Nano Server Survival Guide
This TechNet Wiki "Survival Guide" aims to provide links to material related to Windows Server 2016 Nano Server. Feel free to add additional links relevant to the Nano Server and adjust the table of contents where appropriate.
1. Introduction
What is a survival guide? It’s a page created as a pointer to information on the web. You can use the information below to learn the fundamentals of the Microsoft Nano Server and share information with other community members. Resources are categorized based on the type of content (video, training, blog article, etc.) as well as the age of the content, with the most recent articles listed at the top of the list, generally speaking.
Please add useful articles and training resources you find are not already in the lists below.
NOTE: The "collection of links" blog articles have been intentionally left out as they simply point to subsets of the resources shared here. To keep the resources here lean and relevant, it will be helpful to simply put direct resource links here to prevent sending visitors into a "content loop" where the encounter the same links repeatedly.
2. Background
Windows Server 2016 offers a new installation option: Nano Server. It has no drivers, roles or features installed by default and does not show up as an installation option in Windows Server 2016. Nano Server is the future of Windows Server, it is optimized for cloud and follow the minimum footprint principle where the installations image must be customized first. Other server roles will come consecutively and that is why the experts recommend you to start looking into Nano Server as as soon as possible. This means that you cannot interactively log onto a Nano Server and you need to manage it remotely.
Nano Server is a remotely administered server operating system optimized for private clouds and datacenters. It is similar to Windows Server in Server Core mode, but significantly smaller, has no local logon capability, and only supports 64-bit applications, tools, and agents. It takes up far less disk space, sets up significantly faster, and requires far fewer updates and restarts than Windows Server. When it does restart, it restarts much faster. The Nano Server installation option is available for Standard and Datacenter editions of Windows Server 2016.
Nano Server is ideal for a number of scenarios:
- As a "compute" host for Hyper-V virtual machines, either in clusters or not
- As a storage host for Scale-Out File Server
- As a DNS server
- As a web server running Internet Information Services (IIS)
- As a host for applications that are developed using cloud application patterns and run in a container or virtual machine guest operating system
3. Product Documentation
- Microsoft TechNet Blog - Nano Server
- Microsoft TechNet - Getting Started with Nano Server
- Microsoft MSDN - Using Nano Server
- Microsoft MSDN - Nano Server APIs
- Microsoft ASP.NET - ASP.NET Core on Nano Server
4. Training Resources from Microsoft
4.1. Microsoft Virtual Academy
Course on the Microsoft Virtual Academy website:
4.1.1 Videos from the above course (on channel 9)
- MVA Video - Introduction to Nano Server
- MVA Video - Preliminary Results
- MVA Video - Getting Started with Nano Server
- MVA Video - Deploying Nano Server
- MVA Video - Introduction to Nano Server Remote Management
- MVA Video - Managing Nano Server with PowerShell
- MVA Video - Managing Nano Server with Remote Server Management Tools
- MVA Video - Troubleshooting Nano Server with Setup and Boot Eventing
- MVA Video - Troubleshooting Nano Server with the Emergency Management
- MVA Video - Developers and Applications
- MVA Video - Windows Server Installer
- MVA Video - Resources
- MVA Video - Technical Preview 4
4.2. How-to Videos (Channel 9)
The following how-to videos on Channel 9 take viewers through the initial on-boarding process.
4.2.1. Getting started
- Ten reasons you’ll love Windows Server 2016: Nano Server by Matt McSpirit,Jeffrey Snover
- Jeffrey Snover on Azure Stack, Powershell, and Nano Server by Seth Juarez,Jeffrey Snover
- Nano Server: The Future of Windows Server Starts Now by Andrew Mason,Jeffrey Snover
- Demo: Building a Nano Server VHDX for a Hyper-V VM by Matt McSpirit
- Server Manager managing Nano Server by RicksterCDN
- Failover Clustering on Nano Server by RicksterCDN
- Remotely Managing Hyper-V on Nano Server TP 2 from Windows 10 by RicksterCDN
- Nano Server and Azure PowerShell by RicksterCDN
- Nano Server as a Hyper-V Host on an 80-core machine by RicksterCDN
- Nano Server Reboot Speed by RicksterCDN
4.2.2. Advanced
- Defrag Tools #164 - Sysinternals for Nano Server - Mark Russinovich by Mark Russinovich, Andrew Richards, Chad Beeder
- Creating AppX Packages for Nano Server with the WiX Toolset by Matt McSpirit
- Demo: Nano Server Developer Experience by Matt McSpirit
- Demo: Nano Server in a Container running IIS & ASP.NET 5 by Matt McSpirit
- Remote Script Debugging on Nano Server by RicksterCDN
- Remotely Managing Nano Server with PowerShell Desired State Configuration by RicksterCDN
- Nano Server Node.JS Demo by RicksterCDN
- 5Nine Manager and Nano Server by RicksterCDN
- Remote Server Management Tools on Nano Server by RicksterCDN
- Nano Server with Chef provisioning by RicksterCDN
- Developer Experience with Nano Server by RicksterCDN
- ASPNET vNext app demo with remote debugger by RicksterCDN
- ASPNET vNext on Nano Server by RicksterCDN
- Nano Server and Release Management by RicksterCDN
- Nano Server and Chef Provisioning - extended cut by RicksterCDN
- Nano Server Scale Demo by RicksterCDN
- Nano Server PXE Boot demo by RicksterCDN
4.3. How-to Videos (External)
- Nano Server deployment option in Windows Server 2016 by Microsoft Cloud Platform, Refaat Issa [MSFT]
- Nano Server and Remote Management by PowerShell.org
- Nano Server: The Future of Windows Server by PowerShell.org
- Exploring Nano Server for Windows Server 2016 with Jeffrey Snover by Microsoft Mechanics
- Jeffrey Snover PowerShell and Nano Server Q&A Part 2 by PowerShell.org
- Jeffrey Snover PowerShell and Nano Server Q&A Part 1 by PowerShell.org
5. Webinars
Webinars sorted by source (MS or community).
