Windows Server 2022 – More features. No hoopla.

[StorageExperts]

The new Microsoft Windows Server 2022 was quietly released this Summer, with enhancements for performance, security and hybrid cloud, but with little of the traditional fanfare of past OS releases.

If you missed the launch of Microsoft’s release of Windows Server 2022, I wouldn’t wonder why. This has to have been one of the quietest launches of an operating system that Microsoft has ever staged.

There are a number of factors that I surmise lead to this practically silent release. I think that part of this is due to the fact that the Microsoft Ignite conference, which used to take place once a year in September, was diluted when it was held twice a year, and further watered-down when the coronavirus dictated that it change from a physical conference to a virtual one.

The next occurrence of the conference has been moved to November, and will still be held in a virtual format. Historically, this conference has always been a major release vehicle to introduce and promote new server OS to the masses. This all adds up to, in my mind, an interesting convergence of Microsoft’s evolving positioning; in their ‘Cloud First’ sales play, Azure Cloud dominates on-premises servers in their advertising budget allocations. This includes the alternate OS called Azure Datacenter Edition, which is due out in December. While based on Windows Server 2022, it will contain additional features.

The more things change, the more they stay the same

Things that aren’t changing with the new operating system include editions, relative pricing, and support. The OS is still being offered in its Standard Edition and Datacenter Edition. with roughly a price differential of 2x. Microsoft is still offering the OS with the basic 5 years of support, with the option to buy 5 years of additional support.

Additionally, Microsoft is still licensing the OS per Core, where each physical server must be licensed for a minimum of 16 Cores. You can, however, add 2-core packs to bring your licenses up to the number of cores your server contains – if it exceeds 16 cores. You can use the HPE Server Core License Calculator to help you determine your requirements.

Microsoft is also supporting direct upgrades from the previous OS, in this case Windows Server 2019, but a fresh installation is always recommended.

The major features that make Windows Server 2022 Datacenter more expensive than Windows Server 2022 are listed below:

• Storage Spaces Direct (Software Defined Storage)
• Software Defined Networking
• Standard Edition coming with two virtual machine licenses, as opposed to unlimited licenses
• Standard Edition coming with two Hyper-V isolated containers, as opposed to unlimited containers

What is changing with Windows Server 2022

Microsoft is introducing a new OS called the Windows Server Azure Edition, which will contain all of the features offered in Windows Server 2022, as well as additional features seen only in this special edition. These features will require the purchase of Azure Stack HCI or similar Azure Platform. Examples of these features are “SMB over the QUIC protocol” to replace the TCP/IP layer of the OSI model, as well as Hot Patching VMs.

Microsoft has also done away with the Semi-Annual Channel (SAC) release that would have come out every 6 months. For on-premises deployment, the Long-Term Support Chanel (LTSC) is the way to go.

Why deploy Windows Server 2022

Let’s talk about what Windows Server 2022 really is, and how it differs from previous releases. I assume you are already familiar with Windows Server 2016 and 2019, so the first thing to know is that the newest version supports an upgrade directly from Windows Server 2019. Microsoft recommends a fresh installation as some of the defaults may differ. An example of this is that Windows Server 2022 will not boot from a BIOS based system, but instead requires a UEFI (v2.3.1+) boot to install the OS. The only way to force it to boot from BIOS is to install Windows Server 2019 first, and complete an in-place upgrade.

Additionally, this version of the operating system is designed to take advantages of the latest processors such as Intel Ice Lake and newer, or AMD Ryzen/EPYC or newer. As such, older model servers like HPE Gen8 and Gen9 are not recommended and not listed on the Microsoft Support Matrix as supported platforms. Please check the Support Matrix for more details.

What about new features

So what about new features?  Although Microsoft has done a lot of innovation, these enhancements have been spread across a number of areas including Windows Admin Center, and into new hybrid offerings like Azure Arc.

There are a few advances that are unique to Windows Server 2022:

• Nested Virtualization on AMD processors. Until now (Windows Server 2019) it was a hard requirement to use Intel based processors to run Nested Virtualization. With this release, you will need AMD Ryzen/Epyc or newer processors that support the AMD-V feature. This is highly valuable when you want to run docker containers inside of a VM, or a VM within a VM.
• Storage Bus Cache. This feature allows you to use NVMe or SSD as a caching for slower media, when using Storage Spaces Direct (S2D). This feature works on standalone servers as well as clusters.
• SMB Compression. This attribute enables clients that support it to compress SMB packets and accept compressed packets, allowing server bandwidth to scale better. This feature increases in value when your SMB partner is either high latency, or has limited bandwidth.
• SMB Encryption for inter-node communication on Windows Failover Clusters (WFC). This protects you when a bad actor snoops on the backend network. If this is paired with secure boot and at-rest-encryption – even if the complete WFC is stolen – no data can be ex-filtrated.
• TLS1.3 enabled by default and Secure DNS. These offer significant protection against bad actors, as all DNS traffic is now encrypted.

What’s new in HPE SAN Storage for Windows Server 2022

Well, here the story is both good and bad. It’s bad in that no advances to either Fibre Channel or iSCSI storage have been introduced to Windows Server 2022; it’s good in the sense that all of HPE’s storage platforms will have been qualified for Windows Server 2022, and will appear in the Windows Server Catalog as fully supported. You can be assured that your HPE SAN investments will work on Windows Server 2022 just as they have on Windows Server 2019.

I hope this blog article was helpful, and I would love to hear your thoughts and comments. As you download and get familiar with the new Windows Server 2022, check out what’s new with our HPE Storage solutions for Windows and other business-critical Microsoft workloads. 

Please leave your questions or comments below. It would be great to hear from you!

Meet HPE Storage Blogger, Chris Lionetti. Chris is a veteran storage professional who has been building complex systems and SANs for over 25 years. He is actively involved with the Storage Network Industry Association (SNIA) where he is the Board Vice-chair. He is also a reference architect on the HPE Storage team.

Chris participates in many technical working groups and holds 9 patents for inventions related to data centers, networking, and data storage.  Follow Chris on Twitter!

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