October 1st, 2014 marks the release of the “IT Pro” Focused version of Windows 10 from the client perspective. I am sure you have seen all the tweets / social media / blog posts / press releases all over the place. As a “Server Hugger”, I’m more interested in the Windows Server Technical Preview – which released the same day. I thought I’d share my experiences of getting ready to evaluate Windows Server TP and what I did to get setup.
- If you haven’t already – GO SIGN UP FOR THE WINDOWS 10 TECHNICAL PREVIEW for the Enterprise Client… once you have done that, you can start the DL and prep your administrative workstation. Like all Administrators – you should be managing your servers REMOTELY using RSAT tools – which are client and server version specific.
- Next Up – you will need the Windows Server TP RSAT tools – which you can grab from here. remember – I mentioned above – they are Client and Server specific…
- Now for the Bits – Windows Server Technical Preview. Well – at the time of writing, they are trickling out. The official announcement blog post for Windows Server TP and System Center TP can be found HERE. From that post:
Windows Server Technical Preview
- TechNet Evaluation Center (US): http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/evaluate-windows-server-vnext-technical-preview
- TechNet Evaluation Center (worldwide): http://technet.microsoft.com/en-gb/evalcenter/dn781243
- MSDN subscribers: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/subscriptions/downloads/
System Center Technical Preview
- TechNet Evaluation Center (US): http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/evaluate-system-center-vnext-technical-preview
- TechNet Evaluation Center (worldwide): http://technet.microsoft.com/en-gb/evalcenter/dn781241
- MSDN subscribers: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/subscriptions/downloads/
But wait – say you don’t want to wait to download – or you want to DO something while you are waiting for the download to finish? Check out the Microsoft Azure Gallery Image that was released today for Windows Server TP. It’s all setup and ready to deploy!
How? Get yourself setup on a 30 day trial of Azure and create a new VM from gallery – Windows Server Technical Preview, October 2014 is a selectable option in the Windows Server image gallery.
Reminder: These are not final – even for evaluation. Don’t use them in production. Features and capabilities will be evolving over the course of the TP, so don’t take everything you see in the TP as being final if you are evaluating a technology.
Lastly – Here is where I go for all the top level “Things I should be trying out….” The TechNet Library. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn765472.aspx
- What’s New in Active Directory Federation Services. Active Directory Federation Services (AD FS) in Windows Server Technical Preview includes new features that enable you to configure AD FS to authenticate users stored in Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) directories. For more information, see Active Directory Federation Services Overview.
- What’s new for Hyper-V in the Technical Preview. This topic explains the new and changed functionality of the Hyper-V role in Windows Server Technical Preview, Client Hyper-V running on Windows 10 Technical Preview, and Microsoft Hyper-V Server Technical Preview.
- Windows Defender Overview. Windows Defender is installed and enabled by default in Windows Server Technical Preview, but the user interface for Windows Defender is not installed. However, Windows Defender will update antimalware definitions and protect the computer without the user interface. If you need the user interface for Windows Defender, you can install it after the operating system installation by using the Add Roles and Features Wizard.
- What’s New in Remote Desktop Services in the Windows Server Technical Preview. For the Windows Server Technical Preview, the Remote Desktop Services team focused on improvements based on customer requests. We added support for OpenGL and OpenCL applications, and added MultiPoint Services as a new role in Windows Server.
- What’s New in Storage Services in Windows Server Technical Preview. This topic explains the new and changed functionality of Storage Services. An update in storage quality of service now enables you to create storage QoS policies on a Scale-Out File Server and assign them to one or more virtual disks on Hyper-V virtual machines. Storage Replica is a new feature that enables synchronous replication between servers for disaster recovery, as well as stretching of a failover cluster for high availability..
- What’s New in Failover Clustering in Windows Server Technical Preview. This topic explains the new and changed functionality of Failover Clustering. A Hyper-V or Scale-out File Server failover cluster can now easily be upgraded without any downtime or need to build a new cluster with nodes that are running Windows Server Technical Preview.
- What’s New in Web Application Proxy. Web Application Proxy now supports preauthentication for applications using the HTTP Basic protocol, wildcards in external URLS of applications, redirection from HTTP to HTTPS, use of pass-through authentication with HTTP applications, publishing of Remote Desktop Gateway apps, a new debug log, propagation of client IP addresses to backend applications, and improvements to the Administrator console.
- What’s New in Windows PowerShell 5.0. Windows PowerShell 5.0 includes significant new features—including support for developing with classes, and new security features—that extend its use, improve its usability, and allow you to control and manage Windows-based environments more easily and comprehensively. Multiple new features in Windows PowerShell Desired State Configuration (DSC) are also described in this topic.
- What’s New in Networking in Windows Server Technical Preview. With this topic you can discover information about new networking technologies, such as Network Controller and Generic Routing Encapsulation (GRE) Tunneling, and new features for existing technologies, including IP Address Management (IPAM), DNS, and DHCP.
Go out there, try them out – and PLAY SAFE.