SQL Server customers:

1. Do More with Windows Server and SQL Server on Azure—Bob Ward, Principal Architect in the Azure Data team, and Jeff Woolsey Principal PM Manager in Windows Server, do a quick-fire session with descriptions of the latest innovations across these technologies.
2. What’s New in Windows Server v.Next—Elden Christensen, Principal Group PM Manager, joins Jeff Woolsey to explain and demo the features that our engineering team is working on for the next Windows Server.

If you’re interested in being hands-on and trying what’s coming next for Windows Server, you can get early access to the latest features in the works by joining the Windows Insider program.

Learn more about Windows Server and Hotpatch

• Try the latest versions of SQL Server and Windows Server 2022 on Azure.
• You can find out more about Hotpatch for Windows Server 2022 Datacenter: Azure Edition in the documentation and in this blog post.
• Download the image here to get the new edition with Hotpatch (Azure account required).

The post How Hotpatching on Windows Server is changing the game for Xbox appeared first on Microsoft Windows Server Blog.

Ever since its release in 2018, Windows Admin Center has become the solution for managing Windows Server infrastructure running on-premises. It has grown to provide dozens of experiences that make remote investigation and remediation of your servers as easy as possible. Today, we are extending the same tooling to your cloud infrastructure with the general availability of Windows Admin Center for Azure Virtual Machines. Let’s dive into the new features.

Why use Windows Admin Center in Azure

Simplicity and convenience

Windows Admin Center in Azure unlocks incredible capabilities for the Azure portal by providing you with an interface to manage your Windows Server Virtual Machines. By default, the Azure portal provides a singular view for virtual machine management and the essential elements to manage your infrastructure. With the addition of Windows Admin Center, we have supplemented this great experience with additional capabilities such as an enhanced view of virtual machine usage, performance monitoring, viewing of events, and much more. We expect this to reduce the need for you to remote desktop into your virtual machine for administration, simplifying your experience as you deploy and maintain virtual machines with or without a graphical user interface (GUI).

Secure, passwordless authentication

Unlike Windows Admin Center on-premises, Windows Admin Center in Azure features single sign-on using Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) authentication to bring you an end-to-end identity experience in the Azure portal. Regardless of whether your virtual machine is on-premises Active Directory joined, Azure AD joined, or not joined to any domain, Windows Admin Center and Azure AD provide a single sign-on experience. Just add your Azure AD identity to the Windows Admin Center Administrator Login Azure role-based access control (RBAC) role and get access to the full suite of management capabilities that we provide in the Azure Portal. Read more about how this exciting capability reduces the reliance on local administrator accounts when managing Windows Server machines in Azure.

Performant

Users expect a fast, reliable, and personalized experience when managing their infrastructure. Windows Admin Center in Azure leverages cloud-native services such as Azure Front Door, a content delivery network (CDN) that rapidly delivers content and brings you an unmatched server management performance in the Azure Portal. Compared to Windows Admin Center on-premises, the Azure experience is about two and a half times faster, by delivering its static content from the cloud, while keeping your server’s data secure within your network.

Get started with Windows Admin Center

Windows Admin Center in Azure is available to all Windows Server customers on Azure running Windows Server 2016 or higher in the public cloud. Create a new virtual machine today or deploy Windows Admin Center on your existing infrastructure. You can begin managing your virtual machines in Azure using Windows Admin Center by navigating to the Windows Admin Center blade under Settings in the Virtual Machine Azure portal UI.

Windows Admin Center in Azure is also available in preview for managing Windows Server Azure Arc–enabled servers and Azure Stack HCI clusters.

Follow us at Microsoft Ignite and stay tuned for more exciting capabilities coming soon to Windows Admin Center in Azure.

The post Windows Admin Center for Azure Virtual Machines is now generally available appeared first on Microsoft Windows Server Blog.

We are excited to announce that Windows Admin Center can now manage your Microsoft Azure Arc-enabled infrastructure from the Azure portal. This new capability enables seamless and granular management of your Arc-enabled Windows servers and virtual machines as well as Azure Stack HCI systems from within the Azure portal. You can securely manage your servers and clusters from the cloud—without needing a VPN, public IP address, or other inbound connectivity to your machine.

Here is a short video highlighting some of the capabilities included with Windows Admin Center: How to use Windows Admin Center in the Azure portal.

Simplicity and convenience

Windows Admin Center in Azure unlocks new capabilities for the Azure portal by providing you with an interface to manage your on-premises Windows Server and Azure Stack HCI systems alongside your Azure Virtual Machines and other Azure resources. You can save time because you won’t need to remote desktop into your servers and clusters for administration, making it easier to deploy and maintain your Arc-enabled infrastructure.

