Windows 10: Windows Server 2019 Essentials update

Brink · Sep 5, 2018

For more than a decade the Windows Server team has been releasing Windows Server editions tailored to meet the needs of small business environments. Windows Server 2016 Essentials is the current in-market edition of Windows Server made for small business and is available for companies with up to 25 users.

As we started working on next version, Windows Server 2019, we looked closely on the impact of recent technology trends on small business customers. We observed that cloud computing, in addition to affecting how large enterprises think about their datacenters, is also impacting how small companies are planning their IT services. For example, we have Microsoft 365 Business that is easier to acquire, integrate with other cloud services, and is particularly effective in environments that do not have full-time IT staff. Especially, capabilities that small businesses need, like file sharing and collaboration are best achieved with a cloud service like Microsoft 365.

Furthermore, we recently collaborated with the MVP community and other influencers to listen and get a deeper understanding of the transition that our small business customers are going through. While our small business customers are embracing cloud services where they can, on-premises servers are still valuable and desired in the short term for reasons such as price and ability to run traditional applications that may not yet have corresponding cloud-based functionality.

All of this led to our decision to offer yet another version of on-premises server for small businesses – Windows Server 2019 Essentials. This edition will be released along with the other editions of Windows Server 2019 later this year. There is a strong possibility that this could be the last edition of Windows Server Essentials.

Windows Server 2019 Essentials will have the same characteristics as the 2016 version that small business look for:

Single license that includes Client Access Licenses (CAL) for up to 25 users/50 devices

Lower price point

Ability to run traditional applications and other features, such as file and print sharing

What’s in Windows Server 2019 Essentials

Windows Server 2019 Essentials has the same licensing and technical characteristics as its predecessor, Windows Server 2016 Essentials. If configured as a Domain Controller, Windows Server 2019 Essentials must be the only Domain Controller, must run all Flexible Single Master Operations (FSMO) roles, and cannot have two-way trusts with other Active Directory domains.

Windows Server 2019 Essentials includes the new hardware support and features and improvements like Windows Server 2019 Standard, including Storage Migration Services, System Insights, and many more.

Windows Server 2019 Essentials will not include the Essentials Experience role. The Essentials Experience primarily simplified file sharing and device management. For a better management experience, we now have Windows Admin Center.

Looking ahead

First and foremost, customers currently using Windows Server 2016 Essentials will be supported according to Long Term Servicing Channel (LTSC) servicing timeline.

For companies with more than 25 users/50 devices, or companies that have potentially grown beyond 25 users, Windows Server 2019 Standard – and potentially the Datacenter edition – can provide more flexible deployment options.

Finally, we highly recommend our small customers to consider Microsoft 365 as an option for their file sharing and collaboration needs. Microsoft 365 provides a complete, intelligent solution, including Office 365, Windows 10, and Enterprise Mobility + Security. Microsoft 365 Business includes a richer feature set including Office, e-mail and calendaring, file storage in the cloud, data protection, and so much more, allowing our small customers to evolve their business and achieve new levels of productivity.

We will continue to listen to our customers and provide solutions that meet their small business needs.
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Source: Windows Server 2019 Essentials update Windows Server Blog

:)

Ahhzz · Sep 5, 2018

Office 2019

Only supported on Win10. Sorry, 8.1 users, only 4 years old, gotta go.

Microsoft Office 2019 will only work on Windows 10

https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com...-to-office-and-windows-servicing-and-support/

Spoiler Office 2019
Last year at Ignite, we announced Office 2019 – the next perpetual version of Office that includes apps (including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook, and Skype for Business) and servers (including Exchange, SharePoint, and Skype for Business). Today we’re pleased to share the following updates:

Office 2019 will ship in H2 of 2018. Previews of the new apps and servers will start shipping in the second quarter of 2018.

Office 2019 apps will be supported on:

Any supported Windows 10 SAC release

Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC 2018

The next LTSC release of Windows Server

The Office 2019 client apps will be released with Click-to-Run installation technology only. We will not provide MSI as a deployment methodology for Office 2019 clients. We will continue to provide MSI for Office Server products.

Brink · Sep 5, 2018

New File Share Witness Feature in Windows Server 2019

This blog discusses a new feature in the upcoming release of Windows Server 2019. Currently, Windows Insiders receive current builds of Server 2019. We urge you to become an Insider and play a part in making Windows Server 2019 the best that it can be. To do so, go to this link and sign up.

One of the quorum models for Failover Clustering is the ability to use a file share as a witness resource. As a recap, the File Share Witness is designated a vote in the Cluster when needed and can act as a tie breaker in case there is ever a split between nodes (mainly seen in multi-site scenarios).

