AI-900: Microsoft Azure AI Fundamentals Study Guide
This comprehensive study guide provides a thorough overview of the topics covered in the Microsoft Azure AI Fundamentals (AI-900) exam, including Artificial Intelligence workloads, fundamental principles of machine learning, computer vision and natural language processing workloads. Learn about the exam's intended audience, how to earn the certification, and the skills measured as of April 2022. Discover the important considerations for responsible AI, the capabilities of Azure Machine Learning Studio and more. Get ready to demonstrate your knowledge of AI and ML concepts and related Microsoft Azure services with this helpful study guide.
Log Clustering in Azure Data Explorer
We are happy to introduce a set of powerful log clustering functions. These functions are based on state of the art log clustering algorithm, combining ML, statistical analysis and the user’s domain knowledge and can be used to find common patterns in service/device operation, as well as anomalous events.Traditional Failover Clustering in Azure
Last month I presented a session during the “Windows Server webinar miniseries - Month of Cloud Essentials”. The session was on how to create highly available apps with Azure VMs. Following the session I was asked about setting up traditional Windows Server Clusters. This article will cover some news regarding new capabilities to deploy traditional Failover Clustering in Azure.Unable to read server queue performance data
Has anyone started seeing this on Windows Server 2016? Unable to read Server Queue performance data from the Server service. The first four bytes (DWORD) of the Data section contains the status code, the second four bytes contains the IOSB.Status and the next four bytes contains the IOSB.Information. We have this on two of our Cluster at the moment. The same two nodes also end up having issues draining and will lock resources. The other 2 nodes are fine as far as I can seeAnnouncing Windows Server vNext Preview Build 26470
Announcing Windows Server vNext Preview Build 26470 Hello Windows Server Insiders! Today we are pleased to release a new build of the next Windows Server Long-Term Servicing Channel (LTSC) Preview that contains both the Desktop Experience and Server Core installation options for Datacenter and Standard editions, Annual Channel for Container Host and Azure Edition (for VM evaluation only). Branding remains, Windows Server 2025, in this preview - when reporting issues please refer to Windows Server vNext preview. If you signed up for Server Flighting, you should receive this new build automatically. What's New Rack Level Nested Mirror (RLNM) for S2D Campus Cluster Rack Level Nested Mirror (RLNM) for S2D Campus Cluster enables customers to meet NIS2 two data room requirements for their factories by providing fast and resilient storage using Storage Spaces Direct (S2D). For S2D Campus Cluster, we recommend using all-flash storage (SSD or NVMe drives), all capacity (no cache drives), and RDMA NICs (iWARP, RoCE, or InfiniBand). Note: Rack fault domains must be created on the cluster in order to use this feature – a new cluster must be created: #Create a test cluster but do not create storage: New-Cluster -Name TestCluster -Node Node1, Node2, Node3, Node4 -NoStorage #Define the fault domains for the cluster – two nodes are in “Room1” and two nodes are in “Room2”: Set-ClusterFaultDomain -XML @”<Topology><Site Name=”Redmond”><Rack Name=”Room1”><Node Name=”Node1”/><Node Name=”Node2”/></Rack><Rack Name=”Room2”><Node Name=”Node3”/> <Node Name=”Node4”/></Rack></Site></Topology>”@ #Add Storage Spaces Direct (S2D) Storage to the cluster – note that Enable-ClusterS2D cmdlet can also be used: Enable-ClusterStorageSpacesDirect #Check that the Storage Pool’s FaultDomainAwareness property is set to StorageRack: Get-storagepool -FriendlyName <S2DStoragePool> | fl #Create a four-copy volume on the storage pool: New-Volume -FriendlyName “FourCopyVolume” -StoragePoolFriendlyName S2D* -FileSystem CSVFS_ReFS –Size 500GB -PhysicalDiskRedundancy 3 -ProvisioningType Fixed -NumberOfDataCopies 4 –NumberOfColumns 3 #Create a four-copy volume on the storage pool, thinly provisioned: New-Volume -FriendlyName “FourCopyVolume” -StoragePoolFriendlyName S2D* -FileSystem CSVFS_ReFS –Size 500GB -PhysicalDiskRedundancy 3 –ProvisioningType Thin -NumberOfDataCopies 4 –NumberOfColumns 3 Windows Server Flighting is here!! If you signed up for Server Flighting, you should receive this new build automatically later today. For more information, see Welcome to Windows Insider flighting on Windows Server - Microsoft Community Hub Feedback Hub app is now available for Server Desktop users! The app should automatically update with the latest version, but if it does not, simply Check for updates in the app’s settings tab. Known Issues Download Windows Server