Windows Server 2016 Administration: Modifications

Posted on January 18, 2016 by Lynn McGinnis

Continuing with a previous post on the upcoming Windows Server 2016, we look at administrative improvements in 2016. There are many articles about Windows Server 2016 that tell us about the new features we should expect, but this blog is about the modifications we should expect. We are talking about changes made to the features we already utilize in the Windows operating system. There are many changes coming and this article is not going to cover every one. It will focus on the significant changes that will affect a Windows Administrator’s day-to-day usage of the operating system, our most common tasks.

The Interface – The GUI will be similar to the GUI in Windows 10. The ‘Start’ button is back. That should make a lot of administrators happy being that the lack of a Start Menu was one of the top complaints with Windows Server 2012. However, we will also see a change in how we find the items we utilize. Navigation of menus and features will have some differences. For instance, certain settings may not be where you expect to find them in relation to Server 2012 and 2008.
Active Directory – Windows 2003 functional levels will be deprecated in this release. If your Active Directory is still at a Windows 2003 functional level or you are still utilizing File Replication Services, it is time to enact a plan to upgrade the domains functional level and move on from FRS. Enhanced security features and certificate services will improve compliance.
PowerShell – Everything we do in the Windows 2016 GUI can be done in PowerShell because everything done in the GUI is controlled through PowerShell. However, the reverse is not true. There are tasks you will need PowerShell commands to accomplish because there is no GUI for the task. PowerShell 5.0 will be expanding the language, commands, and feature-set to support the modified and new features in Server 2016. This article is focusing on the administration side, but we have to note that there will be many modifications/changes on the developer side as well like using classes to develop.
Windows PowerShell Console – For years now, we have been working with PowerShell, but our primary console to perform the work within is rudimentary. Many of the features people have been looking for in a language editor are being incorporated into the updated PowerShell Console. Features like drag-and-drop, cut-and-paste, and more.
Storage – While there are new features for file servers and storage clusters, the most significant update to an existing feature affects data deduplication. Optimizations in the handling of large files and large volumes will give improved access and control. Clusters will be able to run in a mixed Server 2012 and Server 2016 mode. Sever manager will be able to control deduplication of backup workloads.
Hyper-V – One of the big issues with Hyper-V is that it is not as feature rich as its competitors. Windows Server 2016 hopes to close that gap. Features for handling server upgrades, modifying resources to VMs while active, device access, and more were integrated to close the feature gap. The 2016 Hyper-V Manager is backward compatible so you can manage 2012, 2008, and Windows 8 VMs. Hyper-V Manager no longer has to use the security of the account logged in. You can now access Hyper-V with an account other than the one you are logged in as. Improvements in the handling of server hardware resources give virtual machines improved performance. Even the upgrade process for a Hyper-V cluster has been improved.
Remote Desktop Services – The most significant modifications to RDS are the updated clients and browser support. For instance, Edge is fully supported and there will be new Windows 10 and Mac apps available. Device support has been enhanced to include Pen devices. Support for OpenGL applications is also included. New features will enhance the offerings we will be able to give our users like Personal Session desktops.

These are some of the major modifications in 2016 that will affect an administrator. There will be many modifications in Windows 2016. More than what can be discussed here. Hopefully the few changes listed above will prompt administrators to take a look at what is coming and how it could affect their environment. While discussing the modifications to administration from 2016, it is hard not to mention new features. There are many new features are going to affect your role as an administrator. To see more of what is new and changing in Windows Server 2016, check out the Microsoft blogs.

Feel free to post any questions or comments below or reach me directly by email.

Craig R. Kalty (CCIA, CCEE, CCA, MCITP:EA, MCITP:SA, VCP)| Sr. Network Consultant craig.kalty@customsystems.com

Time to backup your backup

Posted on October 6, 2014 by Lynn McGinnis

Don’t lose what’s important

Everyone has files that are important to them and it would be a disaster if they were lost. Years’ worth of pictures from graduations, kids growing up, and even items like tax returns or import documents that have been scanned for digital file storage. Keeping digital files can make it easier to store, as well as search for later. The problem is, what happens if your hard drive crashes and you lose everything? A good backup plan is something that most people tend to forget about. Many people will backup pictures and documents to one main hard drive and believe that is good enough. What happens if that drive dies? I had a colleague bring me the external hard drive where she had kept all the pictures of her children growing up. The drive had crashed and after looking at it, I had to let her know there was nothing I could do to retrieve the files. The drive was dead. She lost years of pictures. She was under the impression that it was on an external drive and that was good enough. The truth of the matter is, you can never have too many backups.

