This course has been about Windows Server 2019.
The latest release in the long term service channel of Windows Server these long term service releases
have the advantage of being supported by Microsoft for several years rather than the 18 month lifecycle
of the semi-annual releases.
But these long term releases benefit greatly from the semi-annual release channel improvements to the
subsystem for Linux storage spaces direct containers and many other server components have been developed
and deployed in these semi-annual releases the community of administrators developers and dev ops then
have the opportunity to weigh in on whether or not the features are meeting their needs and expectations.
Before these various features from all the semi-annual releases get rolled up and added into the next
long term release like Windows Server 2019 the differences between the long term service release and
the semi-annual channel give different opportunities.
You may choose to keep all of your production servers on these long term service channel releases because
of their stability and long term support or you may choose to introduce as many semi-annual release
servers as you can to receive access to new features as quickly as possible if you have a large environment
with lots of servers each performing specific tasks.
You may likely find a way to use both domain controllers likely need the stability of a long term service
release as do other database roles like a certificate authority.
Even with the introduction of the storage Migration Service file servers are less likely to benefit
from lots of new features and so they are also more likely candidates for the long term service release
channel other involved roles that we've talked about in this course also would do well to be on a server
that they can stay installed and configured on for a longer period of time but on the other hand developers
are always looking to what happens next.
They benefit immensely from being able to develop their applications in an environment that has access
to the newest features possible.
Any development projects whether it's a container application or something being deployed in a virtual
server is going to benefit from having access to those features as soon as possible.
The semi-annual releases of server are great for them.
The frequent upgrades would be more of a help than a hindrance to them and their servers are not likely
to be running the server roles that don't survive in-place upgrades.
Make sure as you plan semi-annual release servers in your network that they're regularly backed up not
just the files on the servers but the configurations as well.
Also consider using the various cloud repositories for developer projects container images can be stored
in private repositories at get hub or onsite and for many of the roles that you count on from Windows
servers it may be a good idea to use the semi-annual releases for testing and for future planning allowing
you to try out what's coming next in the role before you deploy it into production.
You can keep the production installation of these mission critical tasks on your long term service release
machines but go ahead and test them test your operations test your development projects test your dev
ops procedures in these semi-annual release servers that deliver all the latest features as quickly
as possible.