By default, Azure Arc provides you with the essential elements to manage your infrastructure, such as centralized security, governance, monitoring, and policy. With a one-click experience, Windows Admin Center in Azure now provides end-to-end server management.

Secure

Windows Admin Center in Azure enhances security for your servers and clusters. It allows you to manage your infrastructure without requiring any public IP addresses, VPNs, or inbound connectivity to your systems. Traffic is sent over the existing connection between the Azure Arc agent and Azure—no extra configuration is required. Communication between you and your systems is end-to-end encrypted, with Secure Socket Layer (SSL) termination occurring directly on your infrastructure.

Familiar UI

You can now configure, troubleshoot, and perform maintenance tasks with the familiar Windows Admin Center interface that you know and love. Beyond a consistent interface, you can manage files, view expired certificates, monitor performance, view critical events, use PowerShell, use an in-browser RDP session, and much more without leaving the Azure portal.

Designed for the cloud

While Windows Admin Center you see in the Azure portal is familiar and has most of the same functionality, it is tailored to provide a cloud-first experience. We are continuously innovating to deliver new capabilities and experiences. In the Azure portal, Windows Admin Center is more performant and always kept up to date, seamlessly giving you the latest and greatest features. In addition, Windows Admin Center is backed by the support infrastructure that provides reliability for all your other Azure services. You now have a great way to manage your on-premises servers and clusters from Azure.

Getting started

Windows Admin Center in the Azure portal is available to all Azure Stack HCI customers and Azure Arc-enabled Windows Server customers running Windows Server 2022, Windows Server 2019, or Windows Server 2016 in the Azure public cloud.

You can begin managing your infrastructure in Azure using Windows Admin Center by navigating to the “Windows Admin Center (preview)” blade under “Settings” in the Arc for Servers or Azure Stack HCI Azure portal UI.

Learn more

New to Azure Arc-enabled servers? Learn more about Azure Arc-enabled servers.

New to Windows Admin Center? Check out this Introduction to Windows Admin Center video.

Interested in on-premises Windows Admin Center? Read our Windows Admin Center documentation.

The post Preview of Windows Admin Center for Azure Arc-enabled infrastructure appeared first on Microsoft Windows Server Blog.

Now, if you’re reading this today, you probably still have some workloads that won’t upgrade before the deadline. The good news is that we have options to keep you protected and putting you on a path to modernize your infrastructure and apps.

Let’s look at these options.

Extended Security Updates keys are available from Azure portal

For apps and services that need to run on-premises on Windows Server 2008 and 2008 R2, Extended Security Updates can be purchased under eligible programs. Please visit our site for the most up to date information including our frequently asked questions.

We recently published this Tech Community blog on the steps to purchase, install, and activate Windows Server 2008 and 2008 R2 extended security updates keys. If you’re unsure whether your servers are ready to receive extended security updates and like to test, refer to KB4528069 for Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1, and KB4528081 for Windows Server 2008 SP2.

Additionally today, we are sharing that you can now join a preview of extended security updates (in the Azure portal), which will allow you to obtain eligible unlock keys from the Azure portal. To get started, go to extended security updates for Windows Server in the Azure portal. Please visit tech docs for detailed documentation. 

Migrate to Azure and upgrade when you are ready

Azure offers one of the most effective ways that gives you more time to modernize. Windows Server 2008 and 2008 R2 Virtual Machines (VMs) on Azure get 3 years of free Extended Security Updates, giving you the opportunity to invest more time towards modernizing your app stack while staying secured.

With the Azure hybrid benefit you can save 40 percent off the total cost of a virtual machine. Combining the Azure Hybrid Benefit with Azure Reserved Virtual Machine Instances, you can realize up to 80 percent savings on the total cost of a VM. Azure hybrid benefit works for both Azure Virtual Machines and Azure Dedicated Host.

To get started and assess your app dependencies such as on domain controllers use Azure Migrate. It is a free and agentless tool to discover on-premises servers, assess dependencies, and migrate apps to Azure.

It’s critical to choose the right path for the right Server Role. We’ve laid out the options for you here, and for more detailed reading, check out the Windows Server migration guide.

Secondly, evaluate your migration options based on your business requirements. Azure offers several lift and shift options. Windows Server 2008 and 2008 R2 apps can be migrated to any of the following options and then, upgrade to Windows Server 2019 or Windows Server 2016.

