Re: Update Windows Server 2012
Katerine Aldrige
Windows Server (formerly Windows NT Server) is a group of server operating systems (OS) that has been developed by Microsoft since 1993. The first OS that was released for this platform is Windows NT 3.1 Advanced Server, an edition of Windows NT 3.1. With the release of Windows Server 2003, Microsoft started releasing new versions under the name Windows Server. The latest release of Windows Server is Windows Server 2022, which was released in 2021.
Microsoft's history of developing operating systems for servers goes back to Windows NT 3.1 Advanced Server. Windows 2000 Server is the first OS to include Active Directory, DNS Server, DHCP Server, and Group Policy.
Windows NT 3.1 Advanced Server was released on July 27, 1993[citation needed] as an edition of Windows NT 3.1, an operating system aimed towards business and server use. As with its Workstation counterpart, Windows NT 3.1 Advanced Server was a 32 bit rewrite of the Windows kernel that retained a similar use interface to Windows 3.1. Unlike the latter, however, Windows NT 3.1 Advanced Server was a complete operating system that did not need to be run from DOS. Windows NT 3.1 Advanced Server, like its Workstation counterpart, featured new features such as multiuser support and preemptive multitasking.[3]In 1994, Microsoft released Windows NT Server 3.5. It introduced TCP/IP and Winsock support integrated into the operating system, alongside the ability to use FTP. It also supported VFAT.[citation needed]
In 1996, Microsoft released Windows NT Server 4.0. It added the new user interface introduced in Windows 95 the previous year. In addition, it dropped support for the PowerPC, Alpha, and MIPS architectures. Microsoft updated Winsock to version 2 and IIS 2.0 and FrontPage are included.[citation needed]
Traditionally, Microsoft supports Windows Server for 10 years, with five years of mainstream support and an additional five years of extended support. These releases also offer a complete desktop experience. Starting with Windows Server 2008, Server Core and Nano Server configurations were made available to reduce the OS footprint.[14][15] Between 2015 and 2021, Microsoft referred to these releases as "long-term support" releases to set them apart from semi-annual releases (see below.)
For sixteen years, Microsoft released a major version of Windows Server every four years, with one minor version released two years after a major release. The minor versions had an "R2" suffix in their names. In October 2018, Microsoft broke this tradition with the release of Windows Server 2019, which should have been "Windows Server 2016 R2". Windows Server 2022 is also a minor upgrade over its predecessor.[16][17]
Following the release of Windows Server 2016, Microsoft attempted to mirror the lifecycle of Windows 10 in the Windows Server family, releasing new versions twice a year which were supported for 18 months. These semi-annual versions were only available as part of Microsoft subscription services, including Software Assurance, Azure Marketplace, and Visual Studio subscriptions,[27] until their discontinuation in July 2021.[28][27]
The semi-annual releases do not include any desktop environments. Instead, they are restricted to the Nano Server configuration installed in a Docker container,[15][27] and the Server Core configuration, licensed only to serve as a container host.[15][27]
The Annual Channel was first announced on July 2023, with the first version being released on September the same year. Unlike the Semi-Annual releases, each Annual Channel release would receive six months of extended support in addition to the 18 months of regular support. Annual releases are made available every twelve months, hence the name. Datacenter is the only edition available.
Compute Engine providespublic images with Windows Serverthat you can use to create instances. For instructions on how to create aWindows Server instance with SQL Server preinstalled, seeCreating SQL Server instances.
To create an instance with Windows Server, specify the imagefamily for the specific version of Windows that you need.Compute Engine offers several versions of Windows Server, most ofwhich are available asShielded VM images.Shielded VM images offer security features like UEFI-compliantfirmware, Secure Boot, and vTPM-protected Measured Boot. For a list of theavailable image families, see publicimages.
If you need more than two concurrent remote desktop sessions, you will need topurchase Remote Desktop Session (RDS) Client Access Licenses (CALs). For moreinformation, see License your RDS deployment with client access licenses(CALs).
If you plan on using Microsoft Active Directory (AD) with your new instance,make sure the instance name is no longer than 15 characters, to meet the statedmaximum name length restrictions of the system.
AD uses the NetBIOS names of machines, which are generated as the instance nametruncated to 15 characters. As a result, you might encounter the following errorwhen trying to sign in as a domain user:The Security Database on the Server does not have a Computer Account for this Workstation Trust Relationship.
