Disk size

Building in Azure is easy and the wizard takes you to all the steps and you have a working VM. choosing the right size is different often it has a link to the on premise world 4 core CPU and 8 GB memory. and the disk I need 1 TB disk space. All simple but then things get complicated the performance needs to be better CPU is fine Memory well 60 %  plenty of disk space. Bigger VM perfect.

Still slow Whole VM runs at 20-60% users are complaining must be this Azure thing someone else his computer runs slow.

I often hear this. But is it really slow or is your measurement wrong ?

When you pick a machine on premise what do you take performance or Cost ? <> performance and then cost right and at the end you settle with the cost vs. performance.

But in Azure what do you take performance or Cost ?<> 100% Costs, VM’s are expensive.  This is not always wrong but sometimes is paying a bit more the best approach

In my sample here I show you the performance in a Disk with different machine types, and not picking the right components doesn’t give you the right performance. but it may well function on your workload, but then you may pay to much for you over sized configuration.

In my sample I need a VM with 300 IOPS and one with 4000 IOPS and I need one with 27000 IOPS CPU and Memory are in this case not important as it is more i/o intensive.

I pick a default Azure VM an D machine, put some disks to the machine one HDD-S30 ,SSD-E30 ,SSD-P30,SSD-P60 

 

D2s_v3

Standard

General purpose

2

8

4

3200

16 GB

VM Type	Disk Type	MiB/s	I/O per s
Standard D2s v3 (2 vcpus, 8 GiB memory)	HDD-S30	2.01	514.23
	SSD-E30	2.21	566.27
	SSD-P30	13.29	3403.51
	SSD-P60	12.33	3157.46

 

First goal met 500 IOPS and an cheap machine but this could also an Azure B type VM much cheaper. then I wonder why use SSD over HDD for the IOPS it’s the same speed and latency there is a point SDD are performance steady, but for normal workload. Costs If you have a lot of transactions then SDD may be cheaper. A fact is nobody knows how expensive the HDD disk are, have you ever calculated the Storage transactions ?

below is a overview of the disk latency.

25th |    100.325 |    N/A |    100.325 HDD-S30

25th |    100.012 |   N/A |    100.012 SSD-E30

25th |      4.545 |    N/A |      4.545   SSD-P30

Comparing all the SSD disks and pick the right performance is not hard Microsoft did a great job on explaining this. on Microsoft docs

Premium SSD sizes						P30	P40	P50	P60	P70	P80
Disk size in GiB						1,024	2,048	4,096	8,192	16,384	32,767
IOPS per disk						Up to 5,000	Up to 7,500	Up to 7,500	Up to 16,000	Up to 18,000	Up to 20,000
Throughput per disk						Up to 200 MiB/sec	Up to 250 MiB/sec	Up to 250 MiB/sec	Up to 500 MiB/sec	Up to 750 MiB/sec	Up to 900 MiB/sec

When you provision a premium storage disk, unlike standard storage, you are guaranteed the capacity, IOPS, and throughput of that 

 

When you provision a premium storage disk, unlike standard storage, you are guaranteed the capacity, IOPS, and throughput of that

that is interesting In my D2 machine and with a P30 I got only 3400 IOPS, so this is wrong ? Well according to the disk but the VM can only deliver 3200 IOPS with the 3400 IOPS delivered its perfectly normal then.

 

The same test again with a better Azure VM and the same disks.

DS3_v2

Standard

General purpose

4

14

16

12800

28 GB

 

VM Type	Disk Type	MiB/s	I/O per s
Standard DS3 v3 (4 vcpus, 14 GiB memory)	HDD-S30	2.01	514.01
	SSD-E30	2.21	566.63
	SSD-P30	21.58	5523.51
	SSD-P60	51.00	13056.39

 

The requirements are there 5500 Iops for a disk that need to deliver 5000 IOPS that’s good. but what about the P60 disk , again a had cap to the VM max of 12800 IOPS

The latency is not that different for this you need a different kind of VM

25th |    100.256 |        N/A |    100.256  HDD-S30

25th |    100.008 |        N/A |    100.008 SSD-E30

25th |      4.416 |        N/A |      4.416 SSD-P30

25th |      2.135 |        N/A |      2.135  SSD-P60

Comparing the Azure VM’s selected on IOPS and select the right machine

 

selecting the F4 VM that can deliver 16000 lops according the sheet .