• Migrate to Azure Virtual Machines
• Run Windows Server hosted on VMware natively in Azure using Azure VMWare Solutions
• For those of you who require dedicated compute due to compliance requirements, take advantage of Azure Dedicated Host

Now, most of our customers are running lift-and-shift Windows Server 2008/R2 migrations and app modernization efforts in parallel. Apps and services that lend themselves to quick modernization can take advantage of services such as App Service and Azure Kubernetes Service, which supports Windows Server containers. Please note Windows containers are available in versions Windows Server 2016 onwards. App Service works great for web apps written in .NET Framework and .NET Core as well as other frameworks such as Node.js, Java, PHP, Ruby, and Python. For modernizing with containers, Azure Kubernetes Service can help to easily deploy and manage those apps.

And finally, to help you with this transition to the cloud, we launched the Azure Migration Program, which offers step-by-step guidance for migration. This program was created in collaboration with well-known and trusted partners and service providers, each of whom has a deep understanding of Windows Server.

Now, let’s look at the scenario where you need to run Windows Server apps and services on-premises.

Upgrade on-premises

Over the past year, we launched the most innovative version of Windows Server yet, with Windows Server 2019. For workloads that you know will stay on-premises Windows Server 2019 offers the latest advances in security such as Advanced Thread Protection to detect attacks and zero-day exploits and Defender Exploit Guard to help combat ransomware attacks. Windows Server 2019 with several built-in hybrid features such as Storage Migration Service and Azure Network Adapter. This ensures that your apps, services, and data are all secured and ready for a move to Azure whenever you’re ready.

For modern apps, Windows Server 2019 offers improved app compatibility for containers and support for Kubernetes. Learn more about Windows container in our documentation.

On-premises, you can also take advantage of Windows Admin Center, a modern server management tool to manage Windows Server environments. Windows Admin Center offers connections to Azure services for Backup, and Disaster Recovery. Check out the Windows Admin Center tech docs to get started today.

And finally, for those of you using Azure already, the newly announced Azure Arc can centrally manage servers on Azure and on-premises.

More resources

Here are some learning path presentations to help you get started:

• Migrating to Windows Server 2019
• Top 5 new features in Windows Server 2019
• Windows Server Hybrid – Azure Arc
• Migrating Windows Server to Azure IaaS – Network and Storage
• Using Existing Windows Server licenses on Azure using Azure Hybrid Benefit

Finally, join us in the Windows Server Tech Community to keep up to date with experts around the world, and stay tuned for the next Windows Server Summit to learn more about the latest innovations. We’re looking forward to hearing from you.

The post Protect workloads still running on Windows Server 2008 and 2008 R2 appeared first on Microsoft Windows Server Blog.

Today, we’re announcing the general availability of Windows Admin Center, version 1910. Server admins already trust Windows Admin Center to manage more than 3 million servers, and with today’s release, we’re delivering new functionality to make it easier to remotely manage your server workloads and take advantage of cloud services for your hybrid server environments.

Windows Admin Center quickly became a favorite IT tool by consolidating traditional Windows Server admin tools into a modern, browser-based remote management app for Windows Server running anywhere – physical, virtual, on-premises, in Azure, or in a hosted environment. It’s great for remote management and troubleshooting a virtual machine (VM), a server, or a cluster of servers. Many customers also use it as their go-to graphical user interface when running the Server Core option of Windows Server.

Highlights of what’s new today include:

New hybrid capabilities with Azure

Windows Admin Center includes streamlined integration to help you extend on-premises servers and networks seamlessly to Azure for hybrid capabilities. Here are just a few of the new features:

• Azure Arc enables you to easily connect your servers to Azure and use unified management and governance centrally from Azure. You can use Windows Admin Center to connect your on-premises servers to Azure Arc agents with just a few clicks.
• Integrate with Azure Security Center, for end-to-end threat monitoring across both on-premises and Azure for your server workloads. This Azure service gives you the benefit of 3,500 Microsoft security experts who track more than 6.5 trillion threats every day and build that knowledge into cloud offerings that help you protect your Windows Server workloads wherever they are.
• Azure Monitor is now even more powerful in Windows Admin Center. In just a few clicks, you can turn on a set of default alerts to notify you about server and cluster performance health via email, so you can more proactively manage your servers and address issues before they become problems.
• Azure Extended Networking makes it easier to extend on-premises server networks and IP subnets to Azure without breaking IP dependencies. This feature removes some of the complexities of connecting your on-premises network to the cloud.
• Create new Azure Virtual Machines from within Windows Admin Center and gain additional server capacity in the cloud with just a few clicks.
• Storage Migration Service helps migrate on-premises file servers to Azure, and upgrade to newer versions of Windows Server in the process. Using Windows Admin Center, you can create Azure Virtual Machines on the fly during migration, automatically size them, provision them with formatted storage, and join them to your domain – while allowing you to migrate from legacy operating systems, Samba on Linux, and standalone servers to the latest versions of Windows Server and failover clusters.
• Integration with Azure File Sync now allows you to configure Storage Sync Services and set up Azure File Sync for your on-premises servers without ever leaving Windows Admin Center.
• Windows Admin Center now supports creating Azure Virtual Machines on the fly during setup of new asynchronous replication partnerships so you can use Azure as your secondary site for Storage Replica, helping to protect your business from disasters with minimal data loss.

