Chapter 1

An Overview of Windows Server 2022

IN THIS CHAPTER

Getting an overview of the features new to Windows Server 2022

Making sense of the Windows Server 2022 editions

Looking at the different Windows Server 2022 user experiences

Recognizing the benefits of Server Manager

Working with the Windows Admin Center

Making your data center bigger and better

Windows Server 2022 is the latest version of Microsoft's flagship server operating system. This chapter has something for everyone. If you're already familiar with Windows Server, I discuss the new features that Windows Server 2022 brings to the table. If you haven't worked with Microsoft Server operating systems much before, you'll appreciate the information on the editions and user experiences that you can use, depending on your needs.

Extra! Extra! Read All About It! Seeing What's New in Windows Server 2022

With each new version of Windows Server, Microsoft introduces new and innovative technologies to improve administration, add needed functionality, and improve security. Here are some of the new features in Windows Server 2022:

• Secured-core server: These systems have special hardware that enables them to use advanced security features. Trusted Platform Module (TPM) 2.0 is a standard feature, for example, which can be used for a variety of things, including secure key storage and improved boot time protection from BitLocker. Microsoft also provides increased protections against firmware-level attacks and virtualization-based security (VBS).
• Improvements to Domain Name System (DNS) security: DNS requests can now be made via Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS), using an encrypted channel. This new feature is referred to as DNS-over-HTTPS, which is shortened to DoH. If you're like me, you probably pictured Homer Simpson yelling "D'oh!"
• Transport Layer Security (TLS): In Windows Server 2022, both HTTPS and TLS 1.3 are enabled by default to better protect your network and Internet activity. For more information on this feature, check out Book 5, Chapter 3.
• Server Message Block (SMB) security: Windows Server 2022 brings several improvements for SMB security. SMB can now be used over the QUIC protocol instead of Transmission Control Protocol (TCP). This allows you to take advantage of TLS 1.3 encryption. SMB Direct now supports encryption with little to no performance impact. Previously, if you enabled SMB encryption, direct data placement was disabled due to the impact to performance. Plus, traffic between storage clusters in Storage Spaces Direct can now be encrypted.
• Azure hybrid capabilities: In Windows Server 2022, you have Azure Arc, which provides centralized management of servers, and Azure Automanage: Hotpatch, which allows for rebootless updates. I discuss these features a bit more toward the end of this chapter.
• Windows Admin Center: Improvements have been made to Windows Admin Center to add support for the new secured-core server features.
• Improved support for Windows Containers: Container image sizes have been greatly reduced, and increased support for Kubernetes has been added. I discuss these subjects in greater detail in Book 8.
• Network performance: TCP and User Datagram Protocol (UDP) performance have both been improved in Windows Server 2022.
• Microsoft Edge browser: Microsoft Edge is now the browser of choice on Microsoft products. It has replaced Internet Explorer as the default browser in Windows Server 2022.
• Storage improvements: Migrating data has been made simpler with improvements to the Storage Migration Service. Storage Spaces Direct has also gotten some love with two big improvements. The first new feature, user adjustable storage repair speed, allows users to specify how many resources should be allocated to repairing data or servicing active storage needs. The second new feature is the storage bus cache being available on non-clustered systems, which allows you to create tiered storage on a stand-alone server.

Deciding Which Windows Server 2022 Edition Is Right for You

Windows Server 2022 comes in three editions: Essentials, Standard, and Datacenter. In the following sections, I walk you through each edition so you can determine which one is right for you.

Essentials

The Essentials edition is ideal for small organizations (usually no more than 25 to 50 users). It provides enough basic functionality to do most jobs and is a cost-effective solution for small organizations. Features of the Essentials edition include the following:

• Supports up to two CPU cores
• Supports a maximum of 64GB of random access memory (RAM)

Standard

The Standard edition is ideal for environments with little to no virtualization or when used as a guest operating system. Features of the Standard edition include the following:

• Up to two Hyper-V containers and unlimited Windows containers
• HGS and Nano Server support
• Storage Replica (with some limitations)

Datacenter

The Datacenter edition has the same features as the Standard edition and some additional features that make it the ideal edition for organizations with a lot of virtualization needs, the desire to do software-defined networking, or that need advanced storage options. Some of these features include the following:

• Unlimited Hyper-V containers in addition to unlimited Windows containers
• Unlimited Hyper-V virtual machines and support for shielded virtual machines
• Storage Replica (unlimited) and Storage Spaces Direct
• Software-defined networking
• Network controller
• Host Guardian Hyper-V support

Note: There is a specialized version of Windows Server Datacenter referred to as the Azure Edition. Windows Server 2022 Datacenter: Azure Edition provides greater integration with the Microsoft Azure cloud. You can only get this version through Microsoft Azure by installing it as a virtual machine in Azure. You can't install it on your own on-premises systems or run it on your own hypervisors. New features include the following:

• Azure Extended Network
• Hotpatching
• SMB over QUIC
• Shielded VM support

Note: You won't see Datacenter: Azure Edition called out in this book specifically. However, many of the topics I cover in this book can be applied to Datacenter: Azure Edition.

Walking the Walk: Windows Server 2022 User Experiences

Windows Server 2022 has two user experiences to choose from. What you use will depend on the workload you're wanting to support, as well as organizational requirements. In this section, I explain the Desktop Experience and the Server Core experience, as well as some pros and cons of each.

Desktop Experience

Desktop Experience is what you would consider to be the standard graphical user interface (GUI) that you may have used in previous versions of the Windows Server operating systems. It allows you to interact with the system with buttons and menus rather than through the command line. Server with Desktop Experience can be managed through Group Policy if attached to an Active Directory domain, and workgroup (non-domain) servers can be managed via local Group Policy.

Desktop Experience tends to be the easier form of server installation and administration for beginning system administrators, but I highly recommend that you don't rely on the GUI (shown in Figure 1-1). Become a PowerShell ninja instead! PowerShell is a very versatile language and can be used on a variety of systems, including some of the newer versions of Linux.

FIGURE 1-1: Server with Desktop Experience.

Server Core

Server Core (shown in Figure 1-2) provides a much simpler interface if you connect to the console. You're greeted by a somewhat familiar-looking command window that prompts you for your username and password. After you've logged in, by default you're presented with the sconfig window. When you choose to exit to command line from sconfig, you're given a PowerShell window to interact with. Initial configuration is done with the sconfig utility, though it could be done through a PowerShell script or PowerShell Desired State Configuration (DSC). This experience can be managed through Group Policy if attached to an Active Directory domain or through local Group Policy if they're workstation servers.

FIGURE 1-2: Server Core's sconfig utility is where you perform initial configuration.

Nano

Nano provides an even simpler interface and a much more limited console, which is referred to as the Recovery Console. It isn't available through the regular installer on the disc; instead, you have to download the container image from Microsoft. Nano has a much smaller footprint, both in terms of disk and compute needs, than Desktop Experience or Server Core. Because it has a smaller overall footprint, the attack surface is also reduced. Windows Server Nano 2022 is available only as a container base operating system image and can only be run as a container on a container...