Windows Server 2016 Essentials

Windows Server 2016 Essentials is the latest version of Microsoft’s server line operating systems that have been launched in the market after Windows Server 2012 R2 in October 2016. The new version includes a variety of new features such as refined security system and identity management which ensures the integrity of end-to-end data and the process of accessing it, either it is stored in the cloud or saved locally. Although, the developers have done an outstanding job of adorning the 2016 version with new and enhanced features. You can download the previous version of Microsoft Windows Server 2012.

Windows Server 2016 Essentials – Review

It is released on 26 September 2016 and Manufactured by Microsoft. It belongs to the operating system category as the Microsoft family. The latest stable release of Windows Server 2016 Essentials is 1607(10.0.14393.4046) that is released on 10 November 2020. It is available in both 32 & 64-bit that is also known as x86 and x64. Its license is trialware. It supports both 32-bit and 64-bit architecture. Microsoft Windows Server 2016 Essentials with its high quality and useful features, is a product on which you can rely to run your business virtual operations with security, ease, and smoothness. You can download it from the official website of Microsoft.

Windows Server 2016 Essentials – Features

Storage Spaces Direct

Storage Spaces Direct is a feature that can save a substantial amount of money that the IT department otherwise has to spend on maintaining SANs or Storage Area Networks as users can gain high-speed redundancy and Disk I/O without investing much in SANs. Storage Spaces Direct works with two modes of deployment. One is private cloud storage where Storage Space Direct is separate from the hypervisor. The second mode is private cloud hyper-converged, where both are on the same server.

Linux Secure Boot

This feature is a part of the UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) specification. It protects the startup environments of a server from various boot-time malware and rootkits.

Network Controller

This is a new feature that provides a programmable centralized automation point from where users can configure, monitor, manage and troubleshoot physical and virtual network services and devices. This feature can be grouped with System Centre products such as Operations Manager, Virtual Machine Manager, and PowerShell.

Nano Server

It is an installation option that is very lightweight for the system and is exclusively designed to run in cloud and container-based situations. It is 93% smaller than any other traditional server setup of Windows. This installation option does not require a GUI or .NET framework, hence the lightweight.

PowerShell 5.0

As Powershell 5.0 continuous to being the de facto management of Microsoft, it introduces new modules to enable remote management and scripting of servers, clients, and applications while continuing its backward compatibility as well.

Windows containers

Containers are not like virtual machines as they provide just enough accessibility to libraries, OS, and other resources which allows for OS-level virtualization and to host applications in isolated user space.

Windows Defender

Microsoft has enabled the by default installation of Windows Server Antimalware application in the new version of Windows Server so the neutralized malware threats that exist in real-time can be detected with automatic updating.

Storage Quality of Service and Storage Replica

Commonly known as Storage QoS, this feature provides central monitoring and management of storage performance for the virtual machines and it also automatically enhances the storage resource fairness among multiple VMs through a common file server cluster. On the other hand, Storage Replica is another new feature that empowers the synchronous replication among clusters or servers on block level and storage agnostic so the system is prepared for relevant disasters and recoveries.

Hyper-V

With this absolutely advantageous feature, Microsoft has introduced hot management and memory for virtual networking adapters and virtual machines respectively. Microsoft has included shielded virtual machines in Windows Server 2016 Essentials to cater to the administrators who are keen on maintaining top-notch security in their virtual business operations. The shielded virtual machines reduce the chances of tampering by intruders or data theft by encrypting and preventing inspection of disks and video signals.

Final Thoughts

When we see the long list of enhancements and new features added in this version of Windows Server, it can be conveniently concluded that Microsoft’s team of engineering and development has greatly emphasized the subsystems of OS i-e Compute, Security, and Virtualization.

Windows Server 2016 Essentials – System Requirements

OS Family: Microsoft
RAM: 4GB
Processor: Intel® Pentium®4
Hard Disk: 40GB

Windows Server 2016 Essentials – Technical Details