New and improved tools for Windows Server management

We’ve added more core management capabilities for managing servers, virtual machines, clusters, and hyperconverged infrastructure.

• When apps or servers are running slower than usual, one of the first things that server admins check is Windows performance counters. In version 1910, we are pleased to preview a reimagined Performance Monitor. Early adopters tell us they love the new graphical views and the ability to customize views for their environment. Learn more in this detailed performance monitoring blog.
• Windows Admin Center now fully supports live migration between Hyper-V servers and clusters. Manage your on-premises Hyper-V VMs with ease using the new VM import/export and VM tagging features.
• Simplify management of your web applications with the IIS management tool in Windows Admin Center.
• The new packet monitoring tool in Windows Admin Center delivers insights via network troubleshooting and diagnostics.
• Based on customer feedback, we’ve also made numerous improvements to core tools such as updates, files, and server/cluster settings. Read the full list of what’s new in this release

Streamlined setup and enhanced tools for hyperconverged systems

As customers refresh aging on-premises servers and storage, many are adopting hyperconverged (HCI) systems for improvements in cost and performance. Windows Admin Center now provides a wizard to streamline the initial deployment of HCI clusters, as well as new tools to help with your day-to-day management of Azure Stack HCI or Windows Server 2019 hyperconverged systems.

The smoothest path to HCI is using a pre-validated system from our partners. We encourage you to check out our HCI partner directory to find more than 150 pre-validated partner configurations.

New and updated partner extensions

We are also pleased to announce new Windows Admin Center partner extensions from Dell EMC (released in August 2019) and HPE, as well as updated extensions from DataON, Lenovo, QCT and Thomas-Krenn.AG, to provide detailed hardware management for Windows Server and Azure Stack HCI solutions. Other partner extensions offer server configuration change tracking (BiitOps), and flash array management (Pure Storage).

Get started now

Visit our website to learn more about Windows Admin Center and download version 1910 to start using these and other exciting new features. Read the full list of what’s new in this release, and share your feedback with us on UserVoice.

We release new versions of Windows Admin Center every six months. If you’d like to be one of the first to try out new features and provide feedback to our engineering teams, join the Windows Insider program.

Check us out at Microsoft Ignite!

Whether you attend in person or join us for a live stream of Microsoft Ignite sessions, we have many options for you to learn more about Windows Admin Center and Windows Server.

• Check out our schedule of Microsoft Ignite sessions.
• Keep the conversation going with the Windows Server community on Microsoft Tech Community, Facebook, or Twitter.

The post Announcing the general availability of Windows Admin Center, version 1910 appeared first on Microsoft Windows Server Blog.

Why are customers choosing to deploy Windows Server Core now? It’s Windows Admin Center. This new server management tool delivers many of the benefits of the Desktop Experience and is a free download that comes with your Windows Server license. Admins love the intuitive, graphical user interface and the ability to manage your virtual machines from any Windows 10 device. It can be used to log in and manage Windows Server running anywhere. This is a great management option for Windows Server Core because the graphical interface runs locally on your client device and not on your servers. This reduces the size of the operating system that you deploy to support your server workloads.

The benefit of Windows Server Core is that it’s a minimal server installation option with fewer server components. This option creates a smaller OS footprint and is ideal for cases where you run virtual machines at scale. Because Windows Server Core does not include a traditional Windows desktop GUI, admins manage Windows Server Core with a command-line interface (CLI) such as PowerShell, which offers scaled automation and lowers server management costs.

Microsoft Office 365 realized the benefits of Windows Server Core. Exchange Online is a core part of Office 365 and has standardized with Windows Server Core across its entire fleet of cloud infrastructure servers. This is because Windows Server Core enables Office 365 to be more operationally efficient and secure by only deploying and managing the capabilities of Windows Server that it needs.

Customers are choosing the Windows Server Core installation option for Windows Server 2019 installed as the host OS on bare metal hardware at three times the rate than that of Windows Server Core for Windows Server 2016. This installation is great for hyper-converged infrastructure, Hyper-V, and storage technologies like Storage Spaces Direct. It is also an important infrastructure choice for hybrid cloud deployments. As mentioned, Windows Admin Center, the centralized management tool for Windows Server on-premises and in the cloud, has made Windows Server Core even more manageable than ever.

