Windows Server Installation Options

Windows Server 2016

• Windows Server 2016 is a server operating system developed by Microsoft, released on September 26, 2016
• It was developed concurrently with Windows 10

Editions of Windows Server 2016

• Essentials
• Standard
• Datacenter

Installation Options

• Desktop Experience (GUI) • Classic and well-known form of Windows Server • Contains a GUI, making it user-friendly and easy to manage
• Core Server • Lacks some features and roles compared to Desktop Experience • Smaller disk footprint and attack surface • Less updates, reboots, and open ports • Great option for infrastructure servers like Active Directory Domain Controllers and DNS servers • No accessibility tools, out-of-box experience, or audio support
• Nano Server • Available only as a container base OS image • Meant to be run as a container within a container host • Used for containerized applications meant for server OSs • Can be deployed with Standard or Datacenter, but requires attached Software Assurance to the licensing of the host server

Core Server Advantages & Disadvantages

• Advantages: • Smaller footprint (less CPU, RAM, and disk space consumption) • Less vulnerabilities and more resistance to cyber attacks • Less updates and patches, resulting in less restarts • Easy to turn off Windows Update by setting updates to manual via Sconfig
• Disadvantages: • Some roles and functions are not supported

Minimal System Requirements for Windows Server 2016

• The actual requirements depend on the system configuration and installed applications and features

Objectives

• By the end of this lecture, students will be able to: • Explain the basic operation of Windows Server 2016 • Define the server operating systems 2016 • Compare versions of operating system 2016 • Define Core Server • Define Nano Server • Install Windows Server 2016

Learn about the different installation options for Windows Server, including Desktop Experience, Core server, and Nano. Understand the features and characteristics of each option.