Windows Server 2016 TP5

Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview 5 has just been released. Check what’s new in TP5 on this TechNet page

Let’s quickly review the top 10 reasons why you’ll love Windows Server 2016:

• PowerShell and DSC
• Active Directory and Identity
• Server management tools
• Remote Desktop Services
• Software defined storage
• Software-defined compute
• Software-defined networking
• Security
• Containers
• Nano Server

There are also some fresh news related to Nano server:

• Nano Server TP5 IaaS Image in the Azure Gallery
• Developing Native Apps on Nano Server
• WSA Updates in WS 2016 TP5
• PackageManagement Support on Nano Server
• NanoServerApiScan.exe updated for TP5
• Bug Bounty for Nano Server

Bonus 1: There’s a free e-book about Windows Server 2016.

Bonus 2:: I’ve updated the demo code I presented last year about How to use WDS to PXE Boot a Nano Server VHD with PowerShell published on PowerShell Magazine

If you use the updated version below, you end up with 2 virtual machines: a Windows Server 2016 TP5 (with Active Directory and WDS) and a Nano VM ready to be provisioned through PXE.

The updated code for TP5 is available as a gist on this page.

Let’s see quickly what’s new:

The Convert-WindowsImage.ps1 script and the NanoServerImageGenerator module are now located on the (ISO):\NanoServer\NanoServerImageGenerator folder.

The New-NanoServerImage function has some new parameters like DeploymentType, Edition,… You can see below a huge comment block that contains a comparison of packages differences between TP4 and TP5 as well as details about syntax differences between TP4 and TP5 version of the New-NanoServerImage function.

A small gotcha. I’ve had to specify the Active Directory module version in the DSC configuration because I had multiple versions installed locally. If you’ve got the most up-to-date version, you’ll have to adjust the version I’ve hardcoded (‘2.8.0.0’ in my case).

One last thing, the code below assumes that you’ve downloaded and stored the TP5 ISO file in a directory named TP5 under your current user’s ‘Downloads’ directory.

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