Windows Server 2019 application compatibility for Windows Server Core

• Increase in the compatibility of Windows Server Core for server applications that are already in market or have already been developed by organizations and deployed.
• Assistance with providing OS components and increased app compatibility of software tools used in acute troubleshooting and debugging scenarios.

If you’re curious about whether you should go with Windows Server Core or Windows Server with Desktop, find out which one is best for you in this Server Core and Server with Desktop blog. There are a number of operating system components that are available as part of the Windows Server Core App Compatibility FOD. Below you’ll find screenshots of Windows Server Core with the App Compatibility FOD installed, including Windows Event Viewer and SQL Server with SQL Management Studio, two FOD’s that customers really appreciate.

Windows Event Viewer:

SQL Server with SQL Server Management Studio:

Thank you for using Windows Server 2019. We will continue to listen and improve. Please let us know on Insider forums or User Voice if your app does not work on Server Core with the App Compatibility FOD installed, or if you have any other feedback on Windows Server.

The post Windows Admin Center unleashes Server Core adoption appeared first on Microsoft Windows Server Blog.

At the Windows Server Summit in May, Cosmos Darwin and Greg Cusanza from the Windows Server team presented a lightning round all about hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) powered by Windows Server. If you haven’t had a chance to watch the event, check out the recording of the live stream and deep dive sessions by registering online. It’s quick and free.

Here are the 25 things they presented in the lightning round:

1. Azure Stack HCI Catalog

Available for purchase right now, there are over 75 Azure Stack HCI solutions from over 15 partners. Check out the Azure Stack HCI Catalog to find solutions from your preferred hardware vendor and get started today.

2. Networking and SDN coexisting side-by-side

Now all HCI solutions include what is required for software-defined networking (SDN). You no longer need to devote your entire infrastructure to SDN. Instead, you can mix and match per virtual machine (VM), using traditional VLAN-based networking alongside SDN. Try it out yourself in the latest Windows Admin Center release.

3. Deploy with SDN Express

Deploying SDN is easier than ever with SDN Express. Download the scripts and run SDN Express to get a helpful wizard that guides you through all the steps necessary for deployment–all in under 30 minutes. Learn more by reading the documentation for SDN deployment.

4. Windows Admin Center for HCI

Windows Admin Center is the future of Windows Server in-box management, and that extends to HCI as well. Add your HCI cluster to Windows Admin Center to get purpose-built tools for managing and monitoring Storage Spaces Direct and SDN, including capabilities like provisioning volumes, managing Hyper-V virtual machines, troubleshooting configuration or hardware problems, and much more.

5. Deduplication and compression for ReFS

Deduplication and compression are now available for ReFS, Microsoft’s recommended file system for HCI. Deduplication and compress increase usable capacity by identifying duplicate portions of files and only storing them once. Savings vary depending on the type of file but can range up to 90 percent for highly repetitive storage like ISO or VHDX backups. Check out the demo “Deduplication and compression for Storage Spaces Direct“ from Microsoft Ignite 2018, and read the documentation for Data Deduplication and ReFS.

6. Larger maximum scale

Even with deduplication and compression, it’s still possible to run out of capacity, so in Windows Server 2019 the maximum total raw storage capacity per cluster is increased from 1 PB in Windows Server 2016 up to 4 PB now. That’s enough space to store all of Wikipedia, in every language, with complete edit history, uncompressed! Watch the demo “Scale to over 3.5 PB with Windows Server 2019 and QCT QxStor” from Microsoft Ignite 2018 for an example.

7. Cluster sets

Now in Windows Server 2019, we can encapsulate a cluster within a cluster set and we can add additional clusters in a cluster set. The great thing about this is that a virtual machine (VM) can seamlessly live migrate from one cluster to a host in a different cluster and continue to access its storage. To learn more, read the documentation on cluster sets.

8. Span sites with SDN

In Windows Server 2019 we’ve improved the gateway performance for SDN’s by increasing from 4 Gbps to 18 Gbps in a single SDN gateway. We also have generic routing encapsulation (GRE) tunneling that connects two network controllers to allow different workloads to talk to each other as if they’re one network. To learn more about high performance gateways in Windows Server 2019, read the blog post “Top 10 Networking Features in Windows Server 2019: #6 High Performance SDN Gateways” on the Windows Server Networking Blog.

