Windows Server 2016 Changelog

What's new in Windows Server 2016 17079 Insider Preview

Jan 23, 2018

What’s New in Build 17079 for Windows Server:
In-place OS Upgrade: Customers are now able to upgrade their Windows Server, version 1709 installations to the current preview build using In-place OS Upgrade. This feature is available starting in build 17079. This feature also enables customers to perform build-to-build upgrade of the next released preview build.
Running setup.exe, customers should be presented with the option to “Keep personal files and apps”, which causes the migration steps in setup.exe to run and upgrade Windows Server while preserving applications, data, and user settings.
Developers and Containers:
Optimized Server Core container base images (30% smaller). Available on Windows Insider Docker Hub here
MSMQ now installs in a Server Core container
Key Application Compatibility bug fixes

New in Windows Server 2016 17074 Insider Preview (Jan 16, 2018)

New in Windows Server 2016 17035 Insider Preview (Nov 15, 2017)

What’s New in Build 17035 for Windows Server:
Storage Spaces Direct (S2D) is enabled. Storage Spaces Direct is the foundation of our hyper-converged solution and we’re continuing to evolve it. In this preview build we not only brought it back, but we’re adding some new and important updates to it – such as support for Data Deduplication, a commonly requested feature for Storage Spaces Direct and ReFS. Starting with this build, Data Deduplication will reduce the data footprint by up to 50%.
Developers can now use localhost or loopback (127.0.0.1) to access services running in containers on the host
What’s New in Project Honolulu Technical Preview 1711 Build 01003:
NOTE: Please manually Refresh your browser (F5) on first launch if upgrading from version 1709.
Remote Desktop:
With the remote desktop tool in the Server Manager solution, you can connect to your machine to complete scenarios that are not yet supported natively in Honolulu. If you want to configure a feature that has no GUI tool, connect with Remote Desktop and open PowerShell!
Windows 10 Client Management:
You can now add Windows 10 client machines as connections in Honolulu, and manage them with a subset of tools in the “Computer Management” Solution
Switch Embedded Teaming (SET):
Short of SCVMM, there was previously no GUI experience to configure Switch Embedded Teaming (SET), a new feature released in Windows Server 2016. You will find this feature in the Virtual Switches tool.
Data grid performance improvements:
We have updated the grid in the Certificates and Events tools to a more performant control which is able to handle large datasets without a loss in performance. In the next release, it will be updated across all tools. In the Events tool, the data is streamed in as it loads, which can lead to a shorter loading time than the in-box tool when working with channels that contain many events.
Removed: LAPS in Service mode:
We have removed the ability to use LAPS when Project Honolulu is deployed as a Server service. You may still use LAPS when you install Honolulu on Windows 10.

New in Windows Server 2016 16278 Insider Preview (Sep 6, 2017)

New in Windows Server 2016 16267 Insider Preview (Aug 23, 2017)

New in Windows Server 2016 16257 Insider Preview (Aug 8, 2017)