F4s

Standard

Compute optimized

4

8

16

16000

16 GB

VM Type	Disk Type	MiB/s	I/O per s
Standard F4s (4 vcpus, 8 GiB memory)	HDD-S30	2.01	514.01
	SSD-E30	2.21	566.63
	SSD-P30	21.58	5523.51
	SSD-P60	50.85	13018.46

 

Did not get the 16.000 lops in fact it produce almost the same results ad the DS3 only double the costs.

SSD-P60 latency measurement 4k blocks vs 64K blocks

25th |      2.171 |        N/A |      2.171

25th |      3.088 |        N/A |      3.088  <> 64kblocs

So this strange big machine still not hitting the limits CPU and memory is low. Seems good but not the performance

Checking the Microsoft site : https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/windows/sizes-compute

You can see a different specs result. this means the machine can’t deliver the IOPS and the Size table thinks he can. Results are bad.

Standard_F4s_v2

4

8

32

8

8000 / 63 (64)

6400 / 95

2 / 1750

 

Then lets pick a Azure VM than can deliver the iops. a F16 big VM costly but can it deliver I compare both tables In the Azure portal and the Docs

F16s

Standard

Compute optimized

16

32

64

64000

64 GB

  But on the other side on the Docs https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/windows/sizes-compute

Standard_F16s_v2

16

32

128

32

32000 / 255 (256)

25600 / 380

4 / 7000

 

VM Type	Disk Type	MiB/s	I/O per s
Standard F16s v2 (16 vcpus, 32 GiB memory)	HDD-S30	2.01	514.09
	SSD-E30	2.21	566.63
	SSD-P30	21.60	5529.96
	SSD-P60	63.76	16321.29

 

This looks OK now 16000 IOPS.

But what If I build a stripe set from the SSD-P30 and SSD-P60 and HDD-S30 and SSD-E30 what would be the iops ? (it’s a bad idea to mix different disk types this is just a sample)

What if we create a stripe set ?

Worse performance than if I user the SSD-P60 alone. Bad config to do this. 

 

HDD and SSD

Both Disks have around 500 IOPS each and now they can produce a 1000 IOPS that’s not bad

But what happens if I combine all the disks into a Storage space direct ? combining all the disk you have and build a new disk JBOD.

Also a Bad Idea and a waste of resources and Money an P60 disk combined with a S30

That’s all about the little side step, but it keeps me thinking…. -What if

Below is a list with similar iops performance  And Instead of using 1 SSD-P60 I’ll use 3 disks on paper I should have 3x 16000 IOPS = 48000 IOPS and 3x 500MB/s =1500 MB/s that is massive right. stripe set or Storage space or storage space direct ? all valid options but what machine do I need to handle the performance.

I selected 3 types a E32,DS5 and a DS14 all with big price difference but similar specs .

Standard_E32s_v3 2

32

256

512

32

64000 / 512 (800)

51200 / 768

8 / 16000

Standard_DS5_v2

16

56

112

64

64000 / 512 (688)

51200 / 768

8 / 12000

Standard_DS14_v2 3

16

112

224

64

64000 / 512 (576)

51200 / 768

8 / 12000

 

First I build a Storage Pool on the DS5_V2

Nice Capacity good latency and decent performance a round 29000 IOPS of 3 disks, in a Mirror set I’ll loose a disk so the performance is good better than I expected.  To hit the limits I should add 2 more disks to this config and see if they can handle the performance.

25th |      2.025 |        N/A |      2.025

I’ll run the same test on a E32-8s_v3

E32-8s_v3

Standard

Memory optimized

8

256

32

51200

512 GB

Bigger VM much more performance, higher price.

So overall the cheaper VM can produce the same disk performance. but the machine is $1000 cheaper per month. Again it depends what you are doing with the VM

Now the same configuration with Storagespaces Direct just to see if the performance is better, keep in mind that every run the machine performance can be a bit different so in the same range I see this as the same performance.

The S2D results on a E32 VM

And even a step higher an expensive VM with 432 GB memory. With an S2D Cluster.