9. Native support for persistent memory

Windows Server has become more scalable over time with regards to both capacity and performance. It is on the leading edge of x86 hardware innovation and is consistently one of the first hardware systems and hypervisors to support new hardware technology, such as the Intel Xeon processors and Intel Optane. Watch the demo at Microsoft Ignite 2018, and read the documentation “Understand and deploy persistent memory.”

10. Faster networking with fewer cycles/byte

In addition to hardware improvements, we’ve also been investing in our networking stack. Some of the feature improvements include nearly double the throughput for send and receive paths, lower CPU utilization, more equipped for high bandwidth, high latency links, and a Data Plane Developer Kit (DPDK) for Windows that bypasses the host networking stack to speed up packet processing capabilities. You can read more about all of these features on our Windows Server Networking Blog.

11. Mirror-accelerated parity is 2X faster

The storage team has also been focused on optimizations with mirror accelerated parity, a technology that allows you to create a volume that partly uses mirror resiliency and parity, or erasure coding resiliency. This provides the benefit of faster writes and opens up capacity.

12. Built-in performance history

HCI now has built-in performance history. It easily gets historical data and displays over 50 performance counters in aggregate. There’s nothing that you have to install, set up, or configure. Explore more in the documentation for performance history.

13. Shielded virtual machines

Shielded virtual machines are part of the core hypervisor and have been improved so that even if you don’t have network access you can still connect to it through the console in PowerShell Direct. We’ve also added the ability to add Linux inside your shielded VMs. Watch the five minute overview video of shielded VMs and check out the documentation for VM connect and PowerShell Direct to shielded VMs, as well as deploying Linux inside a shielded VM.

14. Core scheduler

It’s also important to protect your hypervisor host. In Windows Server 2016 we had the Classic Scheduler that offered fair share, preemptive round-robin scheduling for guest virtual processors. In Windows Server 2019, we have a new hypervisor scheduler called Core Scheduler, which constrains the virtual processors to physical core boundaries, further isolating virtual machines. Understand further details by reading the documentation “Managing Hyper-V hypervisor scheduler types.”

15. HTTP/2

In Windows Server 2019 we’ve made HTTP/2 better with connection coalescing, which allows two websites with a common domain name to share a certificate and a single TCP connection. It also has an improved cipher suite selection, which reduces connection failures and continues to enforce blacklisted ciphers.

16. More secure clustering

The core failover clustering has gotten more secure by completely removing dependency on NTLM, exclusively using Kerberos or certificate-based authentication between nodes, and now no change is required by the user or deployment tools. Check out the documentation “What’s new in Failover Clustering” to learn more.

17. Cluster-aware updating for HCI

Cluster-aware updating for HCI now allows you to easily keep your Windows Server fully patched with the latest updates. It is a technology that orchestrates the roll-out of updates across your server nodes. More information is included in the documentation “What’s new in Failover Clustering,” as well as during the demo “Be an IT hero with Storage Spaces Direct in Windows Server 2019” during Microsoft Ignite 2018.

18. USB witness

Now in Windows Serve 2019, in addition to file share witness requiring an on-premises connection, and cloud witness requiring a connection to the cloud, we are also offering a third option called “USB witness,” which allows you to insert into a compatible router or switch. More information can be found in the documentation “What’s new in Failover Clustering,” as well as in the example steps to configure USB witness with the NetGear Nighthawk X4S.

19. Nested resiliency

Nested resiliency keeps you up and running even in the event of having both a drive failure and server failure at the same time. It uses RAID 5 + 1 to do parity resiliency and mirror that across to the other server. This allows you to survive multiple failovers even with a two-node cluster. To learn more, refer to the documentation “Nested resiliency for Storage Spaces Direct.”

20. Protection with Azure Site Recovery

For smaller sites and branch offices, Azure Site Recovery allows you backup your virtual machines to Azure and is integrated into Windows Admin Center. To learn more, refer to the documentation “Protect your Hyper-V Virtual Machines with Azure Site Recovery and Windows Admin Center.”

21. Azure Monitor and Health Service

Health Service on Windows Admin Center is now integrated with Azure Monitor and provides email and SMS notifications when something goes wrong. Learn how to configure Azure Monitor for HCI.

22. Integration with Azure Network Adapter

Azure Network Adapter is an integration into Windows Admin Center that allows you to connect a single server to an Azure virtual gateway so that you can get access from that server to your Azure files and VMs running in Azure. Watch the Microsoft Mechanics video “Windows Server 2019 + Microsoft Azure = hybrid management updates” for a demo.

23. LEDBaT or PacketMon

LEDBaT will back off lower priority workloads in order to let high priority traffic to take over and when the higher priority traffic slows down, the lower priority traffic will pick back up again in a second or two. Read more about LEDBaT on the Networking Blog.