GENERAL SCENARIO HIGHLIGHTS:
Developers and Containers:
New base container images (available on Windows Insider Docker Hub repo):
Optimized Nano Server base image (over 70% smaller)
The .NET team is providing a preview image based on Nano Server with .NET Core 2.0
The PowerShell team is providing a preview image based on PowerShell 6.0
Optimized Server Core base image (over 20% smaller)
Support for SMB volume mounting
Infrastructure for Orchestrators:
Networking enhancements for ongoing Kubernetes work
Named pipe mapping support
Bug fixes, performance enhancements
CLOUD GUEST:
Improvement in time accuracy
Azure enlightened clusters – optimized to run on Azure IaaS
IIS:
TLS info: administrators can make specific recommendations to default to HTTPS
Disaster Recovery:
Storage Replica Test Failover
Guest + Host better together:
vPMEM in Guest: Tenants can use and manage PMEM/SCM
Tenant-Aware VM Start Ordering: App Ready / OS Heartbeat for better load balancing
Guest RDMA
CLOUD HOST:
Software Defined Data Center (SDDC) host:
Security:
Shielded Linux VM
SDN: Encrypted virtual networks
Secure clusters
SMB 1 disabled by default
Resiliency and Availability:
SDN: Reduced downtime for tenant connections through gateways
Spaces Direct: Scoped Spaces to mitigate impact of multi-node loss
Spaces Direct: Marginal drive handling for predictive detection of drive failures
Efficiency:
Data Deduplication available for ReFS
New Data Deduplication DataPort API for optimized ingress/egress
Space efficiency with ReFS Compaction
Performant Spaces Direct Multi Resilient Volumes (MRV)
Hyper-converged Scale:
Cluster Sets: Significantly increases hyper-converged SDDC cloud scale by grouping multiple clusters into a larger fabric
Hardware support:
Support for Storage Class Memory (SCM) in Spaces Direct
What’s New in Build 16257 for Windows Server:
Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) is available on Windows Server:
Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) is now available on Windows Server along with a compliment of Linux distributions.
Test WSL on Windows Server. WSL runs unmodified Linux (ELF64) binaries natively. With the additions of WSL you can run node.js, Ruby, Python, Perl, Bash scripts or other tools that expect Linux behaviors, environment, or filesystem-layout, the ability to install and run Linux with WSL expands the tools at your disposal on Windows Server.
At this time, WSL does not support persistent Linux services (such as daemons and jobs) as background tasks. To enable WSL and install a Linux distribution, see Enable the Windows Subsystem for Linux and Install a Linux distribution in the Windows Server 2016 Installation Guide on GitHub.
Delivery Optimization is available for Windows Server:
Delivery Optimization has been the main downloader of Windows Update and Windows Store content since the Windows 10 Anniversary Update, providing faster and more reliable downloads. Starting in the latest builds for Server, Delivery Optimization is now the downloader used by Windows Update on Windows Server.Delivery Optimization can also provide Peer-to-peer bandwidth optimization between Windows Server machines. To enable peer-to-peer downloads open Settings -> Update & Security -> Advanced Options -> Delivery Optimization and turn ON the toggle to “Allow downloads from other PCs”.

New in Windows Server 2016 16237 Insider Preview (Jul 14, 2017)