E64s_v3

Standard

Memory optimized

64

432

32

80000

864 GB

Yes

 

So same performance when Running a StorageSpace or S2D cluster and no change on the machine type. in fact the DS5 machine is slightly better. it saves $2000 per month. If you don’t need the CPU and memory from the VM.

So size does matter but it depends on what size you are looking right. Azure is like Lego but different. Combining the pieces makes a great solution.

Below I created a table Cost vs performance, I also compared the datasheet in the azure portal to the DOC pages and I think you should keep this page as a reference. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/windows/sizes-memory

This shows you that in complex configurations there is no one size fits all and it comes to testing and adjusting, Tools may help you but picking the right VM size and choose the right storage can take some time. As in this I only compared disks but what if I choose Netapp files or some other disks like ultra SSD’s

And Now I did this config with 3 P60 disk that cost  $1000 each = $3,121.92 (in azure Calculator) it gets me ~30.000 IOPS

Now On the DS5 machine a 2 way mirror Auto created.

It nags me that I can’t get the max from the VM, the must be something wrong in my configuration. lets do some quick testing change VM and Disk types

With 6 times a SSD-P30 disk  I’ll get 27.000 IOPS on the DS5 Machine

When using a Stripeset this hits the VM limit of 768 true put. Less IOPS but more speed. So Configuration is also KEY in the used hardware.

Lets tweak the config a bit and see if we can pass the 50.000 Iops and hit the machine limit.

With read cache enabled and 8 P30 disks. that’s not bad right.

The P40 disks have 7500 IOPS each will this break the record ?  (6x P40 disk storage space)

First test same result a bit lower, but there is more to get. Testing now With 8 P40 disks

(8x P40 disk storage space)

(8x P40 disk storage space) Manual configuration.

(8x P40 disk storage space) Manual configuration. with 6 columns

That’s not bad the DS5 hits the limit.

On Microsoft Ignite 2015 Mark Russinovich did a demo, where he showed a virtual machine with Premium Storage that hit over 64,000 IOPS. Well This beats the record but the Azure hardware is much better now right.

Lets Switch to some big Azure VM

64 Cores lets see If I can use some of these cores in the S2D config.

Oh ok it seems I need more cores or less workload on this.  But easily hit the IOPS limit on this machine.

 

Overall in this is what do you need and test this also with a different configuration. Not only on price but also on performance.  In the first section I used 3x a P60 disk cost $3.000 a even better result I get with 8x P30 disk cost $1.000

Picking the right configuration can only be don based on testing and create some references for you. Azure machines and storage is changing all the time its getting better all the time. It all depends on your workload but there is no one size fits all !

 

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I am proud to announce that I was awarded by Microsoft, with the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) Award for 2019-2020 in the category Microsoft Azure. I also hold a MVP Award in Windows Insider #WIMVP. This is my 11th Microsoft MVP award since 2009, and I couldn’t be more excited about this one.

I migrated my Self too the Cloud, took my 11 years to get from On premise to the Azure Cloud. But still looking forward to see the new Azure previews and write blogs,workshops,etc.

A big thank you for the Blog readers and twitter @ClusterMVP Followers Thanks!  

 

The first Award was in 2009 as Cluster MVP, this was a small group and since then the group merged to Cloud and Datacenter.

 

Some Impressions of the MVP status.

Who are MVPs?

Microsoft Most Valuable Professionals, or MVPs, are technology experts who passionately share their knowledge with the community. They are always on the “bleeding edge” and have an unstoppable urge to get their hands on new, exciting technologies. They have very deep knowledge of Microsoft products and services, while also being able to bring together diverse platforms, products and solutions, to solve real world problems. MVPs make up a global community of over 4,000 technical experts and community leaders across 90 countries and are driven by their passion, community spirit, and quest for knowledge. Above all and in addition to their amazing technical abilities, MVPs are always willing to help others – that’s what sets them apart.

Source https://mvp.microsoft.com/en-us/Overview

 

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In case you may missed this Azure has released a new service called Bastion. So what is the fuzz about this new service and why should you use this ?

Bastion can Manage RDP/SSH to VMs over SSL using private IP on the VM.