24. High accuracy time

By implementing features such as Precision Time Protocol, Traceability, and Leap Seconds support, we’ve ensured improved time accuracy, especially for those of you in regulated industries. Learn more about high accuracy time features in the Windows Server Summit session and in the Windows Time Service documentation.

25. Over 25,000 clusters worldwide!

Last year, we had 10,000 clusters running around the world and this year we have over 25,000 clusters running storage spaces direct!

That’s a wrap!

We just gave you 25 reasons why you should consider HCI with Windows Server. And again, register online to watch the session from Windows Server Summit if you’ve missed it. From security to scalability and enhanced management, we are continuously improving our products to meet your data center needs. And if you stay tuned, I have no doubt you’ll be seeing 25 more reasons soon!

The post 25 reasons to choose Azure Stack HCI appeared first on Microsoft Windows Server Blog.

HCI is all the buzz nowadays! What exactly is HCI? Spelled out it’s hyperconverged infrastructure, also referred to as the software defined data center (SDDC). It allows companies to run their storage, networking, and compute with lowered capital expenditure (CAPEX) and operating expenses (OPEX) since storage and networking are software-defined and don’t require the same amount of hardware and level of management. HCI offers centralized management, which is great for many types of environments including development and product workloads. Also, now that there is no storage area network (SAN), you can scale up more easily since all you have to do is add an additional node. With Microsoft, all of this is included in Windows Server. Let’s dig into the features.

New OS features and Azure Stack HCI launch

Azure Stack HCI launched in March 2019 with all the software-defined features in Windows Server 2019. Some of these features include native support for persistent memory to enable better performance, deduplication, and compression to save space and money, as well as increase efficiency, nested resiliency inspired by RAID 5+1 so two-node clusters can survive multiple simultaneous failures, and increased maximum scale by 4x to 4 petabytes.

At launch, there were more than 70 solutions from 15 partners. Azure Stack HCI is the evolution of the Windows Server 2016 based Windows Server Software-Defined (WSSD) program. Did you know that if your hardware vendor supports it, you can officially get an in-place upgrade from Windows Server 2016 to Windows Server 2019? This includes HCI and is officially tested and supported by Microsoft!

Now you can manage HCI with Windows Admin Center

If you are running HCI, you’ll want to try the gorgeous new unified user interface (UI) in Windows Admin Center. We just launched Windows Admin Center version 1904, which offers new HCI management capabilities like improved charting for RDMA networking, new drive latency and error statistics, full support for dark theme, and clustering enhancements. You can read more about it in the Windows Admin Center blog released last month.

New Azure connectedness features

Get even more out of your on-premises HCI by connecting to Azure. It’s totally optional! Examples include:

1. Cloud Witness so that two-node clusters can achieve quorum without any other on-premises infrastructure.
2. Azure Site Recovery to protect virtual machines with just a few clicks in Windows Admin Center.
3. Connect your HCI to Azure Monitor to get text or email alerts when things fail, even when you’re not at your desk.

What next?

To learn more, check out the 70+ solutions in the new store-style catalog, and tune in to the Windows Server Summit on May 22, 2019, where the team will highlight some of their favorite novel new solutions.

Register for Windows Server Summit.

The post It’s all the buzz! HCI in your Windows Server environment appeared first on Microsoft Windows Server Blog.

You’ve been hearing about all the great innovations in Windows Server 2019. We’ve also been working to enhance how we manage your Windows Server environment, and we’ll be showing you more at the upcoming Windows Server Summit 2019.

Windows servers can be managed in multiple ways based on your need

We know that you need to manage both individual servers and servers at scale. We also know that each customer is at a different stage in their hybrid journey, so we provide scaled management tools centered in on-premises and scaled management tools for hybrid management in Azure. Whatever your management needs are, we have you covered–including patching, backup, monitoring, governing, and automation, or simply managing an individual server remotely on-premises or in Azure. See below to understand how these relate:

Let’s drill into each of the three technologies:

Windows Admin Center

One of the exciting innovations in the Windows Server world has been Windows Admin Center. Launched in 2018, Windows Admin Center is an evolution of inbox server tools that is now a browser-based app for managing servers, clusters, hyper-converged infrastructure, and Windows 10 PCs. Its main benefit is that it allows you to manage a single server from a web-based experience. Windows Admin Center has no additional cost for all Windows Server customers and is now managing over 2.7 million nodes, which is pretty amazing.