Insider Preview (microsoft.com) Flighting: The label for this flight may incorrectly reference Windows 11. However, when selected, the package installed is the Windows Server update. Please ignore the label and proceed with installing your flight. This issue will be addressed in a future release. Available Downloads Downloads to certain countries may not be available. See Microsoft suspends new sales in Russia - Microsoft On the Issues. Windows Server Long-Term Servicing Channel Preview in ISO format in 18 languages, and in VHDX format in English only. Windows Server Datacenter Azure Edition Preview in ISO and VHDX format, English only. Microsoft Server Languages and Optional Features Preview Keys: Keys are valid for preview builds only Server Standard: MFY9F-XBN2F-TYFMP-CCV49-RMYVH Datacenter: 2KNJJ-33Y9H-2GXGX-KMQWH-G6H67 Azure Edition does not accept a key. Symbols: Available on the public symbol server – see Using the Microsoft Symbol Server. Expiration: This Windows Server Preview will expire September 15, 2026. How to Download Registered Insiders may navigate directly to the Windows Server Insider Preview download page. If you have not yet registered as an Insider, see GETTING STARTED WITH SERVER on the Windows Insiders for Business portal. We value your feedback! The most important part of the release cycle is to hear what's working and what needs to be improved, so your feedback is extremely valued. Please use the new Feedback Hub app for Windows Server if you are running a Desktop version of Server. If you are using a Core edition, or if you are unable to use the Feedback Hub app, you can use your registered Windows 10 or Windows 11 Insider device and use the Feedback Hub application. In the app, choose the Windows Server category and then the appropriate subcategory for your feedback. In the title of the Feedback, please indicate the build number you are providing feedback on as shown below to ensure that your issue is attributed to the right version: [Server #####] Title of my feedback See Give Feedback on Windows Server via Feedback Hub for specifics. The Windows Server Insiders space on the Microsoft Tech Communities supports preview builds of the next version of Windows Server. Use the forum to collaborate, share and learn from experts. For versions that have been released to general availability in market, try the Windows Server for IT Pro forum or contact Support for Business. Diagnostic and Usage Information Microsoft collects this information over the internet to help keep Windows secure and up to date, troubleshoot problems, and make product improvements. Microsoft server operating systems can be configured to turn diagnostic data off, send Required diagnostic data, or send Optional diagnostic data. During previews, Microsoft asks that you change the default setting to Optional to provide the best automatic feedback and help us improve the final product. Administrators can change the level of information collection through Settings. For details, see http://aka.ms/winserverdata. Also see the Microsoft Privacy Statement. Terms of Use This is pre-release software - it is provided for use "as-is" and is not supported in production environments. Users are responsible for installing any updates that may be made available from Windows Update. All pre-release software made available to you via the Windows Server Insider program is governed by the Insider Terms of Use.Announcing Windows Server vNext Preview Build 26445
Announcing Windows Server vNext Preview Build 26445 Hello Windows Server Insiders! Today we are pleased to release a new build of the next Windows Server Long-Term Servicing Channel (LTSC) Preview that contains both the Desktop Experience and Server Core installation options for Datacenter and Standard editions, Annual Channel for Container Host and Azure Edition (for VM evaluation only). Branding remains, Windows Server 2025, in this preview - when reporting issues please refer to Windows Server vNext preview. If you signed up for Server Flighting, you should receive this new build automatically. What's New [NEW] Rack Level Nested Mirror (RLNM) for S2D Campus Cluster Rack Level Nested Mirror (RLNM) for S2D Campus Cluster enables customers to meet NIS2 two data room requirements for their factories by providing fast and resilient storage using Storage Spaces Direct (S2D). For S2D Campus Cluster, we recommend using all-flash storage (SSD or NVMe drives), all capacity (no cache drives), and RDMA NICs (iWARP, RoCE, or InfiniBand). Note: Rack fault domains must be created on the cluster in order to use this feature – a new cluster must be created: #Create a test cluster but do not create storage: New-Cluster -Name TestCluster -Node Node1, Node2, Node3, Node4 -NoStorage #Define the fault domains for the cluster – two nodes are in “Room1” and two nodes are in “Room2”: Set-ClusterFaultDomain -XML @”<Topology><Site Name=”Redmond”><Rack Name=”Room1”><Node Name=”Node1”/><Node Name=”Node2”/></Rack><Rack Name=”Room2”><Node Name=”Node3”/> <Node Name=”Node4”/></Rack></Site></Topology>”@ #Add Storage Spaces Direct (S2D) Storage to the cluster – note that Enable-ClusterS2D cmdlet can also be used: Enable-ClusterStorageSpacesDirect #Update the Storage Pool Update-StoragePool #Check that the StoragePool version is 29: (Get-CimInstance -Namespace root/microsoft/windows/storage -ClassName MSFT_StoragePool -Filter 'IsPrimordial = false').CimInstanceProperties['Version'].Value #Check that the Storage Pool’s FaultDomainAwareness property is set to StorageRack: Get-storagepool -FriendlyName <S2DStoragePool> | fl #Note that resiliency is specified when the volume is created – our idea with the S2D Campus cluster is that customers can create both four-copy and two-copy volumes - valuable workload (VMs) and data should go on the 4-copy volumes. #Create a four-copy volume on the storage pool, fixed provisioned: New-Volume -FriendlyName “FourCopyVolumeFixed” -StoragePoolFriendlyName S2D* -FileSystem CSVFS_ReFS –Size 500GB -ResiliencySettingName Mirror -PhysicalDiskRedundancy 3 -ProvisioningType Fixed -NumberOfDataCopies 4 –NumberOfColumns 3 #Optional - Create a four-copy volume on the storage pool, thinly provisioned: New-Volume -FriendlyName “FourCopyVolumeThin” -StoragePoolFriendlyName S2D* -FileSystem CSVFS_ReFS –Size 500GB -ResiliencySettingName Mirror -PhysicalDiskRedundancy 3 –ProvisioningType Thin -NumberOfDataCopies 4 –NumberOfColumns 3 #Optional - Create a two-copy volume on the storage pool, fixed provisioned: New-Volume -FriendlyName “TwoCopyVolumeFixed” -StoragePoolFriendlyName S2D* -FileSystem CSVFS_ReFS –Size 500GB -ResiliencySettingName Mirror -PhysicalDiskRedundancy 1 -ProvisioningType Fixed #Optional - Create a two-copy volume on the storage pool, thinly provisioned: New-Volume -FriendlyName “TwoCopyVolumeThin” -StoragePoolFriendlyName S2D* -FileSystem CSVFS_ReFS –Size 500GB -ResiliencySettingName Mirror -PhysicalDiskRedundancy 1 -ProvisioningType Thin Windows Server Flighting is here!! If you signed up for Server Flighting, you should receive this new build automatically today. For more information, see Welcome to Windows Insider flighting on Windows Server - Microsoft Community Hub. Feedback Hub app is now available for Server Desktop users! The app should automatically update with the latest version, but if it does not, simply Check for updates in the app’s settings tab. Known Issues Download Windows Server Insider Preview (microsoft.com) Flighting: The label for this flight may incorrectly reference Windows 11. However, when selected, the package installed is the Windows Server update. Please ignore the label and proceed with installing your flight. This issue will be addressed in a future release. Available Downloads Downloads to certain countries may not be available. See Microsoft suspends new sales in Russia - Microsoft On the Issues. Windows Server Long-Term Servicing Channel Preview in ISO format in 18 languages, and in VHDX format in English only. Windows Server Datacenter Azure Edition Preview in ISO and VHDX format, English only. Microsoft Server Languages and Optional Features Preview Keys: Keys are valid for preview builds only. Server Standard: MFY9F-XBN2F-TYFMP-CCV49-RMYVH Datacenter: 2KNJJ-33Y9H-2GXGX-KMQWH-G6H67 Azure Edition does not accept a key Symbols: Available on the public symbol server – see Using the Microsoft Symbol Server. Expiration: This Windows Server Preview will expire September 15, 2025. How to Download Registered Insiders may navigate directly to the Windows Server Insider Preview download page. If you have not yet registered as an Insider, see GETTING STARTED WITH SERVER on the Windows Insiders for Business portal. We value your feedback! The most important part of the release cycle is to hear what's working and what needs to be improved, so your feedback is extremely valued. Please use the new Feedback Hub app for Windows Server if you are running a Desktop version of Server. If you are using a Core edition, or if you are unable to use the Feedback Hub app, you can use your registered Windows 10 or Windows 11 Insider device and use the Feedback Hub application. In the app, choose the Windows Server category and then the appropriate subcategory for your feedback. In the title of the Feedback, please indicate the build number you are providing feedback on as shown below to ensure that your issue is attributed to the right version: [Server #####] Title of my feedback See Give Feedback on Windows Server via Feedback Hub for specifics. The Windows Server Insiders space on the Microsoft Tech Communities supports preview builds of the next version of Windows Server. Use the forum to collaborate, share and learn from experts. For versions that have been