Persistent Memory can now be exposed to Hyper-V VMs:
In this build, NTFS-formatted direct access volumes that are created on non-volatile DIMMs can now be exposed Hyper-V VMs. This enables Hyper-V VMs to leverage the low-latency performance benefits of Persistent Memory devices.
Virtualized Persistent Memory (vPMEM) is enabled by creating a VHD file (.vhdpmem) on a direct access volume on a host, adding a vPMEM Controller to a VM, and adding the created device (.vhdpmem) to a VM. Using vhdpmem files on direct access volumes on a host to back vPMEM enables allocation flexibility and leverages a familiar management model for adding disks to VMs.
PowerShell can be used for the creation and management of Virtualized Persistent Memory.
Battery Passthrough:
With new additions to Set-VM, a PowerShell cmdlet, you can now enable and disable Battery Passthrough, a new feature. Battery Passthrough let your VMs have the same battery state as the host they are on. To use this feature of Set-VM, use the flag -BatteryPassthroughEnabled {$true, $false}. This option is only available for version 8.2 virtual machines.
Improvements to Container Networking:
This build introduces enhancements to container networking to better support Kubernetes by adding support for multiple containers (w/out Hyper-V isolation) to a single Pod (Network Compartment) as well as only requiring a single endpoint per Pod for all traffic types (e.g. ingress and East-West)
The Host Networking Service (HNS) now has support for creating ACL, NAT, and Load Balancing network policies for Container endpoints for fine-grained policy application.
RDMA for Trusted Guests:
This build includes several enhancements for (Trusted) Guest RDMA to enable low-latency storage access with zero CPU usage by Trusted Guest VMs – this is ideal for running Windows File Servers in a Guest to accelerate file serving. Requires updated NIC drivers.
Improvements to Software Defined Networking:
Encryption can be enabled for virtual network subnets to protect your traffic from anyone with physical access to the wire, including network administrators.
Failover time for SDN gateways is improved. Now, you will observe much faster failover times for the gateways, even with high number of connections.
Access control lists can be applied for infrastructure on logical subnets.
Improvements in Networking transports:
2X throughput improvement for single connection TCP and UDP performance in low latency intra-datacenter scenarios
Default congestion control algorithm CUBIC for high speed networks
Improvements in HTTP(s):
SSL throttling to enable predictable service for established connections, in the face of high incoming SSL traffic.
Deterministic certificate updates for HTTPS enabling greater service availability.
Improvements in time accuracy:
Pressing EU regulations in 2018 require strict time precision and traceability. Win32tm improvements in RS3 support greater time accuracy, and jitter is removed from the measurements that calibrate the service.
New system event logging lets you archive time service data to support traceability compliance.
System center monitoring now includes a new rule which lets you detect when a machine in your environment is out of compliance.
Nano Server optimized for Containers:
Nano Server is now a container only option and optimized for containers, more information is available in the Delivering continuous innovation with Windows Server blog post. To optimize for containers, several features were removed that were in the Nano Server base image in Windows Server 2016, these include WMI, PowerShell, .NET Core, and the Servicing stack, which has significantly reduced the image size.
Server Core base image optimizations:
The Windows Server Core base image has been optimized saving over 20% download and on disk space.

New in Windows Server 2016 14393.0.160715 (Nov 4, 2016)

Server Core installation option:
When you install Windows Server 2016 by using the Server Core installation option, the print spooler is installed and starts by default even when the Print Server role is not installed. To avoid this, after the first boot, set the print spooler to disabled
Containers:
Before you use containers, install Servicing stack update for Windows 10 Version 1607: August 23, 2016 or any later updates that are available. Otherwise, a number of problems can occur, including failures in building, starting, or running containers, and errors similar to "CreateProcess failed in Win32: The RPC server is unavailable."
The NanoServerPackage OneGet provider does not work in Windows Containers. To work around this, use Find-NanoServerPackage and Save-NanoServerPackage on a different computer (not a container) to download the needed package. Then copy the packages into the container and install them
Microsoft Exchange:
If you attempt to run Microsoft Exchange 2016 CU3 on Windows Server 2016, you will experience errors in the IIS host process W3WP.exe. There is no workaround at this time. You should postpone deployment of Exchange 2016 CU3 on Windows Server 2016 until a supported fix is available.
Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT):
If you are running a version of Windows 10 older than the Anniversary Update, and are using Hyper-V and virtual machines with an enabled virtual Trusted Platform Module (including shielded virtual machines), and then install the version of RSAT provided for Windows Server 2016, attempts to start those virtual machines will fail. To avoid this, upgrade the client computer to Windows 10 Anniversary Update (or later) prior to installing RSAT. If this has already occurred, uninstall RSAT, upgrade the client to Window 10 Anniversary Update, and then reinstall RSAT.
Shielded virtual machines:
Ensure that you have installed all available updates before you deploy Shielded virtual machines in production.
Start menu:
This issue affects Windows Server 2016 installed with the Server with Desktop Experience option. If you install any applications which add shortcut items inside a folder on the Start menu, the shortcuts will not work until you log out and log back in again.

