all you need to know about microsoft windows nano server

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All you need to know about Microsoft Nano Server (Updated for TP5) Mike Resseler Technical Evangelist

All you need to know about Microsoft Nano Server (Updated for TP5)

© 2016 Veeam Software 2

Introduction Windows Server 2016 will become generally available sometime in 2016. As of today, Microsoft hasn’t

announced the release date yet, but it does provide technical previews (TPs) for us to learn the new

technology on a regular basis. Many organizations and their IT teams say they don’t want to work with

beta software yet, and that they want to wait to learn the platform when it is ready. I strongly advise you

to change that way of thinking. With Microsoft picking up the pace — and with the increased pressure

on IT departments worldwide — moving your data center to new technology faster than ever before will

become a game changer. It will enable your business to be more agile and competitive, which will

provide your organization with a big advantage in today’s business landscape.

Today, I want to talk about Microsoft Windows Nano Server. Nano Server is a headless deployment

option for Windows Server, coming in 64-bit only. It may look very confusing at first, and many will look

at it and quickly decide it is not for their environment. I hope to provide as much information and

guidance as possible to convince you to take a closer look.



Content Introduction............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 2

History .......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 5

Windows NT to Windows Server 2003 ....................................................................................................................................................................................... 5

Windows Server 2008 and R2 ............................................................................................................................................................................................................ 5

Windows Server 2012 and R2 ............................................................................................................................................................................................................ 5

What is Nano Server? ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 6

Why? .............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 6

Reboots ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ 6

Server images .................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 7

Conclusion ......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 9

Setting the expectations ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 9

Let’s look at the quick installation ....................................................................................................................................................................................................... 10

A virtual Nano Server.............................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 10

A physical Nano Server ......................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 16

Packages .................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 18

Advanced installation/deployment options ............................................................................................................................................................................. 22

New-NanoServerImage ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 22

Get-NanoServerPackages ................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 26

Edit-NanoServerImage ......................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 27

Additional information for advanced installation/deployment .......................................................................................................................... 29

Domain join options........................................................................................................................................................................................................................ 29

Joining the to the domain where the local computer resides ..................................................................................................................... 29

Joining a different domain ......................................................................................................................................................................................................... 29

Reusing a domain account ........................................................................................................................................................................................................ 30

Joining Nano Server to a domain online ........................................................................................................................................................................ 30

Using the unattend file.................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 31

Azure ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ 32



Managing Nano Server ........................................................................................................................................................................................................................ 33

The Nano Server Recovery Console .................................................................................................................................................................................... 33

Figuring out the IP address ........................................................................................................................................................................................................ 38

PowerShell Remoting/PowerShell Direct ...................................................................................................................................................................... 38

Windows PowerShell CIM sessions over WinRM...................................................................................................................................................... 41

Windows Remote Management ........................................................................................................................................................................................... 42

Working with remote consoles .............................................................................................................................................................................................. 43

Server Management Tools ......................................................................................................................................................................................................... 48

Deploying apps on Nano Server .................................................................................................................................................................................................. 49

Appendix A: Additional information on packages................................................................................................................................................................ 50

DNS Package................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 50

IIS Server ........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 51

Offline installation ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 51

Online installation ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 52

Working with IIS ......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 53

Hyper-V.............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 54

Failover Clustering.................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 55

Appendix B: Setup & Boot Eventing, Kernel Debugging & Emergency Management Services ...................................................... 56

Setup & Boot Eventing.......................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 56

Kernel Debugging .................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 57

Emergency Management Services ............................................................................................................................................................................................. 58

Appendix C: Unattend, SetupComplete and DISM .............................................................................................................................................................. 59

DISM .................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 59

Unattend File ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ 60

Using setupcomplete.cmd ............................................................................................................................................................................................................... 61

Appendix D: Using MPIO on Nano Server ................................................................................................................................................................................... 63

Appendix E: Using Windows Update............................................................................................................................................................................................... 64

Appendix F: More on PowerShell on Nano Server ............................................................................................................................................................... 68

Appendix G: Installing roles and features online .................................................................................................................................................................... 70

Appendix H: Connecting to a DFS host ....................................................................................................................................................................................... 74

About the Author............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 75

About Veeam Software ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 75



History The best way to explain Nano Server is to dive into the history of Windows Server and how it has evolved

over the years.

