Microsoft is kicking off a nine-month promotion on September 1 which will offer VMware users free Windows Server Datacenter licenses for switching from vSphere to Hyper-V.
Windows Server 2016 VM template tweak? People, I've deployed Windows Server 2016 VM on my VMware ESXi server. Can anyone share some steps or PowerShell to cut down the size and removing unused software or services for best performance? Thanks in advance. Status Solved Priority.
The September 1 start date is a bit odd, since Windows Server 2016 isn't 'launching' until the last week of September at Microsoft's Ignite show, and won't be generally available until early October 2016. (I guess the extra month up front is for those who want to kick the tires of the latest Windows Server 2016 technical preview before committing.)
The fine print of the offer also stipulates that customers who switch workloads to Hyper-V only qualify for free Windows Server 2016 Datacenter licenses when they buy Windows Server Datacenter plus its Software Assurance volume-licensing plan -- meaning customers still have to buy Software Assurance to get the free license to Datacenter Server.
The downloadable data sheet about the migration offer notes that in addition to the free Windows Server Datacenter licenses, participating users will get free online training through Microsoft Virtual Academy. The offer ends June 30, 2017.
Windows Server 2016 Datacenter is one of a handful of Windows Server 2016 editions Microsoft will be releasing this year. The Datacenter version is for 'highly virtualized datacenter and cloud environments.' Other editions include Windows Server 2016 Standard, Essentials, MultiPoint Premium Server, Storage Server, and Hyper-V Server.
On the licensing front, Windows Server 2016 Datacenter and Standard will be licensed by core; Essentials, Multipoint Premium, Storage Server are licensed by processor, as this chart from a recent Microsoft Australia OEM Team blog post makes clear. Users who want to deploy Nano Server mode -- whether on Datacenter or Standard -- need to have Software Assurance coverage in order to do so.
Nano Server is one of three installation options in both Windows Server 2016 Standard and Datacenter. (The other two are Server with Desktop Experience and Server Core.) The Long Term Servicing Branch option is not available for Nano Server, and the more frequently updated Current Branch for Business servicing model is not available for Server with Desktop and Server Core. See this blog post for more details on the coming servicing options.
Datacenter Edition allows users to run an unlimited number of operating system environments/Hyper-V containers, while Standard Edition allows only two. Datacenter Edition also includes features like Storage Spaces Direct and Storage Replica, Shielded virtual machines, and a networking stack, which are not part of Standard Edition.
Speaking of PowerShell, the latest Windows 10 Anniversary Update cumulative update (14393.82) that went out this week breaks the Desired State Configuration (DSC) capability in PowerShell. Microsoft is promising a fix, but not until August 30, which is next week.
Read this
Microsoft confirms it will have a Nano Server mode in Windows Server 2016, along with new Hyper-V containerization technology.
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In this post, I'll show you two ways to configure a Windows 2016 virtual machine (VM) with the VMware Paravirtual SCSI (PVSCSI) adapter. This controller offers a lower CPU cost for an I/O operation compared to that of the LSI Logic SAS virtual SCSI controller, which is the default when deploying a new VM based on Windows Server 2016.
Vladan Seget
Vladan Seget is as an independent consultant, professional blogger, vExpert 2009-2018, VCAP-DCA/DCD, VCP, and MCSA. He has been working for over 20 years as a system engineer.
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PVSCSI adapters are high-performance storage adapters that can provide greater throughput and lower CPU utilization. PVSCSI adapters are best for environments, especially SAN environments, where hardware or applications drive a very high amount of I/O throughput (as with databases). PVSCSI adapters are not suitable for direct attached storage (DAS) environments.
VMware's preconfigured VM templates don't always use the storage controllers that have the best performance. The reason is that Windows 2016 does not come with the corresponding drivers. The result is that it is impossible to install a new VM running Windows Server 2016 out of the box.
There are two ways you might want to proceed depending on whether you have already deployed some Windows 2016 VMs or you're building a new VM from scratch.
Case 1: Change from LSI Logic SAS to VMware Paravirtual SCSI on a Windows Server 2016 VM ^
I assume you have a traditional VM with a single virtual disk configured. You'll need to proceed outside of business hours, as the steps require rebooting the VM several times.
First, add a new storage controller to your VM and change the type to VMware Paravirtual.
Add a new SCSI controller and change the type to VMware Paravirtual
Then add a small 2 GB hard disk and attach it to SCSI controller 1 (make sure to select SCSI 1:0 as the connection). This disk is not a system disk, so the VM will boot normally, and the Windows operating system will automatically find the drivers it can use to install this VMware Paravirtual controller.
Add a new disk and attach it to the newly added SCSI controller
After the OS finds drivers for the disk, make sure the disk appears in the Disk Management console, so you can initialize, format the disk, and bring it online.
Once done, gracefully shut down the VM and change the first SCSI controller 0 to VMware Paravirtual, and then click the Change type button.
Change the type for SCSI controller 0 to VMware Paravirtual
You can boot the VM, as the OS is now aware that some of its controllers are using VMware Paravirtual, thus it can boot successfully. The OS already installed the drivers with the previous step.
As mentioned before, this was for the case in which you have already some VMs (including Windows Server 2008 R2 or Server 2012 R2 VMs) up and running, and you just want to change the controller type for those VMs.
If you create a new VM, you can do it as described below.
Case 2: Prepare a new VM with VMware Paravirtual for a boot disk ^
You can download the latest VMware tools from VMware, or you can use the one bundled with your ESXi installation within the Locker directory. The corresponding ISO image files are located at /locker/packages/.
You can get the latest ISO (Windows.iso) from VMware's website.
During the installation process when the Windows Server installer asks you where you want to install (and you don't see any volumes), just click the Load driver link.
Make sure you previously mounted the 'Windows.iso' you downloaded from VMware, as a second CD/DVD to your VM.
Then browse the ISO and locate the driver.
Pick a VMware PVSCSI driver
The driver path will display within the setup window. Click Next to load the driver.
After that, a new unallocated space shows up.
Unallocated space
Wrap-up ^
I described two ways to set up a Windows Server 2016 VM with a VMware Paravirtual SCSI. The two main benefits are the increased throughput and lower CPU usage.