Tuesday, October 4, 2016
What is the Microsoft Nano Server and What are the Benefits of use
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.
Sunday, August 7, 2016
How to Setup Disaster Recovery as A Service (DRaaS) for your Organization
Disaster recovery (DR)
planning has a reputation for being difficult and time consuming. Setting up alternate
processing sites, procuring hardware, establishing data replication, and
failover testing have been incredibly expensive undertakings. To top it all
off, the need for 24x7x365 business application availability threatens to make
disaster recovery planning an exercise in futility.
Disaster Recovery as a Service, will help you to setup your
DR site with below listed benefits
1.
low cost with – Pay as you go
2.
High availability -
3.
Simplicity and Easy Setup
4.
Scalability
5.
Flexibility
6.
Compliance
7.
Easier Testing
Step to Setup your DRaaS
·
Understanding
your Disaster Recovery Requirement and Needs
o
Understand
today DR Practices – Hot, Cold and Warm Sites
o
Public /
Private
·
Defining
Your Requirements for a DRaaS Solution
o
Perform a
Business, Impact Assessment
o
Setting
Recovery Targets (RTO and RPO)
o
Backup
and Replication with bandwidth limit
o
Understanding
how DRaaS untangles network complexities (Latency and Bandwidth)
o
Working
through the legal and compliance issues associated with DRaaS
o
Data
Protection and Geography and the Law
o
Data
Ownership, access and Use
o
Data
Custodian,
o
Data
Retention,
o
Data
Location,
o
Bootstrapping
Recovery Site,
·
Defining
your correct Backup Technology
o
3-2-1
Rule
·
Implementing
DRaaS
o
Build a successful
DR Plan with Clear Scope
·
DRaaS
Operations and Maintain with Testing
o
Operational
aspects of a DRaaS system, including network monitoring, conducting failovers
and failbacks, and testing a DR plan.
o
Cutover
test, Paralle test, Simulation, and Document
·
Building
an Exit Strategy
o
Monitor
and analyze, Periodic business reviews
Find the right resources to help you to plan and deploy Core
infrastructure solutions. Join with us we will provide support and service to
setup your DRaaS for your organization.
Sunday, July 31, 2016
How to do the More than 95% Windows Client Patch Compliance
As I know this is very critical task all the IT admin and
IT managers. And this must be in place as per the security compliance.
If you’re not in up to date patch level, definitely your
environment in high vulnerable situation.
This article will explain to you how you can do more than
95% Windows client patch compliance in the security reports.
Solution – Implement System Center Configuration Manager
(SCCM)
KEY FACTS
Correctly Design your SCCM Architecture - Consideration
for the correct Architecture
Numbers of Connecting
Devises,
Numbers of Remote Site,
Remote Site Bandwidth,
Numbers of Application and
Image and capacity of them,
Integrate Intune – If you want
to manage devices which are non-join domain and non-Windows Operating System,
Integrate WSUS,
Correctly Assign Job Role what your
expecting with SLAs
Patch
Admin – Manage and Distribute all the patches
Image
Admin – Test and Deploy correct image to required devises
App
Admin – Test and deploy correct Apps to correct user or devise groups
KEY BENEFITS
Patch
Management and Reporting
Application
Management and Reporting
Assets
Reporting and Inventory – Asset Intelligent
Operating
System Deployment (OSD)
Settings
Management (DCM)
End
Point Protection
In this Article we are considering only How to do the More
than 95% Windows Client Patch Compliance
Guidelines for How to do the More
than 95% Windows Client Patch Compliance
Purpose –
Ensure timely delivery of
Security updates, help make environment secure and provide consistent user experience.
Target Compliance –
Deploy active exploit update to 95% of computers with three
business days.
Deploy
critical update to 95% of computers within seven business days.
Compliance period – Comply
within 3 or 7 business days, as appropriate.
Recommended Patching Process –
Pre-Update Deployment –
Silent, Interactive or on-demand patching you
can choose for this.
Create
Patch testing Groups with covering all the Operating Systems & application,
Provide
better awareness session about patch testing collection devices users,
Prior
notice them, before start deployment,
Deploy,
Monitor, Create Risk Mitigation plan, Request Feedback.
Patching
testing period define as 7 days with starting patch Tuesday.
Update Deployment –
Production
deployment with Silent Patching.
Enforce
Restart if it required,
User
Receives Initial restart notification at the 120th minute, and
Final
restart notification at the 60th minute.
The user
continues to receive a restart notification until the system has been
restarted.
Post-update Deployment
Confirm
deployment using reports statics
Cleanup
process
Document
Publish
Final report to all stakeholders
Best Practices
People – Make sure that
security of the environment is the TOP PRIORITY
Process –
Communicate
to users every month about patch Tuesday
Deploy
update consistently after the validation phase is complete
Preform
quality control on the test deployment before release to production
Monitor
and remediation any issues if you face quickly
Remove
expired update periodically
Technology –
Maintain
98% client heath all the time
Defined
correct boundaries and boundary group with including correct site servers
Deploy
Automatic Patch Deployment rules for each device collections
Use
WSUS to install the configuration manager client
Verify
SCCM Client settings
Weekly
or at least Monthly Client PC restart schedule
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