I don’t want to go through the list of all the requirements but do want to focus on one in particular.

The Windows Server holding the file share must be domain joined and a part of the same forest.

The reason for this is that Failover Cluster utilizes Kerberos for the Cluster Name Object (CNO) to connect and authenticate the share. Therefore, the share must reside on a domain member that is in the same active directory forest.

There are scenarios where this is not possible. These scenarios are:

No or extremely poor Internet access because of a remote location, so cannot use a Cloud Witness

No shared drives for a disk witness. This could be a Storage Spaces Direct hyper-converged configuration, SQL Server Always On Availability Groups (AG), Exchange Database Availability Group (DAG), etc. All of which do not utilize shared disks.

A domain controller connection is not available as the cluster has been dropped behind a DMZ

A workgroup or cross-domain cluster where there in no active directory CNO object

We have had a lot of requests over the years for how to get around these scenarios and there wasn’t a good story for it. Well, I am here to tell you we listened, and we produced something better than a workaround.
In comes Windows Server 2019 and the new File Share Witness feature to the rescue.

We can now create a File Share Witness that does not utilize the CNO, but in fact, simply uses a local user account on the server the FSW is connected to.

This means NO kerberos, NO domain controller, NO certificates, and NO Cluster Name Object needed. While we are at it, NO account needed on the nodes. Oh my!!

The way it works is that on the Windows Server you wish to place the FSW, create a local (not administrative) user account, give that local account full rights to the share, connect the cluster to the share.

Let’s take for example, I have a server called SERVER and a share called SHARE I want to utilize as the File Share Witness. For creating this type of File Share Witness can only be done through PowerShell. The steps for setting this up are:

Log on to SERVER and create a local user account (i.e. FSW-ACCT)

Create a folder on SERVER and share it out

Give the local user account (FSW-ACCT) full rights to the share

Log in to one of your cluster nodes and run the PowerShell command:

Set-ClusterQuorum -FileShareWitness \\SERVER\SHARE -Credential $(Get-Credential)

You will be prompted for the account and password for which you should enter SERVER\FSW-ACCT and the password.

Viola!! You are done as we just took care of all the above scenarios. The cluster will keep the name and password encrypted and not accessible by anyone.

Just as an FYI, the original demo of this feature was using a USB thumb drive holding the share plugged into a router. Not that we would recommend doing it, but does show how far you could take this.

Please try out this new feature and provide feedback through the Feedback Hub app.

Thanks,
John Marlin
Senior Program Manager
High Availability and Storage
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Source: New File Share Witness Feature in Windows Server 2019 | Clustering and High-Availability

Brink · Sep 5, 2018

Top 10 Networking Features in Windows Server 2019

Windows Server 2019 provides regulatory compliance with highly accurate time that is traceable and UTC-compliant, including support of leap seconds.In this article, we’ll talk about the technical advances we made between Windows Server 2016 and Windows Server 2019 including true UTC-compliant leap second support, a new time protocol called Precision Time Protocol, and end-to-end traceability. But before we talk about the technical details, let’s talk about why this matters to you.

In the past, the requirement for time accuracy on Windows was limited to domain-based scenarios that required all devices to be synchronized within 5 minutes. Now worldwide government regulations (for example, US: FINRA, EU: ESMA/MiFIDII) are demanding much higher accuracy time – as stringent as 100µs (microseconds). Self-proclaimed accuracy is not enough. You must also be able to prove or “trace” your time back to an authoritative time source – More on this later. ESMA justifies the accuracy and traceability requirements in this way: “…It is also essential for conducting cross-venue monitoring of orders and detecting instances of market abuse and allows for a clearer comparison between the transaction and the market conditions prevailing at the time of their execution.”

As a result, we first brought 1 ms (millisecond) time accuracy to Windows Server 2016 meeting some of the regulatory requirements – This is supported in-market today. However, our work was not done, and so Windows Server 2019 makes improvements to comply with these regulations and allow Windows to be the preferred choice for workloads with time dependencies. Now, let’s talk a little bit about the features you’ll find in Windows Server 2019 and current Insider builds.

Important! While many of our efforts directly address concerns from regulated industries, this technology applies to any industry, application, or cloud-service with a time dependency.

There’s a lot of content in this article (because we did a lot!) – here’s a quick summary of the information you’ll see in this article

Compliant Leap Second Support

Accuracy Improvements (Precision Time Protocol, Software Time-stamping, Clock Source Stability)

Traceability (including system logging, performance counters, and our work with partners)

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Read more: Top 10 Networking Features in Windows Server 2019: #10 Accurate Network Time | Networking Blog

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