released to general availability in market, try the Windows Server for IT Pro forum or contact Support for Business. Diagnostic and Usage Information Microsoft collects this information over the internet to help keep Windows secure and up to date, troubleshoot problems, and make product improvements. Microsoft server operating systems can be configured to turn diagnostic data off, send Required diagnostic data, or send Optional diagnostic data. During previews, Microsoft asks that you change the default setting to Optional to provide the best automatic feedback and help us improve the final product. Administrators can change the level of information collection through Settings. For details, see http://aka.ms/winserverdata. Also see the Microsoft Privacy Statement. Terms of Use This is pre-release software - it is provided for use "as-is" and is not supported in production environments. Users are responsible for installing any updates that may be made available from Windows Update. All pre-release software made available to you via the Windows Server Insider program is governed by the Insider Terms of Use.BLOG: "Only 16 nodes per cluster?! - but VMware..." limitations and rightsizing of failover clusters
Greetings community Windows Server Community members! Today I am sharing insights with you on an often discussed matter. Intro This is an exercise on technical limitations and rightsizing of Hyper-V based clusters. The article applies to rules for general Hyper-V based failover clusters, using Windows Server with Shared Storage (SAN), dHCI, (Azure Stack) HCI and the underlying S2D considerations in special. Seriously, I've stopped counting the number of customers telling me about Hyper-V / Storage Spaces Direct / Azure Stack not being scalable. Especially when thinking about Azure Stack HCI, this gives me chuckles. Inspired by a simple question from a Microsoft techcommunity member I thought it is about time to share my experience on this "limitation". Granted it is themed for S2D and Azure Stack HCI and I do see differences for many use cases out there using shared storages (SAN) or Scale Out File server. If you have comments and suggestions, I am all ears. I appreciate your comments and thoughts. This article is something I am writing from the top of my mind so, bear with me if I missed aspects or things are wrong, I will certainly investigate your comments and corrections. Thinking about Cluster Size - I am putting all my eggs in one basket A great classic song, we will look into this further from an IT perspective. As always in IT: IT depends™. The cluster size possible with S2D scales from 1-16 physical or in lab virtual nodes forming one logical cluster. Especially with S2D (Storage Spaces Direct) using Windows Server and Hyper-V or the more advanced adaptive cloud (hybrid cloud) focused Azure Stack HCI. It is using the same technology as a base product on Windows Server with some notable extras in terms of deployment and management. One should consider though that the number of nodes in a Failover Cluster (and with that the number of disks) does not necessarily help to defend physical disk errors. It depends how the Storage Pool deals with fault domains. This is automatic and just sometimes is good to revise and adjust (if you know what you are doing). Considering fault domains Independent from a Storage point of view, running a large cluster also means it is one large fault domain. In case of issues with the failover-cluster, and there are numerous from networking, physical up to “it is always DNS™”, storage issues, configuration issues and changes or drift. Performance impacts Running one large cluster also causes higher performance and bandwidth impacts. No so much when using a shared SAN, one might think, but certainly when using SDS, dHCI, HCI, like Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct. This is especially true for rebuild times of S2D in case of disk failures, replacement or HW especially disk capacity expansions. Costs When considering cost, S2D requires equal disks in a pool and mostly identical hardware within a cluster. Larger cluster could be less efficient and not tightly targeted and HW optimized to use case, especially for general VM or VDI workloads. Lifespan and oopsies with physical disks Granted NVMe, when choosing appropriated TBW / TWPD models, offer a long very lifespan, excellent response times and performance galore, for sequential but especially for random operations and IOPS. Today they are more cost efficient than SSDs. Albeit when one does not follow the advice to patch your OS, FW and drivers regularly you might be hitting sudden outtakes on NVMe, SSDs and HDDs due to code issues in the firmware. This happened sometimes in the past and just recently also affected Samsung NVMe but have been spotted before disasters at scale. Understanding Storage Spaces (Direct) / Storage Pools In Windows Server S2D (always equally include Azure Stack HCI), all physical disks are pooled. In general, there is just one Storage pool available for all servers within a cluster. An exception are Stretched Clusters, something I do not want to go into detail here. If you want to learn more about these, I can recommend you this epic YT series. If you face a problem with your pool, you are facing a problem for all nodes. This is common and likely what happens with other third-party SAN / RAID / SDS systems. No change here, we are all cooking with water. Here is a general overview of this amazing and "free" technology. It requires Windows Server Datacenter licensing, that's all for all bells and whistles of a highly performant and reliable Software defined Storage. It runs best on with NVMe only setups, but allows flexibility, based on the use case. A high level overview for now to explain the relation to the original topic. Storage Spaces Direct (S2D) has been introduced with Windows Server 2016 and uses ReFS 3.1. Currently we are at Windows Server 2025 soon, and ReFS 3.12, which comes with a ton of improvements. Next to S2D there is Storage Spaces, a similar technology, but not forming a shared storage across different servers, so designed for standalone servers, opposing to server clusters. Something you should consider with ReFS for unclustered Hyper-V, Scale-out File Server and Backup Servers, instead of RAID or SAN. When larger doesn’t mean more secure – Storage Resiliency affects also Cluster resilience On both you define your storage policies per Volume / Cluster Shared Volume, likely to LUNs. So, you can dedicate how much of resiliency, Deduplication and performance is required based on the workload that is going to be stored on that volume. Some basic and common policies are Mirror and Nested Mirror. There exist other depending the number of disks / hosts, but these are not all recommended for VM workloads. When using these resiliency methods, especially Mirror, adding several disks (or hosts) exponentially raises the risks of a full data loss on this Volume / CSV in case of unfortunate events. So, choose and plan wisely. Can just recommend doing the RTFM job beforehand, as later changes are possible but require juggling the data and require having space left in the pool (physical disks) for such storage (migration) operations. Sure there are other methods that scale better like Dual parity. Be warned that the diagrams are simplified, and the data is not equally distributed "per disks" as you would expect in traditional RAID but using 256 MB data blocks (slabs) by using an algorithm that care for the balanced placement. It is important to understand this small difference to understand better on the predicable outcome of disk or host failures within the cluster. Not saying the docs are wrong, just the display of it is simplified. Read on more here: S2D - Nested Resiliency S2D - Understanding Storage fault tolerance Speaking of clusters the best effort is starting with 2 or 4 nodes. I would avoid and unequal number of nodes like three nodes or a multiple of it, as they are not very efficient (33%) and expanding on or from these require changing the Storage Policy (e. g. Three Way Mirror). S2D also support single node clusters, with nested mirror. You have heard right. Still satisfactory performance for many use cases, when you do not need full hardware stack resiliency, at a very low footprint and cost. Notable upcoming improvements to Clustering Storage Spaces (Direct) and beyond I trust that Azure Stack HCI will receive some of the recently announced improvements of Windows Server 2025. Be curious what's coming up next in the from Microsoft in regards of storage and storage options. Have a look at this later on. S2D - New Storage Options for Windows Server 2025 (release planned later this year) One large vs one or more smaller use case designed, scaled clusters Again, it is a common question why the limit of 16 nodes while e. g. VMware supports larger clusters. With no further ado, let's talk about how to do it right (imho). You might seek to create smaller clusters and Azure Stack HCI by design makes it easier to do management, RBAC / Security and LCM operations across several clusters. Having more than one Cluster also enables you to leverage different Azure Subscriptions (RBAC, Cost Management / Billing > Controlling). Sizing considerations – Why you do not need the same amount of hardware you had > smaller clusters Proper (physical) CPU sizing Often, when sizing is done, it is not considered about rightsizing the workloads, and rightsizing the CPU in use in a node. Modern CPUs compared to e.g. Sandy Bridge can help to consolidate in an 8:1 physical server. This way, you can easily save quite some complexity and costs for HW, licensing, cooling etc. To understand the