Windows NT to Windows Server 2003 If you look at Windows NT until Windows Server 2003, it is a full-blown server system with a graphical

user interface (GUI) and lots of functionality right out of the box. On top of that, it allows you to deploy

roles and features like Active Directory (AD), DNS, DHCP, clustering and many more. Only one server

installation was the full-blown server at that time.

Windows Server 2008 and R2 With Windows Server 2008 and R2, a new server installation option came to life. It was called Core Server.

Core Server is still a full-blown Windows Server that allows you to run almost every application, role or

workload on top of it, but all of the GUI elements are removed, including Microsoft Management

Consoles (MMCs) and more. It was a very big deal at first sight because it lowered the attack footprint,

patching and resource usage. However, it never gained the attraction of the IT world that it deserved.

The reasons for that are simple:

• You couldn’t switch between core and the full GUI. The option was chosen at the installation, so reinstalling it was the only way to switch

• It was very difficult to configure. Everything had to be done through command line. PowerShell wasn’t fully supported (and many modules for technologies didn’t exist yet or were lacking) and remote management through MMCs, or that version of the server manager, weren’t that good

As a result, the adoption ranged from very limited to nonexistent.

Windows Server 2012 and R2 Microsoft listened to the feedback and concerns about Core Server very well and brought many

enhancements to Windows Server 2012 and R2. For starters, there is now one base Windows Server,

which is the core version. On top of that, you can deploy features and roles. But, you can also deploy the

minimal server interface on it, which again, is a role. The minimal server interface gave you some limited

access to management tools, but not the full-blown GUI tools. This in-the-middle solution seemed like a

good idea, but it wasn’t deployed a lot. Still, there are many administrators that choose the full-blown

solution, although adoption of the core model picked up some fans. This model certainly becomes more

and more popular in high-density environments, or in environments where resources are very valuable.

But, what if you could go even further and look at an even smaller operating system (OS) option that has

multiple benefits and will allow us to start deploying application workloads exactly as it happens in the

cloud? As you can imagine, this requires a shift in thinking and operations. Don’t be scared of it — just



continue reading and find out everything there is to know.

What is Nano Server? Nano Server is a headless, 64-bit-only deployment option for Windows Server 2016. Microsoft created

this component specifically with key scenarios in mind: Nano Server was created to serve as cloud fabric

and infrastructure (Hyper-V host, clustering, networking, storage) and as a deployment option for

applications that are — as they call it — born in the cloud (Platform-as-a-Service v2 and ASP.NET v5

applications).

It’s important to know is that this deployment option is really headless. The moment you decide to

deploy a supported role (such as Hyper-V), you need to realize that this lives outside of Nano Server.

There are absolutely no binaries or metadata inside this server. Even the drivers come as a package that

you can install on top of it. This makes this server option perfect for those that want to deploy only what

they need and keep everything else as minimalistic as possible.

Nano Server is ideal for some key scenarios in your environment such as:

• Hyper-V host

• Storage host for scale-out file servers

• DNS server

• Web server (IIS)

• A host for applications specifically designed for this

• Container host

This is just the beginning. I can’t predict the future, but image if I can deploy Nano Servers for my specific

core infrastructure such as Active Directory, DHCP, DNS (which already works today) and such — it

would save me a lot of management trouble and resources.

Why? Read further, and you’ll see that Nano Server will give you some challenges in the way you deploy,

configure and manage it. But, don’t forget that this is a TP, so these challenges might change and

become easier or even go away when we hit general availability (GA). So, before you decide it’s not

worth the trouble, let’s explore the advantages of deploying Nano Server in your environment.

Reboots Reboots for a Windows Server are something we learned to live with for many years. IT administrators all

around the world are familiar with Patch Tuesday. However, in many cases, it creates a lot of headaches.

While you will never be able to remove patches and updates, a headless solution will definitely require

less patches.



