Microsoft Windows Server 2016 Standard Edition Windows Server Core Functionality

Microsoft Windows Server 2016 Standard Edition Windows Server Core Functionality

Windows Server 2016 System Requirements:

Based on the Tp5 release, here are the expected system requirements for Windows Server 2016:

Processor Requirements:

1 . 1.4 Ghz 64-bit processor or faster
2 . Compatible with x64 instruction set
3 . Supports NX, DEP, CMPXCHG16b, LAHF/SAHF, PrefetchW and Second Level Address Translation (EPT or NPT)

RAM Requirements:

1 . 512 MB of RAM or greater
2 . ECC (Error Correcting Code) type or similar technology

3 . Disk Space Requirements:

4 . 32GB or greater

Network Requirements:

1 . Ethernet adapter with at least gigabit throughput
2 . complient with PCI-E architecture
3 . Support for Pre-boot Execution Environment (PXE)

Other Requirements (Not required to install and run Windows Server 2016, but are required for certain features):

1 . UEFI 2.3.1c based system
2 . Firmware that supports secure boot
3 . Trusted Platform Module
4 . Graphics device and monitor capable of 1024 x 768 or higher resolution
5 . Keyboard and Mouse
6 . Internet Access

Windows Server 2016 Editions

Microsoft has revealed two versions of Windows Server 2016: Datacenter Edition and Standard Edition. Here is a brief overview of each edition:

Windows Server 2016 Datacenter Edition – Highly virtualized private and hybrid cloud environments.
Windows Server 2016 Standard Edition – Non-virtualized or lightly virtualized environments

Microsoft has also informed us that other editions will be available with more information coming later this year. If the editions remain the same as Windows Server 2012 R2, we can expect an Essentials Edition and a Foundation Edition.

Windows Server 2016 Edition Comparison:

Hyper-V

Rolling Hyper-V cluster update: Unlike upgrading clusters from Windows 2008 R2 to 2012 level, Windows Server 2016 cluster nodes can be added to a Hyper-V Cluster with nodes running Windows Server 2012 R2. The cluster continues to function at a Windows Server 2012 R2 feature level until all of the nodes in the cluster have been upgraded and the cluster functional level has been upgraded.

Storage quality of service (QoS) to centrally monitor end-to-end storage performance and create policies using Hyper-V and Scale-Out File Servers

New, more efficient binary virtual machine configuration format (.VMCX extension for virtual machine configuration data and the .VMRS extension for runtime state data)

Production checkpoints

Hyper-V Manager: Alternate credentials support, down-level management, WS-Management protocol
Integration services for Windows guests distributed through Windows Update

Hot add and remove for network adapters (for generation 2 virtual machines) and memory (for generation 1 and generation 2 virtual machines)

Linux secure boot

Connected Standby compatibility

Storage Resiliency feature of Hyper-V is formed for detecting transitory loss of connectivity to VM storage. VMs will be paused until connectivity is re-established.

RDMA compatible Virtual Switch