Don’t be fooled by cloud storage options

Cloud storage programs such as Drop Box, One Drive and Google Drive are great places to store files, but you need to keep them stored somewhere else as well. For me , I keep my son’s pictures on my laptop and backed up to my Microsoft One Drive account. Then from time-to-time I will run a backup of those photos to my external hard drive that I keep connected to my wireless router. This way the pictures and important files are kept on my laptop, in my One Drive cloud storage and also on an external hard drive. These pictures are so important to me, I will probably even back them up a fourth time to something like DVD.

Do follow the Backup 3-2-1 Rule

This rule states:

3 – Copies of anything you care about – Two isn’t enough if it’s important

2 – Different formats at least (more is always better in this case) – examples of this would be Dropbox (or other cloud storage) + DVD, or hard drive + USB stick

1 – Off-site backup – This means using a cloud storage option such as Carbonite or Crash Plan.

Crash Plan and Carbonite are topics in of themselves, but these are great programs to back up larger amounts of data. With programs like One Drive and Drop Box, you tend to get one folder that is backed up. With Crash Plan and Carbonite, you can back up your entire computer if necessary. Look for upcoming posts about Crash Plan and Carbonite where I will explain exactly how they work and why they are a good choice. In the meantime make sure you backup your important data by no less than the Backup 3-2-1- Rule.

As always, we welcome your opinion and questions. Do you have a data backup plan in place? How are you keeping your files and precious memories safe?

Ryan Ash
Network Consultant
ryan.ash@customsystems.com
©Custom Systems Corporation 2014

Things To Do With An Old Server

Posted on February 17, 2014 by Lynn McGinnis

This Old Server

Today, we’re going to discuss things you can do with your old server hardware. With everything going Virtual or Hosted now, sometimes you’re left with an old server that you don’t know what to do with. Besides the obvious, (boat anchor, paper weight, etc.) we can still put that ol’ reliable server to good use. Let’s assume that the warranty on your old server is out-of-date, and you have already moved all of your production services to either new supported hardware, or to a hosted service like Office 365. As an example, our in-house Exchange Email server was migrated to Office 365 several months ago, and a SQL service we were providing has also been moved off-site. That leaves us with two perfectly good (although old and no longer covered by manufacture warranty) servers. One of these servers has plenty of disk space, but not a lot of memory. The other has lots of memory, but not a lot of disk space. This gave me an idea: Use an iSCSI connection between the two servers, and setup a development environment.

Making the Old New Again

Internet Small Computer System Interface (iSCSI) has been around and in use for about a decade, but vast improvements have been made with Windows Server 2012. Before today, you had to use either the Microsoft iSCSI add-ons, 3rd party tools, and they were more difficult to manage. Now you can use the iSCSI tools right from the Windows Server 2012 management console. But not only are design and setup easier; With higher performance network equipment, iSCSI connections are more reliable, and much faster than they used to be. But you don’t need to go out and buy fiber optic cards. Gigabit Ethernet cards can be found in just about any server built in the last five years, and are easy to find. While I’d like to go out and buy fiber optic cards, this is only for development purposes, and I set a goal in the beginning of this experiment to only use equipment that I already had. Both of my test servers have dual gigabit cards (two ports each), and will be plenty fast enough.

We have ways of Making You Talk

There are two simple ways to setup your physical iSCSI connection: Use a switch that supports VLANS, or just use an 8wire cross-over cable. Many Cisco routers include a cross-over cable, so I have a few. Just make sure that they are 8wire – many cross-over cables only have 4 wires to simply cross the transmit and receive signals – but these can only handle 100mb – and we’re going for the full gigabit here.

After installing Windows 2012 on both servers, I assign a static IP address to both primary NIC cards that resides on my primary subnet (192.168.1.x). This is for server management purposes, and to connect to the rest of my network. Then I assign a static IP to the secondary NIC cards that do NOT reside on my primary network, for example 10.0.0.x. This will keep the iSCSI traffic off of my primary network equipment, and make the traffic between the two iSCSI servers MUCH faster.

Next, I use the Windows 2012 Server tools to setup my primary iSCSI management server (DEVHOST1) and my secondary iSCSI storage server (STORAGE1). From the Windows Server 2012 management tools, we assign all of the available disk space on STORAGE1 as a LUN to store our Virtual hard drives, which will be managed by the DEVHOST1 server.

Here’s what it looks like:

By keeping the iSCSI network traffic on its own subnet, either on a separate switch or by using a cross-over cable, we improve the performance of both.

I can now install Microsoft Hyper-V on the DEVHOST1 server. I can then build Virtual Servers with their large files located on the STORAGE1/LUN1 server.

This setup was for a Development environment. I will be using it to test an Exchange 2013 server and a test SQL 2014 server. In a production environment, I would be using new and supported hardware.

Custom Systems offers a wide range of new and supported solutions for your production storage and network performance needs. To find out more, contact us today!

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Windows Server 2016 Administration: Modifications