Less patches means less security. Because there are less components to patch, the attack vector also

decreases. Many attacks are done on components that simply do not exist in the server core anymore,

especially when you come to think of GUI elements. Microsoft did some research in 2014 to list the

differences:

Figure 1: Patches & Reboots ©Microsoft

Figure 1 shows the amount of important bulletins, critical bulletins and reboots required in 2014 for

Nano Server, Server Core and the Full Server option. As you can see, there are quite a few differences, and

the maintenance work that needs to be done on Nano Server is lower than on the other options. It

should also show that when you can’t choose Nano Server, Server Core is your best option.

Server images You will notice that we will create small images of servers later in this document. Those of you who need

to manage server image libraries will welcome Nano Server because it will take less disk space. Again,

Microsoft provided us with numbers, as you can see below:



Figure 2: Server Images. ©Microsoft

Figure 2 shows the differences in setup time, disk footprint and VHD(x) size between Server Core and

Nano Server. You can imagine that these numbers are even higher on the Full Server flavor.

Resources

Last but not least, you’ll also notice a huge difference in resource consumption. There are fewer

processes running, and the boot IO and kernel MB in use are all lower on Nano Server. As you can see, in

Figure 3:

Figure 3: Resource Utilization ©Microsoft

Figure 4 shows the differences in the amount of drivers loaded, services running and ports open

between Server Core and Nano Server:



Figure 4: Drivers, services & ports ©Microsoft

Many of you might think that the last figure should fall under security and not resources, and you are not

wrong. Microsoft does exactly the same. On the other hand, less services and drivers loaded also means

less resources necessary so I could argue that they fall under both.

Conclusion While the above numbers are certainly not final and are only from the measurement Microsoft did in

2014, you should be able to see that using Nano Server can deliver some huge improvements and

advantages. And, if using Nano Server is not a possibility, then Server Core should be your choice. I

personally expect these numbers to improve even further. Although the way you manage Nano Server

will be different than how you have always managed Windows Server operating systems, the advantages

are higher than the downsides. In the end, you will notice that managing Nano Server isn’t difficult — it is

just a matter of getting used to it.

Setting the expectations Starting to work with Nano Server today is, in my humble opinion, a must. If you are an IT professional,

you need to learn how it works, how it needs to be managed (which requires a change in mindset) and

how to troubleshoot it. The faster you do this, the more your business will benefit. But, don’t forget that

we are still working on a TP. A lot can change between now and GA, and whatever you do with it today

will still be a great learning experience.

With that said, we are not at GA yet, and the differences and enhancements that were introduced

between TP3 and TP4 were massive. And now, there are some changes with this updated guide to TP5.

We can only assume (and hope) that there will be many more enhancements and improvements in the

GA version. Everything in this paper is performed on TP5, so you will need to work with TP5 if you want

to follow this guide.



Let’s look at the quick installation You have to realize that Nano Server is not an installation option when you start. It cannot be selected

during setup as you are used to with other versions of Windows Server. The binaries are found on the

installation media, but you need to create a “base-image” first before you can deploy it. There are many

possibilities to create that image, so let’s start here with a quick way to get things going.

A virtual Nano Server Copy the files NanoServerImageGenerator.psm1, NanoServerImageGenerator.psd1 and Convert-

WindowsImage.ps1 from the NanoServerImageGenerator folder on the installation media to a folder

on your hard drive. In my case, I copy them to a folder called

D:\NanoServer\NanoServerImageGenerator

Figure 5: Copied files

Open Windows PowerShell, Windows PowerShell ISE (or the tool of your choice) as an administrator

and navigate to the folder where you have copied your scripts.



Figure 6: PowerShell ISE

Before you can start, you’ll need to import the NanoServerImageGenerator.psm1 module. This is already

a great improvement compared to the previous TP because you don’t need to dot source the scripts

anymore.

The command to do this is: Import-Module .\NanoServerImageGenerator.psm1 -Verbose

Note: The “verbose” is not necessary, but it will show you all the work that is done while importing this

module. As you can see in Figure 7: Importing the module, three functions are imported. We will go into detail

about those later.

