Hi Dev,

 

Reserved storage feature works in Windows Server 2022 similarly to how it works on latest versions of Windows 10 and Windows 11. Here's some documentation to get you started.

 

• Windows 10 and reserved storage
• Managing reserved storage in Windows 10 environments
• Get-WindowsReservedStorageState
• Set-WindowsReservedStorageState

Is there anything specific you're wondering about?

Love it! Welcome Eduard!

Hello and thanks for attending.

There is nothing to share at this time.

The typically supported scenario is that you can upgrade up to 2 OS versions above what you're currently running. There's a table in the following doc: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/get-started/upgrade-overview#which-version-of-windows-server-should-i-upgrade-to

In fact, we documented a lot of information you should know when moving an existing application to Windows containers: https://learn.microsoft.com/virtualization/windowscontainers/quick-start/lift-shift-to-containers

Lots of questions about in place upgrades. Keep in mind that we invested time and resources in Windows Server 2019, and even more in Windows Server 2022, to make in place upgrades "just work." The Windows Server team support in place upgrades (up to N+2), but in place upgrades is more than the operating system. Ask yourself two questions:

What is the app you are upgrading?

Is this an inbox app (role) like file server, IIS, print? It should just work. (NOTE: Domain controllers are a special case. For DCs, install new DC, sync with old, promote new and demote old.)

Is this an app installed on the OS? SQL Server? Exchange? SharePoint? 3rd Party App? Consult their documentation. Some apps may support it, some may not. The support decision is up to the app owner. For example, if you have some Oracle app running on Windows Server and Oracle states they don't support in place upgrades, that's their support decision.

What is the underlying platform?

Is this app running in a virtual machine or on hardware?

If the app is running in a VM, things are easier because the virtualized hardware will likely look the same. For Hyper-V, the guest drivers are automatically updated, so it's EASY. For third party virtualization, see them and don't forget to update the guest drivers. A common support issue is that folks are running ancient 3rd party VM guest drivers.

If the app is running on hardware, proceed with caution especially in the N+2 scenario. For example, imagine you have hardware originally running Windows Server 2012 R2 and now you want to in place upgrade to Windows Server 2019. That's a big span.

1. Is the new hardware certified for the new OS?
2. Are there drivers for the new OS? Be sure to look at I/O. Storage controllers, Network Adapters.

Backups

Finally, always have backup before performing in place upgrades. If you're virtualized this is easy. If you're on hardware make sure you perform an appropriate backup.

My experience is that Small Business Server 2011 and earlier that came bundled with Exchange and or Sharepoint can be a PITA to upgrade. Best practices dictate creating new VM with modern OS and migrate roles and features. Or for smaller organizations, just create a new Domain Structure, and either migrate accounts via domain trust relationship or manually recreate the OUs and Users, remove workstations from old domain and join to new domain.

About 2 years ago I migrated our DC's to 2016. It went very well. If you have DNS scavenging rules, some of them are server specific. You will need to set them on one of the new servers. The biggest things are upgrading replication and testing.

The recommended way to upgrade a domain is to promote domain controllers that run newer versions of Windows Server & demote older DCs as needed. Details here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/identity/ad-ds/deploy/upgrade-domain-controllers

Our recommendations in this case would be to: 1. Upgrade your legacy Server 2003 systems to a supported OS that is still getting security updates 2. Air gap any legacy systems you cannot immediately upgrade 3. Place any legacy systems you cannot immediately upgrade into their own domain structure The hardening included in the November update is there to help our customers be more secure as we know RC4 and DES are easily compromised. So along the lines of keeping things as secure/safe as possible, we would not recommend doing *anything* to try to work around the hardening.

We fixed our that issue by turning them off the 2003 server just recently.

Hi Mike, thanks for being here.

Hi Mike - thanks for joining us!

Windows Small Business Server 2011 was the last version of SBS. SBS was replaced by Windows Server Essentials. Essentials in WS2022 is an OEM only release which is just a reduced price license for Standard, all of the special Essentials / SBS features have been removed. Thanks! Elden

I am currently working a SBS 2011 upgrade project. These versions with baked-in Exchange/Sharepoint appear to be problematic. As mentioned before, most organizations using this were small, under 50 users at any rate, so the time it takes to just create a new VM with Server 2022 Essentials, and then recreate all users and OUs, as opposed to try to upgrade is most likely the best and known conclusion. I am sure that one needs to remove the Exchange and Sharepoint roles and files before an upgrade to Server 2012 R2 is even possible. An upgrade would also most likely leave a lot of AD objects and attributes that are of no use.