Windows Server 2019 - Retail version | Software & License

Windows Server 2019: iis the cloud-ready operating system from Microsoft and it builds on the strong foundation of Windows Server 2016. It bridges on-premises environments with Azure services, enabling hybrid scenarios that maximize existing investments. Windows Server 2019 comes packed with new features and capabilities to enhance your organization's security, virtualization, and scalability. With new layers of protection, improved virtualization, and enhanced support for hybrid cloud scenarios. Windows Server 2019 also includes several enhancements to Remote Desktop Services (RDS), which enables users to access Windows-based applications and desktops from anywhere, on any device. It has the improved support for hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI). Hyper-convergence is a software-defined approach to combining computing, storage, and networking resources into a single, tightly integrated system. Windows Server 2019 offers improved performance and scalability for HCI deployments, with features such as deduplication and compression for storage, and faster networking with the integration of Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA) over Converged Ethernet (RoCEv2). Windows Server 2019 also introduces enhanced integration with Microsoft Azure, Microsoft's cloud computing platform. This allows for seamless integration of on-premises servers with Azure services, such as Azure Backup, Azure Site Recovery, and Azure File Sync, providing organizations with greater flexibility and scalability in their hybrid cloud deployments.

Windows Server 2019 has three editions as their names imply, they are designed for organizations of different sizes, and with different virtualization and datacenter requirements. Windows Server 2019 Essentials perfectly suits the needs of a small infrastructure, while the Datacenter edition provides the widest range of functions among all the other server operating systems from Microsoft. 

• Essentials - intended for companies up to and including 25 employees, memory-limited.

• Standard - intended for companies with more than 25 employees or more than 1 server to separate server roles.

• Datacenter - is mainly used for placing multiple virtual machines on a physical host.

Windows Server 2019 has the following new features:

• Container services:

  • Support for Kubernetes (stable; v1.14)

  • Support for Tigera Calico for Windows

  • Linux containers on Windows

• Storage:

  • Storage Spaces Direct

  • Storage Migration Service

  • Storage Replica

  • System Insights

• Security:

  • Shielded Virtual Machines

  • Improved Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection (ATP)

• Administration:

  • Windows Admin Center

  • SetupDiag

  • OpenSSH included

System requirements

The following are estimated system requirements Windows Server 2019. If your computer has less than the "minimum" requirements, you will not be able to install this product correctly. Actual requirements will vary based on your system configuration and the applications and features you install.

Processor requirements:

• A minimum of 1.4 GHz 64-bit EMT64 or AMD64 processor. Quad Core Recommended for production systems.

• Support for security features like NX Bit and DEP (Data Execution Prevention)

•  The processor should support CMPXCHG16b, LAHF/SAHF, and PrefetchWNeeds

• Needs to Support EPT or NPT (Second Level Address Translation)

Disk Space:

For Core installation, a minimum Disk Space of 32 GB is required. Additional 4 GB is necessary for GUI installation.

Disk Space Capacity Planning:

Microsoft Support recommends the following:

• 3 times the RAM size limited up to 32 GB. Which means 96 GB (32×3 = 96 GB)

• Additional disk space of 10-12 GB for additional roles and features installed based on server roles. For 32 GB Systems with GUI (96 + 12 = 108 GB)

• Additional 10 GB is required for Windows Updates. So, 108 GB +10 GB = 118 GB for 32 GB Systems.

• 10 GB extra space for miscellaneous files and logs (Perfmon, Server Trace, etc.) (128 GB for 32 GB Systems)

• Any Disk Space requirements for applications that are installed on the OS partition are additional. For example SQL, Exchange, SharePoint MS-CRM, etc.

Disk Controller:

• Needs to be a PCI Express Compliant Disk Controller.

• ATA/PATA/IDE/EIDE are not supported for either boot, page, or data.

RAM (Random Access memory) Requirements:

• 512 MB ECC supported Memory Modules

• 800 MB for VM Installations, post-installation, reduce RAM to 512 MB.

Optional System Requirements Features:

• Support of UEFI 2.3.1c-based system and firmware with support for secure boot

• Trusted Platform Module

• Graphics Accelerator device and monitor, capable of SVGA (1024 x 768) minimum. 1080 p monitors or higher-resolution recommended.

• Input devices such as a Keyboard and Microsoft® mouse (or other compatible pointing devices)

• Internet access to download Windows Updates where the tenant is managing the updates.

Network Requirements:

• Minimum a Gigabit Ethernet adapter with 1 Gbps throughput.

• Needs to be PCI Express Compliant hardware.

• Support for Pre-boot Execution Environment (PXE). As you may know, Wireless Devices cannot be used to boot from the network.