Figure 7: Importing the module



Now you can create the first VHD you can use in a virtual environment. Don’t worry about the different

parameters yet, I will dive deep into those next. What you are doing here is creating a simple VHD, setting

an administrator password and including Hyper-V guest drivers.

New-NanoServerImage -Edition Datacenter -DeploymentType Guest -MediaPath <path to root of media> -BasePath .\Base -TargetPath .\NanoServerVMs\NanoServerVM.vhd -ComputerName <computer name>

• Edition can be standard or datacenter build

• DeploymentType (guest or host) defines whether it will be virtual or physical

• Mediapath is the path where the contents of the TP5 ISO are (either copied to disk or mounted as ISO)

• BasePath is the folder where the Nano Server WIM and packages will be placed

• TargetPath will be the folder where the VHD (or VHDX) will be created

• ComputerName is where you define the name of the computer

We will go further into details about those parameters later on.

In my case, this becomes: New-NanoServerImage -Edition Datacenter -DeploymentType Guest -MediaPath E:\ -BasePath .\Base -TargetPath .\NanoServerVMS\TP5Nano02\TP5Nano02.vhdx -ComputerName TP5Nano02

Figure 8: Creating your first image, with password request

After entering the password, the system will start creating the VHD.



Figure 9: Creating the VHD

After creation, the only thing left to do is create a virtual machine (VM) in Hyper-V and attach the VHD(X)

to it. This is how:

Open Hyper-V Manager and select New > Virtual Machine

Press Next on the Before You Begin page

Figure 10: Before You Begin

On the Specify Name and Location page, choose the name of the VM (this is not the computer name

but rather the name that will be visible in Hyper-V Manager) and the location where you want to store it

and press Next.



Figure 11: Specify Name and Location

On the Specify Generation page, choose the generation. If you chose to deploy a VHD, then choose

Generation 1. If you want to deploy a VHDX then choose Generation 2. Press Next

Figure 12: Specify Generation

On the Assign Memory page, adjust the startup memory and decide whether you want to use Dynamic

Memory or Static Memory. Press Next



Figure 13: Assign Memory

On the Configure Networking page, select the network that you want to connect to and press Next.

Figure 14: Configure Networking

On the Connect Virtual Hard Disk page, select Use an existing virtual hard disk, point to the created

VHD(X) and press Next.



Figure 15: Connect Virtual Hard Disk

On the Complete page, review your settings and press Finish.

Figure 16: Completing the New Virtual Machine Wizard

This is possible with PowerShell. I will show you an example of how to do that in the next chapter,

Advanced installation/Deployment options.

A physical Nano Server While most of the examples in this paper will be virtual Nano Servers, some of them will run on physical

servers. When you use Nano Server as a Hyper-V node (either clustered or not), it is necessary that it is a

physical server. I actually run nested Hyper-V so I can simulate this behavior for the purpose of this paper.

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/virtualization/hyperv_on_windows/user_guide/nesting



However, this probably won’t be the case in a real world environment.

The procedure to create a VHD for a physical machine is more or less the same as it is for a VM. I used the

following command: New-NanoServerImage -Edition Datacenter -DeploymentType Host -BasePath .\Base -TargetPath .\NanoServerVMS\NanoPhys01\NanoPhys01.vhd -ComputerName NanoPhys01 -OEMDrivers –Compute -Clustering

The difference between this one and the one for the VM, is that I already added roles — packages such

as compute and clustering — and also added the OEMDrivers package to include drivers. In the next

chapter, I’ll talk about these packages in more detail.

Another note of importance is that I actually didn’t have to specify the –MediaPath anymore because I

already had a base image created. After you do this once, you can keep using this base until there are

updates to the media.

Figure 17: Creating a physical Nano Server

Another difference is that you aren’t going to connect the VHD to a VM, but will instead deploy that VHD

onto a physical server.

If that physical server already has an operating system, you can simply copy the VHD to that server,

mount the VHD and then run bcdboot d:\windows. Finally un-mount the VHD and restart the server.

You should be able to boot into the Nano Server VHD.

