I was speaking recently with a network administrator for a global company.
He told me that his I.T. infrastructure was out of date because his Windows servers were a version or
two behind the newest thing for Microsoft the long term Windows Server releases like Server 2012 2016
and now Windows Server 2019 are meant to remain functional for more than just a couple of years.
So this is a normal situation a new one will come out every two to four years and they'll be supported
for approximately 10 years.
That means you're never really forced into a quick upgrade.
In fact I'll go on record as saying that the release of a newer version of Windows Server is never the
reason to upgrade your entire network.
Let me tell you instead why you should install a newer version of Windows Server.
You should plan to start integrating Windows Server 2019 installations into your network if you're expanding
a data center and would like the control and flexibility of being able to group your clusters and take
advantage of advances in storage spaces direct you might consider Windows Server 2019.
If your older file servers need to be retired and you need a new system that will allow you to easily
migrate data and entire configurations to new servers without disrupting service or you might be looking
for any of the features rolled out in the semi-annual releases of Windows Server but maybe you didn't
want the volatility of an operating system that will reach end of life in less than two years and this
is by no means an exhaustive list.
But the bottom line is this.
You should begin to upgrade your network because you face evolving needs and you recognize that Microsoft
has addressed those needs in the new version of Windows Server in courses on installing and configuring
Windows server.
I discussed the process of planning how servers will be used so that the installation will fit the needs
from the very beginning including the roles the right additions of Windows Server and when it comes
to adding a new version of Windows Server or a new version of any product you add another dimension.
You still need to consider all of this but you also need to take into account the minimum system requirements
for example Windows Server 20 19 has hardware requirements that may seem very similar to Server 2016
a minimum of a one point four gigahertz 64 bit processor that supports memory protection and second
level address translation is still a requirement especially for virtualization roles.
You will also need at least a couple of gigabytes of memory.
Now you should be looking at that and saying Yeah right like that will work 2 gigabytes of memory is
only enough to run Windows itself and barely that.
Always consider the roles that you're going to install and the load that you're going to put on the
server and make sure you have enough horsepower for those needs.
And it might be more than what you're used to similarly when you read that the storage requirement is
32 gig or more of hard drive space on a compatible controller.
Understand that it will require a lot more 32 gig is enough to run Windows and possibly several months
worth of updates but it's by no means a recommended threshold.
You also need to make sure that your network controllers support the PCI Express architecture and that
they support at least one gigabit per second of throughput and even after you look at all of these requirements
if you're upgrading a network you need to consider the roles like 80 DFS or CERT services or even more
common Active Directory.
These roles involve multiple servers working together and upgrading them requires some planning.
Whether you're going to take the ADF s farm or the functional level of the role for the entire network
and try to bring that up to the enhanced versions in Windows Server 2019 planning the upgrade or the
introduction of a new Windows Server 2019 system into your network will require you to take a look at
your entire infrastructure not just that one server as you decide to upgrade specific services.
These types of roles require their own unique methods for upgrading and the service or migration of
the responsibilities has to be echoed across multiple machines.
Bottom line there's a lot to consider as we go through this course.
We're going to take a look at new as well as traditional roles performed by Windows Server and what's
involved in bringing Windows Server 2019 into your mix.