Azure Bastion is a fully managed PaaS service that provides secure and seamless RDP and SSH access to your virtual machines directly through the Azure Portal. Azure Bastion is provisioned directly in your Virtual Network (VNet) and supports all VMs in your Virtual Network (VNet) using SSL without any exposure through public IP addresses.

 

So basically it is the old Jump server that you already used to get into the Azure VM’s if needed. It can access all virtual machines within a virtual network through a single hardened access point. Exposing the bastion host as primary exposed public access helps lockdown of public Internet exposure and limit threats such as port scanning and other types of malware targeting your VMs.

A jump server as PaaS services.

This seems nice but as always is it free or is it costly ? Well in the Azure Calculator you can see the Costs.

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/details/azure-bastion/

 

Ho do we start with Bastion.

 

First we need to register the new resource in Azure this is always needed to get to work with the new Azure components.

Keep in mind this can take some time to register

Get-AzProviderFeature -ProviderNamespace Microsoft.Network

With the Powershell command below we are registering the Bastion service into our subscription and network.

Register-AzProviderFeature -FeatureName AllowBastionHost -ProviderNamespace Microsoft.Network

Now that we triggered to register the Bastion services we need to wait

Check if it is done

 

Then register the network again. with your subscription and the Microsoft.Network provider namespace

Register-AzResourceProvider -ProviderNamespace Microsoft.Network

 

Now that this is done we can start with the Configuration, and there a multiple ways on how to get there. by the market place or directly in the VM

In the VM almost all the items are pre defined and ready to go if you want to go with the defaults.

 

In the marketplace you need to find the bastion and select the new resource.

Select and create the resource. Configure this accordantly and select the proper network.

The starting point is almost the same the first one is already in the VM network and the one from the market place is just a blank one , where you need to select your network.

In this LAB I’ll go for connection directly from the VM.

Lets start in the VM go to connect and select bastion and use Bastion

As I want to move forward quickly I already see some red lines. I need a /27 Subnet.  This is currently not in my network so I need to create a new subnet in the used Azure network.

As shown below the extra subnet is created to connect to the AzureBastion

 

The subnet inside your virtual network to which Bastion resource will be deployed. The subnet must be created with the name AzureBastionSubnet. This lets Azure know which subnet to deploy the Bastion resource to. This is different than a Gateway subnet. Click Manage subnet configuration to create the Azure Bastion Subnet. We highly recommend that you use at least a /27 or larger subnet (/27, /26, etc.). Create the AzureBastionSubnet without any Network Security Groups, route tables, or delegations. Click Create to create the subnet, then proceed with the next settings.

Now that the Subnet is added we can creating the Bastion service.

The validation started a it is created.

Now that it is created we can connect to the VM with HTML5 the connection is similar with WVD RDP connection to the VM.

You can see the created subnet.

Connecting With chrome or with Microsoft Edge is no problem you do need to configure the popup blocker

 

Web based RDP connection keep in mind the background is filtered out.

For connection with the browser you will need to allow the popup showing

 

  

now that the portal has access the connection will proceed. Unless your VM is in the Wrong region

Currently only the following regions are supported :

• West US
• East US
• West Europe
• South Central US
• Australia East
• Japan East

 

This is a nice feature but if you running already a hybrid site why not using the Windows admin center here you can also connect with the HTML5 browser to the Azure VM. the only thing here is you will need to connect to an external IP with proper NSG or to the internal IP with a S2S VPN connection.

 

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/services/azure-bastion/

 

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Supported VM configuration versions for semi-annual channel hosts

Why should I upgrade the virtual machine configuration version?

When you move or import a virtual machine to a computer that runs Hyper-V on Windows Server 2019, Windows Server 2016, or Windows 10, the virtual machine"s configuration isn’t automatically updated. This means that you can move the virtual machine back to a Hyper-V host that runs a previous version of Windows or Windows Server. But, this also means that you can’t use some of the new virtual machine features until you manually update the configuration version. You can’t downgrade the virtual machine configuration version after you’ve upgraded it.

