This will be the
Future Operating System which we are installing in our Datacenter. As of right
now, it is targeted as an OS for born-in-the-cloud applications and cloud
OS. The majority of Company corporate strategy is a concerted push toward the cloud,
whether it's public, private, or a hybrid cloud environment. Nano Server is
another key component of Microsoft's strategy to be highly competitive in the
private cloud market. Nano Server, a stripped down version of Windows Server
2016 that's designed specifically for cloud environments.
Unlike Server Core,
Nano Server is intended to be a completely headless installation (no local UI
and no local console). Also, where the Windows UI can be installed on top of
Server Core, Nano Server has no such capability.
What are the Benefits Of Microsoft Nano Server
1. Secure Server
The attack surface
is much smaller now. There is no Internet Explorer, no Windows Explorer, and no
GUI to exploit. Also, the default ports open with a base install is 12 as
opposed to 34 ports open by default with a full Windows GUI Server install.
This makes Nano Server a much more secure OS than its predecessors.
2. Costs
Because this server
creates such little overhead, the amount of resources needed to run Nano Server
VMs on a Hyper-V host will be miniscule. With its potential to lower costs and
increase margins, this will be one of the biggest reasons for companies to use
Nano Server VMs whenever appropriate. Allowing companies to get the most out of
every dollar spent on hardware is huge.
3. Faster boot times
Nano Server is only
installed with the components that are going to be used, so the startup time is
significantly faster. The boot IO is around 150MB. In fact, at Microsoft Ignite
when Snover presented a demo of a Hyper-V Nano Server cluster, the servers were
powering up faster than the switch was!
4. Fewer reboots
required
IT Admins will no
longer be frustrated by unnecessary reboots caused by patching windows
components that aren’t even used on their servers. Since only the components
needed are installed, the amount of patches and updates that are pushed out to
Nano Server will be much less. With the current Nano Server build, the
estimated amount of reboots a year are 3, and Microsoft is working diligently
to try to get this down to 2. Fewer reboots on Hyper-V hosts and their
VMs means less interruptions, which also means less “after hours” work for
some environments.
5. Easier remote
management
With Nano Server
there is no local logon, it will be managed entirely remotely. This direction
on Microsoft’s part requires them to focus on improving the remote
administration capabilities of Windows Server. They have recently been working
on improving some of the remote management aspects that were previously
lacking. For example, as part of the Azure stack, there is now a remote task
manager that allows admins to connect to VMs and view performance and processes
running. This will benefit IT Admins by improving the remote administration
experience when managing Hyper-V hosts and VMs.
6. Smaller server
image
Nano Server is 20x
smaller than the full Windows Server with a GUI. Because of this, storing Nano
Server VMs on a SAN or Hyper-V local storage will not consume large amounts of
space. Mass deployments of Nano Server VMs will not take as long to
install and configure; and copying server images over to Hyper-V nodes will
take less time. The small footprint of this OS is what really makes it shine.
Here is the benefits
comparisons for all three server version which available in market
Nano Server Use Cases
The obvious downside
of having a stripped-down version of Windows Server is that it has limited
capabilities. At this time, Nano Server supportability and compatibility we can
listed as below.
Role/Feature
- Hyper-v
- Failover Clustering
- File Server and Storage
- Internet Information Server (IIS)
- Desired State Configuration (DSC)
- System center Agent
- DNS Server
- Secure Startup
- Shielded VM
- RAM Disk supportability
Nano Server Management
The big news in
regards to Nano Server is on the management front. Clearly, as a completely
headless version of Windows Server, all management of Nano Server is
accomplished remotely. A variety of Microsoft management tools are available to
use, including MMC (Microsoft Management Console) Snap-Ins like Hyper-V Manager
or Services, Windows PowerShell, Desired State Configuration (DSC), Server
Manager, and Microsoft System Center. Microsoft also states that third party
management tools, such as Puppet and Chef, Nano will be supported.
Microsoft has
designed Nano Server to be fully manageable through automated means in keeping
with their cloud strategy, but fully realizes that some organizations will
prefer to perform some administration with GUI tools. It's important to
recognize the distinction between the headless nature of Nano Server and a
system that is only manageable through a command line. Nano Server does offer
support for management through GUI tools using remote management.
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