New in Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview 5 (Apr 29, 2016)

COMPUTE:
Physical and virtual machines benefit from greater time accuracy due to improvements in the Win32 Time and Hyper-V Time Synchronization Services. Windows Server can now host services that are compliant with upcoming regulations which require a 1ms accuracy with regards to UTC.
Hyper-V:
Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview container support adds performance improvements, simplified network management, and support for Windows containers on Windows 10. For some additional information on containers, see Containers: Docker, Windows and Trends.
Nano Server:
What's New in Nano Server. Starting in Technical Preview 5, Nano Server now has an updated module for building Nano Server images, including more separation of physical host and guest virtual machine functionality as well as support for different Windows Server editions.
There are also improvements to the Recovery Console, including separation of inbound and outbound firewall rules as well as the ability to repair configuration of WinRM.
Remote Desktop Services:
Use Azure SQL DB for your Remote Desktop Connection Broker high availability environment. With the release of Technical Preview 5, deploying a highly available RDS deployment lets you leverage Azure SQL Database for your RD Connection Brokers in high availability mode.
MANAGEMENT AND AUTOMATION:
Starting in Technical Preview 5, new additions include:
the ability to run PowerShell.exe locally on Nano Server (no longer remote only), new Local Users & Groups cmdlets to replace the GUI, added PowerShell debugging support, and added support in Nano Server for security logging & transcription and JEA.
NETWORKING:
Technical Preview 5 adds improvements in three main areas. You can now both mirror and route traffic to new or existing virtual appliances. Together with a distributed firewall and Network security groups, this enables you to dynamically segment and secure workloads in a manner similar to Azure. Second, you can deploy and manage the entire Software-defined networking (SDN) stack using System Center Virtual Machine Manager. Finally, you can use Docker to manage Windows Server container networking, and associate SDN policies not only with virtual machines but containers as well.
SECURITY:
Just Enough Administration:
Just Enough Administration in Windows Server Technical Preview is security technology that enables delegated administration for anything that can be managed with Windows PowerShell. In Technical Preview 5, we added support for running under a network identity, connecting over PowerShell Direct, securely copying files to/from JEA endpoints, and configuring the PowerShell console to launch in a JEA context by default.
Shielded Virtual Machines:
Starting in Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview 5, a number of new features are available for shielded virtual machines
New "Encryption Supported" mode that offers more protections than for an ordinary virtual machine, but less than "Shielded" mode, while still supporting vTPM, disk encryption, Live Migration traffic encryption, and other features, including direct fabric administration conveniences such as virtual machine console connections and Powershell Direct
Full support for converting existing non-shielded Generation 2 virtual machines to shielded virtual machines, including automated disk encryption
Hyper-V Virtual Machine Manager can now view the fabrics upon which a shielded virtual is authorized to run, providing a way for the fabric administrator to open a shielded virtual machine's key protector (KP) and view the fabrics it is permitted to run on
You can switch Attestation modes on a running Host Guardian Service. Now you can switch on the fly between the less secure but simpler Active Directory-based attestation and TPM-based attestation
End-to-end diagnostics tooling based on Windows PowerShell that is able to detect misconfigurations or errors in both guarded Hyper-V hosts and the Host Guardian Service
A recovery environment that offers a means to securely troubleshoot and repair shielded virtual machines within the fabric in which they normally run while offering the same level of protection as the shielded virtual machine itself
STORAGE:
What's New in File and Storage Services in Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview. For Technical Preview 5, enhancements include simplification, manageability, and smaller scale Storage Spaces Direct. The new Health Service continues to improve the day-to-day monitoring, operations, and maintenance experience of Storage Spaces Direct. Storage Replica brings flexibility by expanding stretch clusters to asynchronous support, delegation of administration, and improved efficiency with support for thinly provisioned storage.
What's New in Failover Clustering in Windows Server Technical Preview. For Technical Preview 5 new additions include VM Node Fairness to seamless load balancing of Virtual Machines (VMs) across the nodes in a cluster, VM Start Order introduces start order orchestration for virtual machines (and all groups) in a cluster, and Simplified SMB Multi-channel and Multi-NIC Cluster Networks to make it easier to set up high speed networks on Scale-out File Servers.