The virtual machine configuration version represents the compatibility of the virtual machine’s configuration, saved state, and snapshot files with the version of Hyper-V. When you update the configuration version, you change the file structure that is used to store the virtual machines configuration and the checkpoint files. You also update the configuration version to the latest version supported by that Hyper-V host. Upgraded virtual machines use a new configuration file format, which is designed to increase the efficiency of reading and writing virtual machine configuration data. The upgrade also reduces the potential for data corruption in the event of a storage failure.

 

With PowerShell we check what versions I have running

Get-VM * | Format-Table Name, Version

As you can see I have version 5.0 – 9.0 running time for some upgrading.

This VM has version 5 and I’m upgrading this to version 9.0 , Windows server 2019 default.

Microsoft Windows 10 October 2018 Update/Server 2019 9.0     True

Update-VMVersion HYD-DC1 

Confirming and done.

If you want to upgrade all vm’s   then use a *

Update-VMVersion *

Get-VMHostSupportedVersion –Default

 

Microsoft Windows 10 October 2018 Update/Server 2019 9.0     True

In the table below you can see the versions between the OS versions and LTSC and SAC.

Supported VM configuration versions for long-term servicing hosts

The following table lists the VM configuration versions that are supported on hosts running a long-term servicing version of Windows.

Hyper-V host Windows version	9.1	9.0	8.3	8.2	8.1	8.0	7.1	7.0	6.2	5.0
Windows Server 2019	✖	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC 2019	✖	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Windows Server 2016	✖	✖	✖	✖	✖	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Windows 10 Enterprise 2016 LTSB	✖	✖	✖	✖	✖	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Windows 10 Enterprise 2015 LTSB	✖	✖	✖	✖	✖	✖	✖	✖	✔	✔
Windows Server 2012 R2	✖	✖	✖	✖	✖	✖	✖	✖	✖	✔
Windows 8.1	✖	✖	✖	✖	✖	✖	✖	✖	✖	✔

The following table lists the VM configuration versions for hosts running a currently supported semi-annual channel version of Windows.

Hyper-V host Windows version	9.1	9.0	8.3	8.2	8.1	8.0	7.1	7.0	6.2	5.0
Windows 10 May 2019 Update (version 1903)	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Windows Server, version 1903	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Windows Server, version 1809	✖	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Windows 10 October 2018 Update (version 1809)	✖	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Windows Server, version 1803	✖	✖	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Windows 10 April 2018 Update (version 1803)	✖	✖	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Windows 10 Fall Creators Update (version 1709)	✖	✖	✖	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Windows 10 Creators Update (version 1703)	✖	✖	✖	✖	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Windows 10 Anniversary Update (version 1607)	✖	✖	✖	✖	✖	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔

 

 

 

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As Windows Server 2019 Still holds Internet Explorer and no Edge Chromium or other browser. therefore all initial internet contact is done by the Internet Explorer. This can be annoying when you want to do something on the server and connect to Azure and first you need to install another browser.

This is just a quick blog on the Azure portal app, as this could be handy on any machine without using the browser.

Or you can download the Azure portal app.

When opening the IE browser and go to https://Portal.azure.com

You will see this, the option to download the Application to manage the portal.

Agreeing on the Terms and download

The Azueportalinstaller can also be deployed by SCCM or intune if you want. its not only an application that can be used on older machines.

The setup is easy and you only need to logon.

Use your Azure credentials and you good to go.

 

 

 

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Sometimes you are building things in Azure and thinking if this is possible than that would be a cool feature. Suddenly you are building this and noticed that it is already there in Azure. How Cool is that.

Today I was building a demo website but I did not want to expose this directly to the web, play with this and still get the use of Azure Cloud over the internet. Reading the Azure Endpoint services there is no WebApp Endpoint services. Using a NSG or enable the Azure Firewall well it is just a test so lets see what we can do with all the basic stuff. But during the test I saw this option Microsoft.Web in the service endpoints.

More security is needed in everything you expose to the internet. And in Azure it all starts with a Vnet.

Virtual Network (VNet) service endpoints extend your virtual network private address space and the identity of your VNet to the Azure services, over a direct connection. Endpoints allow you to secure your critical Azure service resources to only your virtual networks. Traffic from your VNet to the Azure service always remains on the Microsoft Azure network.

First we create a new Vnet, while we creating this wen can enable an pick the right service endpoints. this can also be done afterwards.

