CyberStore 424S WSS^® iSCSI SAN / NAS Storage Server

Nano Server

Nano Server boats an amazing 92% smaller installation footprint than the WSS 2016 GUI option. If you'd like your CyberStore WSS Storage aplliance installed with Nano Server rather than the graphical user interface simply let your account manager know and you'll benefit from these advantages:

• Bare-metal OS means far fewer updates and reboots are necessary.
• Because you have to administratively inject any server roles from outside Nano, the server has a much-reduced attack surface when compared to GUI Windows Server.
• Nano is so small that it can be ported easily across servers, data centers and physical sites.
• Nano hosts the most common Windows Server workloads, including Hyper-V host.

Containers

Microsoft is working closely with the Docker development team to bring Docker-based containers to Windows Server. Until now, containers have existed almost entirely in the Linux/UNIX open-source world allowing you to isolate applications and services in an agile, easy-to-administer way. Broadberry CyberStore WSS 2016 storage aplliances offer two different types of "containerised" Windows Server instances:

• Windows Server Container. This container type is intended for low-trust workloads where you don't mind that container instances running on the same server may share some common resources
• Hyper-V Container. This isn't a Hyper-V host or VM. Instead, its a "super isolated" containerized Windows Server instance that is completely isolated from other containers and potentially from the host server. Hyper-V containers are appropriate for high-trust workloads.

Linux Secure Boot

Secure Boot is part of the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) specification that protects the CyberStore WSS startup environment against the injection of rootkits or other assorted boot-time malware.

The problem with Windows Server-based Secure Boot is that your server would blow up (figuratively speaking) if you tried to create a Linux-based Generation 2 Hyper-V VM because the Linux kernel drivers weren't part of the trusted device store. Technically, the VM's UEFI firmware presents a "Failed Secure Boot Verification" error and stops startup.

Nowadays, the Windows Server and Azure engineering teams seemingly love Linux. Therefore, we can now deploy Linux VMs under Windows Server 2016 Hyper-V with no trouble without having to disable the otherwise stellar Secure Boot feature.

ReFS

It's been a long time coming, but the CyberStore WSS 2016 range now includes a stable version of Resilient File System (ReFS) - a high-performance, high-resiliency file system intended for use with Storage Spaces Direct and Hyper-V workloads.

Storage Spaces Direct

Storage Spaces is a a great Windows Server feature that makes it more affordable for administrators to create redundant and flexible disk storage. Storage Spaces Direct in Windows Server 2016 extends Storage Spaces to allow failover cluster nodes to use their local storage inside this cluster, avoiding the previous necessity of a shared storage fabric.

ADFS v4

Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS) is a Windows Server role that supports claims (token)-based identity. Claims-based identity is crucial thanks to the need for single-sign on (SSO) between on-premises Active Directory and various cloud-based services.

ADFS v4 in Windows Server 2016 finally brings support for OpenID Connect-based authentication, multi-factor authentication (MFA), and what Microsoft calls "hybrid conditional access." This latter technology allows ADFS to respond when user or device attributes fall out of compliance with security policies on either end of the trust relationship.

Nested Virtualisation

The CyberStore WSS range powered by Windows Storage Server 2016 now includes the ability to host virtual machines through Windows Server Hyper-V. This allows you to deploy additional Hyper-V hosts without needing more servers.

Hyper-V Hot-Add Virtual Hardware

The CyberStore WSS 2016 now allows virtual hardware to be added or adjusted without needing to power down the VM. This allows allocated RAM to be adjusted on a virtual machine, or an additional virtual NIC to be added on the fly.

PowerShell Direct

In Windows Server 2012 R2, Hyper-V administrators ordinarily performed Windows PowerShell-based remote administration of VMs the same way they would with physical hosts. In Windows Server 2016, PowerShell remoting commands now have -VM* parameters that allows us to send PowerShell directly into the Hyper-V host's VMs!

Shielded VMs

Windows Server 2016 shielded VMs allow for much deeper, fine-grained control over Hyper-V VM access. For example, your Hyper-V host may have VMs from more than one tenant, and you need to ensure that different Hyper-V admin groups can access only their designated VMs. By using BitLocker Drive Encryption to encrypt the VM's virtual hard disks, shielded VMs can solve that problem.