Windows Admin Center is not intended to replace technologies such as Azure Management and System Center that manage many servers at a time. In fact, one of its best kept secrets is that Windows Admin Center includes hybrid on-ramps to Azure Management for single servers to take advantage of the Azure services for backup with its unlimited storage, or disaster recovery to provide redundancy with your own data center, for patching and more.

If you haven’t seen it, watch the overview of Windows Admin Center on Microsoft Cloud’s YouTube page. You can also read the Windows Admin Center blog,”Windows Admin Center 1904 GA update is now available,” to learn about what’s new with the platform.

System Center

System Center has long been the mainstay of Windows Server management at scale. While Windows Admin Center enables the management of a single Windows server in depth, System Center offers management of many Windows Servers at scale. System Center suite provides the complete repertoire of tools for managing Windows Servers within your data center. For the enterprise customer looking for at-scale configuration, monitoring, data protection, automation, and provisioning of the fabric and the virtual machines across your on-premises Windows Server environment, System Center is essential.

We continue to innovate with System Center. The 2019 release of System Center was announced on March 14, 2019 and includes automation for provisioning HCI environment, improved security, and faster backups with the latest versions of Windows Server. System Center has also added on-ramps to Azure services by integrating with Azure Backup, Azure Monitor, and update management. You can read all about System Center 2019 in the blog post, “Now available: Microsoft System Center 2019!” Future revisions of System Center will double down on management capabilities for the hybrid cloud environment and light up management-at-scale of new platform capabilities in Windows Server vNext. Learn more at our System Center sessions at the upcoming Windows Server Summit!

Azure Management services

As customers are increasingly adding hybrid workloads, those workloads in Azure also need to be managed. At some level the basic functions are similar – servers need to be patched, backup-ed, monitored, and you need automation to help enable that. Azure was the first cloud platform with built-in management services and is the most mature amongst major public cloud providers. If you are running workloads in Azure, then it often makes sense from a convenience perspective to use the built-in Azure services – after all you can back up a virtual machine (VM) in Azure in just a few clicks. The Azure services are SaaS services so you don’t need to worry about patching and upgrading them, or installing them on hardware. Microsoft does that for you, which can be a big time saver and you are always up to date. In addition to managing your Azure workloads, the Azure Management services use agents that can be deployed in your on-premises VMs running in VMWare or Hyper-V so you can achieve a single pane of glass hosted in Azure to manage both your on-premises workloads and your Azure workloads. Of course, there is lots of new technology in Azure like containers and cloud native services that also can be managed and governed.

Bringing it all together

We know that Windows Servers are an essential component of your IT infrastructure and each customer is at a unique place on your migration to hybrid. That’s why our management strategy at scale supports your needs and is at a continuum. Many customers use both System Center and the Azure Management services, and those same customers benefit from using Windows Admin Center on individual servers. It all falls in line with “our mission to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.”

Join us for the event!

At Windows Server Summit 2019 we’ll expand upon some of the major benefits of adopting Windows Admin Center and System Center to manage your Windows Servers. We’ll even include some demos to show you how they work. Check out the blog post, “It’s that time again: Windows Server Summit 2019!” to see all the topics that we’ll hit upon during the May 22nd event.

Already excited to come? Great! Register for Window Server Summit 2019 today!

The post It’s time to update your Windows Server management strategy! appeared first on Microsoft Windows Server Blog.

Don’t let the name fool you. Azure Site Recovery (ASR) can be used as an Azure migration tool for 30 days at no charge. It has been used for years to support migration of our 64-bit versions of Windows Server, and we are pleased to announce it now supports migration of Windows Server 2008 32-bit applications to Azure Virtual Machines.

This is good news for organizations that wish to take advantage of the new 2008 End of Support option to get three additional years of Extended Security Updates for free in Azure. The 2008 and 2008 R2 versions of Windows Server will reach End of Support on January 14, 2020. But customers who migrate these versions to Azure Virtual Machines will continue to get free security updates until January 2023. This buys customers more time to upgrade or modernize, while starting to gain the benefits of cloud.

Did you know that if you have Software Assurance, you can use existing Windows Server licenses to save on Azure? In fact, if you are using the Datacenter edition of Windows Server on-premises, you can keep it running on-premises and save on Azure Virtual Machines at the same time. Find more details on our Azure Hybrid Benefit web page.

With the end of support for Windows Server 2008 in January 2020 fast approaching, now is a great time to begin modernizing your applications and infrastructure with the power of Azure. For more information about migration with Azure Site Recovery or other great tools from our partners, check out the Azure Migration Center.

The post Use Azure Site Recovery to migrate Windows Server 2008 before End of Support appeared first on Microsoft Windows Server Blog.