Windows Server 2019 is the current version of Microsoft Windows Server. The latest version of Windows Server 2019 is very improved and comes with better performance, improved security, and excellent optimizations for hybrid integration.
The Windows Server 2019 started from where the 2016 version has left. The key areas that were selected for the improvements and changes were – Application Platform, Security, and Hyper-converged infrastructure. Some of the new features are as follows:-
Hyper-converged Infrastructure
Storage Migration Service- It helps to inventory and migrate data, security, and configurations from legacy systems to Windows Server 2019.
VM protection- It replicates workloads running on physical and virtual machines (VMs) from a primary site to a secondary location. The feature is partially supported on Windows server 2016 also.
System Insights- It comes up with the local analytics capabilities backed by a machine-learning model and provides high accuracy predictions that help to decrease the operational expenses related to reactively managing Windows server instances.
Unified management- The Windows Admin Center is an elegant browser-based HCI remote management interface that includes software-defined network configuration and monitoring. This feature is partially supported on Window server 2016 also.
Nested Mirror Accelerated parity- It enables two-node clusters at the edge to survive multiple simultaneous failures.
USB thumb drive- The support for USB thumb drive as cluster witness allows actual 2 node HCI deployments, with no additional dependencies.
Storage Replica- It offers storage-agnostic, block-level, synchronous and asynchronous replication between servers for disaster recovery and gives stretching of a failover cluster for high availability. This feature is partially supported in Windows server 2016.
Deduplication for ReFS- It is Supported on ReFS to optimize free space on a volume by examining the data for duplicate portions.
Cluster-wide monitoring- It monitors memory and CPU usage, storage capacity, IOPS, throughput, and latency in real-time with clear alerts when something goes wrong.
Cluster sets- It allows you to create large scale-out clusters with greater flexibility without sacrificing resiliency.
Persistent memory- It offers byte-level access to non-volatile media while also decreasing the latency of storing or retrieving data significantly.
Virtual network peering- It gives high-speed connectivity between two virtual networks. The traffic between the virtual networks surpasses the underlying system without any gateway.
Improved SDN gateway- It provides improvements up to 3x for GRE tunnels and IPSec site-to-site VPN.
Precision Time Protocol (PTP)- It allows network devices to add-on the latency introduced by each network device into the timing measurements, therefore offering a far more accurate time sample than Network Time Protocol (NTP).
Leap Second- It offers support for occasional 1-second additions to UTC to adjust and increases accuracy, compliance, and traceability.
Latency Optimized Background Transport – LEDBAT- With Windows server 2019, we bring latency optimized, Low Extra Delay Background Transfer (LEDBAT), network congestion control provider, etc.
Enhanced Security Capabilities
Enhanced Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection (ATP)- It is a set of host intrusion protective capabilities such as attack detection, preventative protection, and zero-day exploits.
Shielded VMs for Linux- Windows Server 2019 supports Shielded VMs for Linux to protect Linux VMs from attacks and understanding administrators in the underlying and extensive threat resistance components.
HGS offline mode for shielded VMs- It offers shielded VMs to turn on when HGS is not reachable if the security configuration of your Hyper-V host has not changed.
VM Connect for shielded VMs- It enhances the interactive session experience by offering a secure console connection while interconnecting with a shielded VM for Windows and Linux machines.
Cluster hardening- The new clusters running on Windows Server 2019 does not need NTLM, which entirely removes the need of Active Directory for clusters in Windows Server.
SDN encrypted subnet- The Virtual network encryption offers the power of the virtual network traffic to be encrypted between VMs that meets with each other within subnets.
AppLocker- It offers policy-based access control for application management. It is supported on Windows Server 2012 R2, 2016,2019, and partially supported on Windows Server 2008 R2.
Applications For Faster Innovations
Linux containers- It allows application admins to manage both Windows and Linux applications on the same environment, reducing the management overhead.
Windows Server containers- It creates a remote application environment in which you can quickly run an application without fear of changes due to configuration or applications. This feature is fully supported on Windows Server 2016 also.
Server Core base container image- It is a Reduced Server Core base container where the image size will reduce download time and further optimize the development, time, and performance.
Server Core Features on Demand (FoD)- With this users can remarkably improve the compatibility of apps of Windows Server Core by involving a set of packages and binaries from Windows Server with Desktop without adding any of the Windows 10 GUI or Windows Server Desktop GUI experiences.
Kubernetes platform support- Kubernetes platform supports significant improvements to computing, storage, and networking components.
Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL)- It allows developers and application administrators to use tools in Linux environments alongside Command Prompt and PowerShell.
Hyper-V isolation- It comes with a highly isolated container environment in which the host operating system will not be affected in any way, and no containers will be affected that are running. It is fully supported on Windows Server 2016 also.