Microsoft Webinar Links:
- Microsoft On-Demand Webinar - 10 Reasons You’ll love Windows Server 2016
- Microsoft Webinar - What's Coming in Windows Server and System Center 2016 – Nano Server and Containers
Community Webinar Links
- Veeam Webinar - Everything You Need to Know about Microsoft Nano Server
- Veeam Webinar - Everything about Microsoft Nano Server
6. Articles
The following lists of blog articles are group by Microsoft resources, followed by community resources. Newer resources should be placed at the top of the list.
6.1. Microsoft TechNet Blog - Nano Server
- Leverage Containers to test and debug Native applications on Nano Server by Venkat Yalla [MSFT]
- Nano Server Native Project Template now on Visual Studio Gallery by Venkat Yalla [MSFT]
- Introducing the Nano Server Image Builder by Scott M. Johnson [MSFT]
- Nano Server in the Azure Gallery and VM Agent Support by Dan Harman [MSFT]
- Updating Nano Server by Dan Harman [MSFT]
- Appreciating the Windows Server 2016 Desktop Experience by Derk Benisch [MSFT]
- Performance data collection on Nano Server by Venkat Yalla [MSFT]
- Deploying Nano Server to a Bare-Metal Machine using a WIM and WinPE by Refaat Issa [MSFT]
- Nano Server Boot Performance
- MySQL on Nano Server by Refaat Issa [MSFT]
- Nano Server White Papers by Refaat Issa [MSFT]
- Nano Server TP5 IaaS Image in Azure - Updated by Refaat Issa [MSFT]
- Python & Django on Nano Server by Refaat Issa [MSFT]
- Node.js on Nano Server by Refaat Issa [MSFT]
- NanoServerApiScan.exe updated by Refaat Issa [MSFT]
- PackageManagement Support on Nano Server by Xumins [MSFT]
- WSA Updates in WS 2016 TP5 by Xumins [MSFT]
- Developing Native Apps on Nano Server by Refaat Issa [MSFT]
- Nano Server TP5 IaaS Image in the Azure Gallery by Refaat Issa [MSFT]
- Remoting to Nano Server made easy by Refaat Issa [MSFT]
- IIS, ASP.NET Core, Tomcat, and WordPress on Nano Server by Refaat Issa [MSFT]
- Introducing Server management tools by Kriti Jindal [MSFT]
- Updating Nano Server using Windows Update or Windows Server Update Service by Andrew Mason [MSFT]
- Create your WSA using FireGiant APPX Extension on top of Wix Toolset by Xumins [MSFT]
- Download just Nano Server in a VHD (Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview 4) by Refaat Issa [MSFT]
- Nano Server Developer Experience - Visual Studio 2015 Update 1 and above by Refaat Issa [MSFT]
- Introducing the Nano Server Recovery Console by Refaat Issa [MSFT]
- Deploying Nano Server to a Bare-Metal Machine using a WIM and WinPE by Refaat Issa [MSFT]
- Nano Server IaaS Image in the Azure Gallery by Refaat Issa [MSFT]
- Nano Server Containers by Refaat Issa [MSFT]
- Hands-on Packaging and Installing your first Windows Server Apps on Nano Server by Xumins [MSFT]
- Installing Windows Server Apps on Nano Server by Xumins [MSFT]
- Native Binary Scanning Tool (NanoServerApiScan.exe) for Nano Server by Refaat Issa [MSFT]
- How to setup Nano Server to send diagnostic messages off-box for remote analysis by Derk Benisch [MSFT]
- OpenStack and Vagrant with Nano Server by Andrew Mason [MSFT]
- Nano Server Developer Experience and Tools by Refaat Issa [MSFT]
- How to use WDS to PxE Boot a Nano Server VHD … the PowerShell version :) by Refaat Issa [MSFT]
- PowerShell Script to build your Nano Server Image by Refaat Issa [MSFT]
- How to use WDS to PxE Boot a Nano Server VHD by Refaat Issa [MSFT]
- SSH is coming by Andrew Mason [MSFT]
- How to display ipconfig on Nano Server every time it boots by Refaat Issa [MSFT]
6.2. Microsoft TechNet Blog - Windows Server