efficiency and why you should not expect current pCPUs to be same on new systems, these calculators from Intel and AMD help you to find a right sized CPU for your Windows Server and what to expect on reducing hardware, TCO and environmental impact. That is climate action up to par. You can find the calculator from Intel here. Same exists for AMD. The vCPU to pCPU ration in today’s environments appear much higher than we are used to in previous clusters. Yes, That's true. I often hear VMware / Hyper-V customers being happy with a 2:1 vCPU:pCPU ratio across their workloads. It depends on the use case but often CPU resources are wasted and pCPUs are idling for their money, even at the end of life of a usual hardware cycle. Plan for rightsizing existing workloads before sizing hardware > Save costs Please consider: Storage Deduplication, also included in a more efficient way, in with in-line Deduplication and Compression with Windows Server 2025. Extra points (savings) for keeping all OS on a similar release. Storage Savings and RAM saving, using Windows Server Core for infrastructure VMs. Saving through Dynamic Memory vCPU / RAM reduction per VM Disk Space (too large, fixed disks, or Thin Provisioned Disks that got a relevant amount data deleted and have not been compressed) etc. etc. All this can be based on your monitoring metrics with your existing solution, or Azure Monitoring through Azure Arc. There is an enormous potential for savings and reduction of Cluster Nodes, RAM and Storage when you are interpreting your metrics before the migration to a more efficient platform. VM Assessment As outlined you can rely on your own methods and monitoring for the assessment of your workloads for rightsizing of hardware and VMs. In addition you can leverage Azure Migrate, to do that for you. It does not matter if you finally decide to migrate to Azure or Azure Stack HCI, it can help you with the general assessment using live data during your operation, which gives you good conclusions on right sizing. No matter the target. Consider growth and migrations There is always growth of the business or increased requirements to consider. The Azure Stack HCI Sizing tool helps you here but watch out sometimes there is huge gap of free resources. The tool is not logically perfect. It is math. Also OS migrations cause temporary growth that can surpass 50% of resources. Good news it is getting better with IPU starting with Windows Server 2022 and later. Additionally, services on older VMs are not well designed like Fileserver+ DHCP + RDS + Certificate Auth on a Domain Controller. These scenarios are still around existing and scream to be resolved, at costs of more VMs / resources. Have you heard Hyper-V isn't scalable? Get you own idea, here are the facts for Windows Server / Azure Stack HCI. And often growing with every release. Source: Azure Stack HCI System Requirements Azure Stack HCI and S2D These limitations shall not be confused with the ability of Hyper-V using a general Hypervisor, e.g. not using S2D but attached SAN: General Hyper-V Scalability and Limitations Conclusion You see there is some complexity in the game on the decision and the “limitation” of 16 nodes per cluster. I personally do not see this as a limitation in Windows Server Hyper-V or Azure Stack HCI given all of those aspects. Smaller clusters use case targeted clusters can also ensure flexibility, inherit the motivation for (cost) reductions and right sizing in the first place. No doubt lift and shift is easy, but it is often more expensive than investing some time into assessments, same with on-premises as in the cloud. So why a 16+ node cluster? Hope this helped you to make a decision. Allow me to cite Kenny Lowe, Regional Director and expert for Azure Stack HCI and other topics: “As ever, just because you can, doesn't mean you should.” Looking for more? Here is an amazing 1h video, you should consider watching if this article just fueled your interest into alternatives to classic clusters. VMware to Hyper-V migration options. Full agenda, on-demand, of Windows Server Summit 2024 https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/tech-community-live/windows-server-summit-2024/ev-p/4068971 Thank you for reading, learning, sharing. Do you find this post helpful? Appreciate your thumbs up, feedback, questions. Let me know in the comments below.BLOG: Windows Server / Azure Local keeps setting Live Migration to 1 - here is why