If you want to turn off the virtual trusted platform module (vTPM),clear the Turn on vTPM checkbox. The vTPM enables MeasuredBoot, which validates the VM pre-boot and boot integrity. For moreinformation, seeVirtual Trusted Platform Module (vTPM).
If you want to turn off integrity monitoring, clear theTurn on Integrity Monitoring checkbox. Integrity monitoring letsyou monitor the boot integrity of yourShielded VM VMs using Cloud Monitoring.For more information, seeIntegrity monitoring.
--no-shielded-vtpm: Disable the virtual trusted platform module (vTPM). The vTPM enables Measured Boot, which validates the VM pre-boot and boot integrity. For more information, see Virtual Trusted Platform Module (vTPM).
--no-shielded-integrity-monitoring: Disable integrity monitoring. Integrity monitoring lets you monitor the boot integrity of your Shielded VM instances using Cloud Monitoring. For more information, see Integrity monitoring.
enableVtpm: Enable or disable the virtual trusted platform module (vTPM). The vTPM enables Measured Boot, which validates the VM pre-boot and boot integrity. For more information, see Virtual Trusted Platform Module (vTPM).
enableIntegrityMonitoring: Enable or disable integrity monitoring. Integrity monitoring lets you monitor and verify the runtime boot integrity of your Shielded VM instances using Cloud Monitoring reports. For more information, see Integrity monitoring.
Before you can create a Windows Server instance that has only an internal IPaddress, you must verify or configure routes and firewall rules in yourVPC network to allow access tokms.windows.googlecloud.com. Additionally, you mustenablePrivate Google Accessfor subnets in your VPC network that contain Windows instanceswith only internal IP addresses.
Because this instance does not have an external IP address, you cannot connectto it directly over the Internet. You can connect from another network connectedto your VPC network by usingCloud Interconnect orCloud VPN,or you can first connect to a bastion instance over RDP and then connect to theinstance that has only an internal IP address.
Your Windows instances must be able to reach kms.windows.googlecloud.com(35.190.247.13) through a route whose next hop is the default Internetgateway. You cannot activate Windows instances using an instance based NATgateway or Cloud NAT because kms.windows.googlecloud.com rejectsactivation requests from IP addresses that are not confirmed to beCompute Engine instances.
You can use the default route in yourVPC network to route traffic directly tokms.windows.googlecloud.com. If you remove this route, or if you plan to do soin the future, create a custom staticroute with destination 35.190.247.13 andnext hop set to default Internet gateway:
Either the default route or a custom static route as described above will permitinstances with external IP addresses to reach kms.windows.googlecloud.com. Ifyou have Windows instances without external IP addresses or usingCloud NAT, you must also enablePrivate Google Accessso that instances with only internal IP addresses can send traffic to theexternal IP address for kms.windows.googlecloud.com (35.190.247.13).
The implied allow egress firewallrule allows instances to make requests and receive established responses. Unlessyou have created custom firewall rules that deny egress, your Windows instancescan communicate with kms.windows.googlecloud.com.
If you customize firewall rules, it's a good practice to create a high priorityegress allow rule that explicitly permits communication with 35.190.247.13.This way, as you modify your firewall rules, you won't accidentally disableWindows activation.
Windows instances experience a longer startup time because of the sysprepprocess. The Google Cloud console might show that the instance is runningeven if the sysprep process is not yet complete. To check if your instance hassuccessfully started and is ready to be used, check the serial port outputwith the following command:
If you have Windows instances with image versions v20170509 and later orwith agent version 4.1.0 and later, you can set instance configurationin a config file or inproject or instance custom metadata. The config file is inINI format,and is located at the following path:
One benefit of setting these parameters in the config file is that thosesettings persist when you create a custom image for a Windows Server instance.Instance-level custom metadata does not persist beyond the life of the instance.
Normally you use an instance of internal load balancing to directnetwork traffic to one VM instance at a time. If you adda second instance of internal load balancing that uses the failoverclustering VM instances as part of a load-balanced website backend,you would have two internal load balancing IP addresses. If failover clusteringuses 10.0.0.10 and the website's load balancer uses 10.0.0.11,you must specify the IP address of the load balancer that you use for failoverclustering. This disambiguates which address is in use for the cluster.
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