- Windows Server 2016 new Current Branch for Business servicing option by Microsoft Windows Server Team
- The Windows Server 2016 Application Platform – Nano Server, Containers and DevOps by Microsoft Windows Server Team
- Moving forward with PowerShell and Windows Server 2016 by Microsoft Windows Server Team
- Ten reasons you’ll love Windows Server 2016 #10: Nano Server by Jeffrey Snover Windows Server
- Exploring Nano Server for Windows Server 2016 by Microsoft Windows Server Team
- Developers: Check out the Nano Server installation option in Windows Server 2016 by Microsoft Windows Server Team
- Moving to Nano Server, the new deployment option in Windows Server 2016 by Microsoft Windows Server Team
- A Closer Look at Windows Server and Hyper-V Containers with Mark Russinovich by Microsoft Windows Server Team
- What makes Nano Server so great? by Microsoft Windows Server Team
- Enterprise-grade virtualization and next-gen app platform by Microsoft Windows Server Team
- Microsoft Announces Nano Server for Modern Apps and Cloud by Microsoft Windows Server Team
6.3. Microsoft IIS Blog - Nano
- Running Tomcat with IIS on Nano Server by Jeonghwan
- Running Wordpress with IIS and WinCache on Nano Server by Jeonghwan
- Introducing IIS on Nano Server by David So
- Running Asp.Net Core with IIS on Nano Server by David So
6.4. TechNet Wiki Links
- Nano Server: Getting Started with Image Builder by Ryen Tang
- Nano Server Wiki Portal by Peter Geelen
- How to Setup on premise Nano Server by Hemal Ekanayake
- Windows Nano Server: Virtualization with VMware vSphere by Ryen Tang
- Microsoft Azure: Managing Nano Server with Server Management Tools by Ryen Tang
- Microsoft Azure: Deploying Windows Server 2016 Nano Server by Ryen Tang
- Nano Server: Deploying Python 3.x interpreter by Ryen Tang
- Nano Server: Deploying MySQL Database Server by Ryen Tang
- Nano Server: Using New-NanoServerImage with Show-Command to deploy Nano Server by Ryen Tang
- Nano Server: Deploying PHP 7.0.6 on Internet Information Services (IIS) Web Server by Ryen Tang
- Nano Server: Deploying ASP.NET 5 site on Internet Information Services (IIS) Web Server by Ryen Tang
- Nano Server: Deploying an Internet Information Services (IIS) Web Server by Ryen Tang
- Nano Server: Viewing Application, Security and System Event Logs using WMI by Ryen Tang
- Nano Server: Getting Started in Container with Docker by Ryen Tang
6.5. Community Links
- Cloudbase - OpenStack + Windows Nano Server by Alessandro Pilotti
- Vagrant and Nano Server - A Packer template for Windows Nano server weighing 300MB by Matt Wrock
- PowerShell Magazine - How to use WDS to PXE Boot a Nano Server VHD with PowerShell by Emin Atac
7. White Papers
- Cisco - Automating Windows Server Deployment
- Dell - Introducing Windows Server 2016 Nano Server Technical Preview 4
- Dell - Automating Nano Server deployment on Dell PowerEdge Servers
- Dell - How to deploy Nano Server (TP5) using a USB Key with the PowerEdge™ R730xd
- HPE - Implementing Microsoft Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview 5 on HPE ProLiant servers
- Lenovo - Introduction to Windows Server 2016 Nano Server
- Veeam - All You Need to Know About Microsoft Windows Nano Server
8. Tools
- Sysinternals Suite for Nano Server (Download Here) by Mark Russinovich
- System Center Management Packs for Windows Server Technical Preview
9. Social Media
- Microsoft Tech Community - Windows Server Nano Server
- Microsoft TechNet Forum - Nano Server
- Windows Server User Voice - Nano Server
- Twitter - #NanoServer
10. See Also