Affected products: Windows Server 2022, Windows Server 2025 Azure Local 21H2, Azure Local 22H2, Azure Local 23H2 Network ATC Dear Community, I have seen numerous reports from customers running Windows Server 2022 servers or Azure Local (Azure Stack HCI) that Live Migration settings are constantly changed to 1 per Hyper-V Host, as mirrored in PowerShell and Hyper-V Host Settings. The customer previously set the value to 4 via PowerShell, so he could prove it was a different value at a certain time. First, I didn't step into intense research why the configuration altered over time, but the stumbled across it, quite accidently, when fetching all parameters of Get-Cluster. According to an article a LCU back in September 2022 changed the default behaviour and allows to specify the live migrations at cluster level. The new live migration default appears to be 1 at cluster level and this forces to change the values on the Hyper-V nodes to 1 accordingly. In contrast to the commandlet documentation, the value is not 2, which would make more sense. Quite unknown, as not documented in the LCU KB5017381 itself, but only referenced in the documentation for the PowerShell commandlet Get-Cluster. Frankly, none of the aren't areas customers nor partners would check quite regularly to spot any of such relevant feature improvements or changes. "Beginning with the 2022-09 Cumulative Update, you can now configure the number of parallel live migrations within a cluster. For more information, see KB5017381 for Windows Server 2022 and KB5017382 for Azure Stack HCI (Azure Local), version 21H2. (Get-Cluster).MaximumParallelMigrations = 2 The example above sets the cluster property MaximumParallelMigrations to a value of 2, limiting the number of live migrations that a cluster node can participate in. Both existing and new cluster nodes inherit this value of 2 because it's a cluster property. Setting the cluster property overrides any values configured using the Set-VMHost command." Network ATC in Azure Local 22H2+ and Windows Server 2025+: When using Network ATC in Windows Server 2025 and Azure Local, it will set the live migration to 1 per default and enforce this across all cluster nodes. Disregarding the Cluster Settings above or Local Hyper-V Settings. To change the number of live migration you can specify a cluster-wide override in Network ATC. Conclusion: The default values for live migration have been changes. The global cluster setting or Network ATC forcing these down to the Hyper-V hosts based on Windows Server 2022+/ Azure Local nodes and ensure consistency. Previously we thought this would happen after using Windows Admin Center (WAC) when opening the WAC cluster settings, but this was not the initial cause. Finding references: Later the day, as my interest grew about this change I found an official announcement. In agreement to another article, on optimizing live migrations, the default value should be 2, but for some reason at most customers, even on fresh installations and clusters, it is set to 1. TLDR: 1. Stop bothering on changing the Livemigration setting manually or PowerShell or DSC / Policy. 2. Today and in future train your muscle memory to change live migration at cluster level with Get-Cluster, or via Network ATC overrides. These will be forced down quite immediately to all nodes and will be automatically corrected if there is any configuration drift on a node. 3. Check and set the live migration value to 2 as per default and follow these recommendations: Optimizing Hyper-V Live Migrations on an Hyperconverged Infrastructure | Microsoft Community Hub Optimizing your Hyper-V hosts | Microsoft Community Hub 4. You can stop blaming WAC or overeager colleagues for changing the LM settings to undesirable values over and over. Starting with Windows Admin Center (WAC) 2306, you can set the Live Migration Settings at cluster level in Cluster > Settings. Happy Clustering! 😀Announcing Windows Server vNext Preview Build 26461
Announcing Windows Server vNext Preview Build 26461 Hello Windows Server Insiders! Today we are pleased to release a new build of the next Windows Server Long-Term Servicing Channel (LTSC) Preview that contains both the Desktop Experience and Server Core installation options for Datacenter and Standard editions, Annual Channel for Container Host and Azure Edition (for VM evaluation only). Branding remains, Windows Server 2025, in this preview - when reporting issues please refer to Windows Server vNext preview. If you signed up for Server Flighting, you should receive this new build automatically. What's New Rack Level Nested Mirror (RLNM) for S2D Campus Cluster Rack Level Nested Mirror (RLNM) for S2D Campus Cluster enables customers to meet NIS2 two data room requirements for their factories by providing fast and resilient storage using Storage Spaces Direct (S2D). For S2D Campus Cluster, we recommend using all-flash storage (SSD or NVMe drives), all capacity (no cache drives), and RDMA NICs (iWARP, RoCE, or InfiniBand). Note: Rack fault domains must be created on the cluster in order to use this feature – a new cluster must be created: #Create a test cluster but do not create storage: New-Cluster -Name TestCluster -Node Node1, Node2, Node3, Node4 -NoStorage #Define the fault domains for the cluster – two nodes