First Look Windows Server 2016 Nano Server

This guide will show one of the most talked about new feature In windows Server 2016.

The Nano Server is a mini server deployment without GUI, CMD, PowerShell, Server Tools, Server Manager, etc.

The deployment size of the Nano server is 7% of regular Windows Server 2016 Install or 93% less and the regular Install/

The Nano server will need 89% less reboots and 92% less security updates.

The Nano Install come pre-loaded Inside the Windows Server 2016 Install Image and this stage Microsoft are saying that the Nano Server Is Ideal for Hyper-V Host, a Storage Host for Scale-out File Server or as a containers.

To Start the Installation of the Nano Server

Mount Windows Server 2016 Image to a server running Windows Server 2016


Open the NanoServer folder and Copy the .PS1 scripts from NanoServer Folder to a new folder where you will create your Nano server VM



Open PowerShell and run the script below using two dots before the script name

. .\New-NanoServerImage.ps1


Using PowerShell go to the folder created In the step above and run the script below and make sure you change the parameters

New-NanoServerImage -MediaPath d:\ -BasePath .\Base -TargetPath .\NANOVM01 -ComputerName NANOVM01 –GuestDrivers


Set first time login to server password




Once the Nano Server Created you can and need to add the following roles to your Nano Server:

Hyper-V

Failover Clustering

Hyper-V guest drivers for hosting Nano Server as a virtual machine

File Server role and other storage components

Windows Defender Antimalware, including a default signature file

Reverse forwarders for application compatibility, for example common application frameworks such as Ruby, Node.js, etc.

To add them we use and modify the Nano Server we need to use the DISM tool (deployment Image Servicing And Management Tool).

One done, create a Hyper-Virtual Machine and attached the Nano Server VHD to it.

Start the VM and you will see the Nano Server Login Screen.



Posted

in

by