New book: Windows Server 2016 Inside Out (includes Current Book Service)

  • Article

We’re thrilled to announce the availability of Windows Server 2016 Inside Out (ISBN 9781509302482), by Orin Thomas.

This book is part of our Current Book Service. As Microsoft updates features of Windows Server 2016, sections of this book will be updated or new sections will be added to address the changes. Learn more about this program here.

Purchase from these online retailers:

Microsoft Press Store Amazon Barnes & Noble Independent booksellers – Shop local

To learn more about this book, check out Orin's video on YouTube:

Below you will find an overview of this book, key sections from the Introduction, and information about the author. Enjoy!

Overview

Conquer Windows Server 2016—from the inside out!

Dive into Windows Server 2016—and really put your Windows Server expertise to work. Focusing on Windows Server 2016’s most powerful and innovative features, this supremely organized reference packs hundreds of timesaving solutions, tips, and workarounds—all you need to plan, implement, or manage Windows Server in enterprise, data center, cloud, and hybrid environments. Fully reflecting Windows Server new capabilities for the cloud-first era, Orin covers everything from Nano Server to Windows Server and Hyper-V Containers. You’ll discover how experts tackle today’s essential tasks—and challenge yourself to new levels of mastery.

  • Optimize the full Windows Server 2016 lifecycle, from planning and configuration through rollout and administration
  • Ensure fast, reliable upgrades and migrations
  • Seamlessly deliver core DNS, DHCP, file, print, storage, and Internet services
  • Use IPAM to centrally manage all enterprise DNS and DHCP infrastructure
  • Gain dramatic storage utilization improvements with built-in deduplication and storage replica
  • Build flexible cloud and hybrid environments with Windows Containers and Shielded VMs
  • Seamlessly integrate Azure IaaS services with Windows Server 2016
  • Slash resource usage and improve availability with tiny Nano Server installations
  • Improve configuration management with Desired State Configuration and Chef
  • Deliver Active Directory identity, certificate, federation, and rights management services
  • Protect servers, clients, assets, and users with advanced Windows Server 2016 security features including Just Enough Administration

For Experienced Windows Server Users and IT Professionals

  • Your role: Experienced intermediate-to-advanced level Windows Server user or IT professional
  • Prerequisites: Basic understanding of Windows Server procedures, techniques, and navigation

Introduction

Windows Server 2016 is more than just another iteration of the Windows Server operating system. Not only does Windows Server 2016 include a raft of new features and an entirely new way of deploying workloads through Windows Server and Hyper-V containers, Windows Server 2016 debuts Nano Server, a scaled down refactored version of Windows Server, which has minimal disk space and RAM requirements.

While Microsoft’s focus is firmly on the cloud, the innovations present in Windows Server 2016 demonstrate that the company isn’t neglecting customers who wish to maintain on-premises workloads. Not only is Windows Server 2016 able to host traditional on-premises roles including domain controller, DNS server, DHCP server, certificate server, Remote Desktop Server, Web Server, file server and virtualization host, it also functions as a stable and reliable host for workloads including SQL Server, Exchange Server, SharePoint, and the System Center suite.

This book provides you with a comprehensive overview of Windows Server 2016’s functionality. You will learn about the current thinking when it comes to how you should deploy and manage Windows Server 2016. You will also learn how to use Server Core in preference to the traditional “full GUI” version, and how to use PowerShell’s Just Enough Administration functionality. This is all important to know when maintaining Windows Server 2016, whether you’ve got it deployed in a server room in your building’s basement, at your local datacenter, or as an Infrastructure as a Service VM in the cloud.

Who this book is for

This book is primarily written for IT Professionals who work with Windows Server operating systems on a regular basis. As such, it’s likely that Windows Server 2016 isn’t the first version of Windows Server that you’ve been responsible for managing. This is because the majority of Windows Server administrators have been working with some version of the operating system for more than a decade, with a good percentage having experience going back to the days of Windows NT 4. With that in mind, this book doesn’t spend a great amount of time on introductory concepts or techniques, and instead aims to provide intermediate to advanced coverage of the most important roles and features available with Windows Server 2016.

This book is also written under the assumption that as an experienced IT Professional, you know how to use a search engine to find relevant technical information. This leads to an obvious question, “why would I buy a book if I can find relevant technical information with a search engine?” The answer is that even though you may be good at tracking down technical information and have experience filtering useful knowledge from wildly inaccurate guesses, you can only search for something if you have an idea about it in the first place.

When presenting at conferences and user groups on Windows Server topics, I regularly encounter IT Professionals who have worked with Windows Server for many years who are unaware of specific functionality or techniques related to the product, even if that functionality or technique has been available for many years. This is because Windows Server 2016 includes so many roles, features and moving parts that you’re unlikely to know everything about the operating system. My aim in writing this book is to give you comprehensive coverage so that you’ll learn things that you didn’t know or simply missed, because when you’ve been solving a critical problem, you’ve been focused on the specifics of that problem and haven’t had time to exploring every facet of what the Windows Server operating system is capable of.

About the author

Orin Thomas is an MVP, a Microsoft Regional Director, an MCT, and has a string of Microsoft MCSE and MCITP certifications. He has written more than 3 dozen books for Microsoft Press on topics including Windows Server, Windows Client, Azure, System Center, Exchange Server, Security, and SQL Server. He is an author at PluralSight and is a candidate in the Doctor of Information Technology program at Charles Sturt University. You can follow him on twitter at https://twitter.com/orinthomas.