Azure service traffic from a virtual network uses public IP addresses as source IP addresses. With service endpoints, service traffic switches to use virtual network private addresses as the source IP addresses when accessing the Azure service from a virtual network. This switch allows you to access the services without the need for reserved, public IP addresses used in IP firewalls.

In case you have already a Vnet, just go to the Service points and add the selected service you want to add or select it all.

  

At this point there is no Configuration, it is just adding a services to the network or subnet.

Below is a list of the Azure services that are currently available.

Generally available

• Azure Storage: Generally available in all Azure regions.
• Azure SQL Database: Generally available in all Azure regions.
• Azure SQL Data Warehouse: Generally available in all Azure regions.
• Azure Database for PostgreSQL server: Generally available in Azure regions where database service is available.
• Azure Database for MySQL server: Generally available in Azure regions where database service is available.
• Azure Database for MariaDB: Generally available in Azure regions where database service is available.
• Azure Cosmos DB: Generally available in all Azure regions.
• Azure Key Vault: Generally available in all Azure regions.
• Azure Service Bus: Generally available in all Azure regions.
• Azure Event Hubs: Generally available in all Azure regions.
• Azure Data Lake Store Gen 1: Generally available in all Azure regions where ADLS Gen1 is available.

Public Preview

• Azure Container Registry: Preview available in all Azure regions where Azure Container Registry is available.

The Web app is not listed but the option is there, and working. The Azure service Endpoint is not a Firewall, as the Azure Firewall this is a totally different service.

For Samples you have a Web application, and it needs to have connection to storage or SQL server and connection to an other Web services, without setting this open to Any – Any you can restrict this with the Azure Service Endpoints

Creating the Rules is a quick process, these are similar as in the NSG.

• Network security groups (NSGs) with service endpoints:

• By default, NSGs allow outbound Internet traffic and so, also allow traffic from your VNet to Azure services. This continues to work as is, with service endpoints.
• If you want to deny all outbound Internet traffic and allow only traffic to specific Azure services, you can do so using service tags in your NSGs. You can specify supported Azure services as destination in your NSG rules and the maintenance of IP addresses underlying each tag is provided by Azure.

First we go the the Web App Service. in Networking and the non readers will click the VNet integration. #Wrong 

In this case I don’t want a premium network, So we go to Configure Access Restrictions

Here we create a access rule, on who gets access to this web application.

I created a deny rule for a specific IP.

And the pages shows an error webapp is stopped. here you can also see the difference between a complete port block and no access to the application.

Changing this to Allow the App is visible

Also for the KUDU SCM you can have different rules or apply the same rules. with the little check box

With these options you can create a more secure environment again this is a great add on.

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This post is already a long pending post, now that there is an updated ISO with 1903 thought it is time to dust off this draft post.

Originally it was more an overview on what is change and a first impression, but then the server 2019 got postponed.

On the MSDN there is the ISO 1903 Or download the evaluation version https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/evaluate-windows-server-2019

In the mean time on Microsoft doc’s there are already some overviews and these are showing all the details on what is changed between Server 2008,2012,2016 and 2019

Summary of hybrid capabilities when you extend your datacenter to Azure Source : https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/cloud-platform/windows-server-comparison

Feature description	Windows Server 2008 R2	Windows Server 2012 R2	Windows Server 2016	Windows Server 2019
Storage Migration Service helps to inventory and migrate data, security, and configurations from legacy systems to Windows Server 2019 and/or Azure.
Synchronizing file servers to Azure helps centralize your organization’s file shares in Azure Files while keeping the flexibility, performance, and compatibility of an on-premises file server.
System Insights brings local predictive analytics capabilities native to Windows Server. These predictive capabilities, each backed by a machine-learning model, locally analyze Windows Server system data to provide high-accuracy predictions that help reduce the operational expenses associated with reactively managing Windows Server instances.
Azure network adaptor easily connects to Azure virtual networks. Windows Admin Center performs the heavy lifting of configuring the VPN to a new network adapter that will connect Windows Server 2019 to a point-to-site Azure virtual network VPN.
VM protection replicates workloads running on physical and virtual machines (VMs) from a primary site to a secondary location.

