Windows Server 2019 is now commercially available, but hardware lags — Redmondmag.com

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Windows Server 2019 is now commercially available, but hardware lags behind

Microsoft announced on Tuesday that Windows Server 2019 has reached “general availability” retail release status, although certified hardware from equipment manufacturers is yet to come.

Windows Server 2019 is available in Essentials, Standard, and Datacenter editions. The new server operating system can be downloaded from the Volume Licensing Service Center by Windows Server licensees with Software Assurance coverage (Software Assurance is an annuity that insures upgrades for a contractual period) . It is also available for download by testers at Microsoft’s Evaluation Center. Download can be done from Azure Marketplace for those deploying Windows Server 2019 on an Azure VM.

However, various subscribers and business partners will have to wait to get the Windows Server 2019 bits.

“Later in October, we will add Windows Server 2019 to Visual Studio Subscription (formerly MSDN) and other portals, such as Microsoft Partner Network (MPN),” Microsoft’s announcement said.

For more details on Windows Server 2019 features, see this recently released Microsoft “What’s New” document.

RTM was skipped
The reason certified hardware is not yet available from Microsoft’s OEM partners is that Microsoft has skipped the production release (RTM) stage with this release of Windows Server 2019. “RTM” means a milestone when equipment manufacturers test polished bits on hardware before launching new embedded products.

This release is the first Windows Server OS product to go without an RTM, according to an announcement from Cosmos Darwin, a senior program manager on Microsoft’s Core OS team:

Windows Server 2019 is the first release to skip the classic Release To Manufacturing (RTM) milestone and go straight to General Availability (GA). This shift is driven by the growing popularity of virtual machines, containers, and cloud deployment. But it also means that the hardware ecosystem hasn’t had the opportunity to validate and certify systems or components before release; instead, they start doing it today.

Microsoft has a Windows Server Software Defined (WSSD) program for its hardware partners that is designed to validate key Windows Server features, including storage features such as Storage Spaces Direct (a Datacenter Edition feature), as well as storage capabilities. operating system hyperconverged infrastructure. The goal of the program is to produce certified Windows Server hardware. For more details on the program, see this FAQ.

The first certified Windows Server 2019 hardware products are “expected to be released in mid-January 2019,” Darwin said. There will be a WSSD launch event around this time, he added.

Instead of waiting for the WSSD to launch, it is possible to build the hardware from scratch using components listed in the Windows Server Catalog, an approach supported by Microsoft for Windows Server 2019. However, until until the WSSD launch event occurs, Microsoft will pop up a warning message regarding the use of features such as Storage Spaces Direct and software-defined networking capabilities in Windows Server 2019, as noted in the Knowledge Base article KB4464776.

The KB article describes a pop-up notification telling Windows Server 2019 users that the node running the current OS version “will be quarantined”.

The advisory is kind of a blocker, but it’s still possible to use these custom servers in production environments with Windows Server 2019. In such cases, people should contact Microsoft Support for instructions on disabling the warning message.

Microsoft plans to release a final version of Windows Server 2019 (build 17763) that will remove the warning message.

In-place upgrades supported
For organizations using Windows Server 2016, Microsoft supports “in-place upgrades” to Windows Server 2019, depending on hardware requirements. An in-place upgrade replaces the underlying bits of the operating system and differs from the traditional “wipe and replace” deployment approach. An in-place upgrade, however, should take place when the server is listed as certified in the Windows Server 2019 catalog, Microsoft advised. Organizations can check with their hardware vendor if this is the case.

In addition to the improvements to Storage Spaces Direct and Hyperconverged Infrastructure in Windows Server 2019, Microsoft announced on Tuesday that Remote Desktop Services (RDS) 2019 role in the new server is now in general availability stage. .

With RDS 2019, Microsoft promises “reduced network traffic and smooth video playback” through improved GPU virtualization technologies. There is also better support for “intensive video interactions”.

Microsoft’s RDS announcement tended to highlight the benefits of using RDS 2019 from Azure datacenters, as it adds support for scalability. He also suggested that there will be “a path from RDS to Windows Virtual Desktop” on Azure infrastructure. This path will be available when “Windows Virtual Desktop gets closer to preview later in calendar year 2018”.

Windows Virtual Desktop is Microsoft’s new virtual desktop infrastructure solution that uses Windows 10 instead of Windows Server. It became available in preview with the release this week of Windows 10 version 1809, according to this IT pro blog post.

Windows Server 2019 License
As with Windows Server 2016, Microsoft licenses Windows Server 2019 per physical core. Licenses are sold in two-packs and 16-packs. Client Access Licenses (an additional cost) are required to support server connections, except when using the Essentials Edition.

A Windows Server 2019 licensing datasheet can be downloaded from Licensing School, a UK-based Microsoft licensing consultancy. It maintains a list of these publications on this licensing guides page.

According to an announcement from the Licensing School, Microsoft’s datasheet “confirms that there is a 10% price increase for Windows Server 2019 Standard Core licenses and provides a good overview of servicing channels.”

Windows Server 2019 comes with the traditional “5+5” year servicing option (now called “Long-Term Servicing Channel”) or a “Semi-Annual Channel” servicing option of 18 months of support between new updates operating system features.