4 Chapter 4: Performing Initial Configuration Tasks Understanding Default Settings Getting an Overview of the Configuration Process Providing Computer Information Updating Windows Server 2022 Customizing Windows Server 2022 Configuring Startup Options with BCDEdit
Chapter 1
An Overview of Windows Server 2022
IN THIS CHAPTER
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,