 

 

 

Because Windows Server 2019 is a Long-Term Servicing Channel (LTSC) release, it includes the Desktop Experience. (Semi-Annual Channel (SAC) releases don’t include the Desktop Experience by design; they are strictly Server Core and Nano Server container image releases.) As with Windows Server 2016, during setup of the operating system you can choose between Server Core installations or Server with Desktop Experience installations.

Failover Clustering :
Here’s a list of what’s new in Failover Clustering.

• Cluster sets
• Azure-aware clusters
• Cross-domain cluster migration
• USB witness
• Cluster infrastructure improvements
• Cluster Aware Updating supports Storage Spaces Direct
• File share witness enhancements
• Cluster hardening
• Failover Cluster no longer uses NTLM authentication
• Application Platform

 

Setting up the Cluster is still the same, In powershell we install the feature and install some extra components like the file server and deDup etc

Get-WindowsFeature Failover-Clustering
install-WindowsFeature "Failover-Clustering","RSAT-Clustering","FS-FileServer","FS-Data-Deduplication","Print-Server","Containers","Storage-Replica"-IncludeAllSubFeature

install-WindowsFeature "Failover-Clustering","RSAT-Clustering","FS-FileServer","FS-Data-Deduplication","Print-Server","Containers","Storage-Replica","SMS","SMS-Proxy"-IncludeAllSubFeature

 

when installing the Cluster Components and creating the cluster you will see no difference.

Cluster based on Server 2016

Cluster based on server 2019

USB witness

You can now use a simple USB drive attached to a network switch as a witness in determining quorum for a cluster. This extends the File Share Witness to support any SMB2-compliant device.

This is a nice option, maybe not real enterprise but for small setups this is handy.

Failover Clusters no longer use NTLM authentication. Instead Kerberos and certificate-based authentication is used exclusively. There are no changes required by the user, or deployment tools, to take advantage of this security enhancement. It also allows failover clusters to be deployed in environments where NTLM has been disabled.

Clustering FileServer Data Deduplication

ReFS is the Recommended configuration for Storage spaces and can also configured with Data Deduplication

https://robertsmit.wordpress.com/2018/02/21/clustering-fileserver-data-deduplication-on-windows-2016-step-by-step-sofs-winserv-refs-windowsserver2016-dedupe/

Below the Server 2016 layout with no dedup option on the storage

 

On the sizing no big changes that we saw as a limit in the day to day setup. More storage can be added, A lot more.

This could be handy in large storage clusters.

 

When looking at the Cluster settings there are some differences, this is all default I did not change anything. also handy when you want to know the original setting.

On windows 2019 vs Windows 2016

 

The CSV cache is now enabled by default to boost virtual machine performance. MSDTC now supports Cluster Shared Volumes, to allow deploying MSDTC workloads on Storage Spaces Direct such as with SQL Server. Enhanced logic to detect partitioned nodes with self-healing to return nodes to cluster membership. Enhanced cluster network route detection and self-healing.

More options and better to tune in the Cluster site.

Intra-cluster communication over Server Message Block (SMB) for Cluster Shared Volumes and Storage Spaces Direct now leverages certificates to provide the most secure platform. This allows Failover Clusters to operate with no dependencies on NTLM and enable security baselines.

Cluster Aware Updating (CAU) is now integrated and aware of Storage Spaces Direct, validating and ensuring data resynchronization completes on each node. Cluster Aware Updating inspects updates to intelligently restart only if necessary. This enables orchestrating restarts of all servers in the cluster for planned maintenance.

Moving Cluster from one domain to an other is now days also a scenario, with moving to the cloud consolidation and domain change is often a part of the migration.

Failover Clusters can now dynamically move from one Active Directory domain to another, simplifying domain consolidation and allowing clusters to be created by hardware partners and joined to the customer’s domain later.

Storage Replica is now available in Windows Server 2019 Standard Edition (with some limits)

There are some big list on the changes see for your self on what is change in Window Server 2019, it could be your choice during the migration of Windows server 2008 R2 EOL.

What’s new in Windows Server 2019 :

• https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/get-started-19/whats-new-19
• https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/cloud-platform/windows-server-comparison

Windows Server Evaluations :  https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/evaluate-windows-server-2019

 

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