are in “Room1” and two nodes are in “Room2”: Set-ClusterFaultDomain -XML @”<Topology><Site Name=”Redmond”><Rack Name=”Room1”><Node Name=”Node1”/><Node Name=”Node2”/></Rack><Rack Name=”Room2”><Node Name=”Node3”/> <Node Name=”Node4”/></Rack></Site></Topology>”@ #Add Storage Spaces Direct (S2D) Storage to the cluster – note that Enable-ClusterS2D cmdlet can also be used: Enable-ClusterStorageSpacesDirect #Check that the Storage Pool’s FaultDomainAwareness property is set to StorageRack: Get-storagepool -FriendlyName <S2DStoragePool> | fl #Create a four-copy volume on the storage pool: New-Volume -FriendlyName “FourCopyVolume” -StoragePoolFriendlyName S2D* -FileSystem CSVFS_ReFS –Size 500GB -PhysicalDiskRedundancy 3 -ProvisioningType Fixed -NumberOfDataCopies 4 –NumberOfColumns 3 #Create a four-copy volume on the storage pool, thinly provisioned: New-Volume -FriendlyName “FourCopyVolume” -StoragePoolFriendlyName S2D* -FileSystem CSVFS_ReFS –Size 500GB -PhysicalDiskRedundancy 3 –ProvisioningType Thin -NumberOfDataCopies 4 –NumberOfColumns 3 Windows Server Flighting is here!! If you signed up for Server Flighting, you should receive this new build automatically later today. For more information, see Welcome to Windows Insider flighting on Windows Server - Microsoft Community Hub Feedback Hub app is now available for Server Desktop users! The app should automatically update with the latest version, but if it does not, simply Check for updates in the app’s settings tab. Known Issues Download Windows Server Insider Preview (microsoft.com) Flighting: The label for this flight may incorrectly reference Windows 11. However, when selected, the package installed is the Windows Server update. Please ignore the label and proceed with installing your flight. This issue will be addressed in a future release. Available Downloads Downloads to certain countries may not be available. See Microsoft suspends new sales in Russia - Microsoft On the Issues. Windows Server Long-Term Servicing Channel Preview in ISO format in 18 languages, and in VHDX format in English only. Windows Server Datacenter Azure Edition Preview in ISO and VHDX format, English only. Microsoft Server Languages and Optional Features Preview Keys: Keys are valid for preview builds only Server Standard: MFY9F-XBN2F-TYFMP-CCV49-RMYVH Datacenter: 2KNJJ-33Y9H-2GXGX-KMQWH-G6H67 Azure Edition does not accept a key. Symbols: Available on the public symbol server – see Using the Microsoft Symbol Server. Expiration: This Windows Server Preview will expire September 15, 2026. How to Download Registered Insiders may navigate directly to the Windows Server Insider Preview download page. If you have not yet registered as an Insider, see GETTING STARTED WITH SERVER on the Windows Insiders for Business portal. We value your feedback! The most important part of the release cycle is to hear what's working and what needs to be improved, so your feedback is extremely valued. Please use the new Feedback Hub app for Windows Server if you are running a Desktop version of Server. If you are using a Core edition, or if you are unable to use the Feedback Hub app, you can use your registered Windows 10 or Windows 11 Insider device and use the Feedback Hub application. In the app, choose the Windows Server category and then the appropriate subcategory for your feedback. In the title of the Feedback, please indicate the build number you are providing feedback on as shown below to ensure that your issue is attributed to the right version: [Server #####] Title of my feedback See Give Feedback on Windows Server via Feedback Hub for specifics. The Windows Server Insiders space on the Microsoft Tech Communities supports preview builds of the next version of Windows Server. Use the forum to collaborate, share and learn from experts. For versions that have been released to general availability in market, try the Windows Server for IT Pro forum or contact Support for Business. Diagnostic and Usage Information Microsoft collects this information over the internet to help keep Windows secure and up to date, troubleshoot problems, and make product improvements. Microsoft server operating systems can be configured to turn diagnostic data off, send Required diagnostic data, or send Optional diagnostic data. During previews, Microsoft asks that you change the default setting to Optional to provide the best automatic feedback and help us improve the final product. Administrators can change the level of information collection through Settings. For details, see http://aka.ms/winserverdata. Also see the Microsoft Privacy Statement. Terms of Use This is pre-release software - it is provided for use "as-is" and is not supported in production environments. Users are responsible for installing any updates that may be made available from Windows Update. 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