Microsoft is the clear leader of server racks in enterprise data centers across the globe. Walk
into any backroom or data center of any company and you are almost guaranteed to find
the infrastructure of that organization being supported by the Windows Server operating
system. We have been relying on Windows Server for more than 20 years, and rightfully so-
–nowhere else can you find such an enormous mix of capabilities all provided inside one
installer disc. Windows Server 2016 continues to provide the core functionality that we have
come to rely upon from all previous versions of Windows Server, but in better and more
efficient ways. On top of that, we have some brand new capabilities in Server 2016 that are
particularly mind-bending, new ways to accomplish more efficient and secure handling of
our network traffic and data.
There is a relevant question mixed into all this server talk, “We hear so much about the
cloud. Isn’t everyone moving to the cloud? If so, why would we even need Windows Server
2016 in our company?” There are two different ways to answer this question, and both
result in having huge benefits to knowing and understanding this newest version of
Windows Server. First, there really aren’t that many companies moving all of their
equipment into the cloud. In fact, I have yet to meet any business with more than 10
employees who has gone all-in for the cloud. In almost all cases, it still makes sense that you
would use at least one on premise server to manage local user account authentication, or
DHCP, or print services, or for a local file server–-the list goes on and on. Another reason
companies aren’t moving to the cloud like you might think they are is security. Sure, we
might throw some data and some user accounts to the cloud to enable things like federation
and ease of accessing that data, but what about sensitive or classified company data? You
don’t own your data if it resides in the cloud – you don’t even have the capability to
manage the backend servers that are actually storing that data alongside data from other
companies. How can you be guaranteed of your data’s security and survival? The ultimate
answer is that you cannot, though there are steps being made in this direction. This alone keeps many folks that I have talked to away from moving some of their information to a cloud service provider.
The second reason it is still important to build knowledge on the Windows Server platform is that even if you have made the decision to move everything to the cloud, what server platform will you be running in the cloud that you now have to log into and administer? If you are using Azure for cloud services, there is a very good chance that you will be logging into Windows Server 2016 instances in order to administer your environment, even if those Server 2016 boxes are sitting in the cloud. So whether you have on premise servers, or you are managing servers sitting in the cloud somewhere, learning all you can about the new Windows Server 2016 operating system will be beneficial to your day job in IT.
When I first learned of the opportunity to put together this book, it was a difficult task to
assemble an outline of possible recipes. Where to begin? There are so many different roles
that can be run in Windows Server 2016, and so many tasks within each role that could be
displayed. It was a natural reaction to start looking for all of the things that are brand new
in Server 2016, and to want to talk only about recipes that display the latest and greatest
features. But then I realized that those recipes on their own won’t accomplish anything
helpful for someone who is trying to learn about Windows Server administration for the
first time. It is critical that we provide a base understanding of the important infrastructural
roles that are commonly provided by Windows Server, because without that baseline the
newest features won’t amount to a hill of beans.
This shortened volume focuses more on the common, everyday recipes that are going to benefit the average server administrator, and I hope that this book can also be a quick-reference guide that you keep near your desk into the future until you are fully versed and comfortable navigating around the new interface. We will cover recipes that
tackle the core infrastructure tasks that we have been performing in previous versions of
Windows Server, but now focusing on how to make them work in the new Windows Server
2016. Some recipes are clearly for the beginner, while others get deeper into the details so that someone already
experienced with working inside Windows Server will gain some new knowledge out of
reading this book. We will discuss the roles that are critically important to making any
Microsoft network function: Active Directory, DNS, DHCP, Group Policy and so on.
A primary goal of this cookbook is to be a reference guide that you can come back to time
and again when you need to accomplish common tasks in your environment, but want to
ensure that you are performing them the right way. I hope that through these chapters you
are able to become comfortable enough with Windows Server 2016 that you will go out and
install it today!