Of course, if you prefer a dual boot, you can always use bcdboot to add a boot listing, but this won’t

happen very often. In most cases, you’d want to deploy it on a clean, empty server.

In that case, I advise you to read the following two excellent blog posts that explain what other methods

you have (and will prefer). Again, because this is not the scope of this paper and most people will have

their own deployment preferences, I won’t dive deeper into this.

• Deploying Nano Server to a Bare-Metal Machine using a WIM and WinPE

• How to use WDS to PxE Boot a Nano Server VHD

Last, but certainly not least, you can also create a .WIM file directly, and deploy a Nano server with the

http://blogs.technet.com/b/nanoserver/archive/2015/12/01/deploying-nano-server-to-a-bare-metal-machine-using-a-wim-and-winpe.aspx

http://blogs.technet.com/b/nanoserver/archive/2015/06/03/how-to-use-wds-to-pxe-boot-a-nano-server-vhd.aspx



option -Ramdiskboot if you want to generate media that can be booted from a RAM disk.

Packages The previous steps (in the A virtual section) will give you a running VM. Unfortunately, this VM only has a

name and administrator login. The VM is not domain joined, and maybe it requires a static IP address,

special firewall settings and many other changes your specific environment requires.

It is also completely headless at this point in time. No packages are installed, so you have a running

operating system that isn’t performing any functions at all. Before we dive into more advanced

deployments, let’s take a look at the available packages. Note that we discussed that TP5 contains more

installation packages than the previous TPs earlier. We expect this pattern to continue as we approach

GA. If you have packages that you would like to see included with Nano Server, you can go to Microsoft’s

UserVoice initiative and vote for your preferred package.

The size of the core OS that we deployed is only around 522 MB and will grow slightly by adding

packages but not by much. However, as previously mentioned, this is only the core OS and doesn’t

perform anything yet.

Figure 18: Size of a headless Nano Server

In the Role/Feature column in Table 1: Roles and Features, you can see the various roles or features,

and the option you’ll need to use to deploy those through the script.

Role/Feature Parameter for the script Filename on ISO Hyper-V -Compute Microsoft-NanoServer-Compute-Package Failover Clustering -Clustering Microsoft-NanoServer-FailoverCluster-

Package Basic drivers (physical deployment) — these drivers are the same as the drivers included in the core version of the OS

-OEMDrivers Microsoft-NanoServer-OEM-Drivers-Package

File Server role and other storage components

-Storage Microsoft-NanoServer-Storage-Package

https://windowsserver.uservoice.com/forums/295068-nano-server



Windows Defender (including a default signature file)

-Defender Microsoft-NanoServer-Defender-Package

Reverse forwarders for application compatibility for application frameworks such as Ruby, Node.js etc.…

N/A Included by default!

DNS Server role -Packages Microsoft-NanoServer-DNS-Package

Microsoft-NanoServer-DNS-Package

Desired State Configuration (DSC)

-Packages Microsoft-NanoServer-DSC-Package

Microsoft-NanoServer-DSC-Package

Internet Information Server (IIS)

-Packages Microsoft-NanoServer-IIS-Package

Microsoft-NanoServer-IIS-Package

Host support for Windows Containers

-Containers Microsoft-NanoServer-Containers-Package

System Center Virtual Machine Manager agent

-Packages Microsoft-Windows-Server-SCVMM-Package -Packages Microsoft-Windows-Server-SCVMM-Compute-Package

Microsoft-Windows-Server-SCVMM-Compute-Package Microsoft-Windows-Server-SCVMM-Package

Network Performance Diagnostics Service (NPDS)

-Packages Microsoft-NanoServer-NPDS-Package

Microsoft-NanoServer-NPDS-Package

Data Center Bridging -Packages Microsoft-NanoServer-DCB-Package

Microsoft-NanoServer-DCB-Package

Ability to boot and run from a RAM disk

-Ramdiskboot Microsoft-NanoServer-BootFromWim-Package

Deploying on a virtual machine -DeploymentType Guest Microsoft-NanoServer-Guest-Package Deploying on a physical machine

-DeploymentType Host Microsoft-NanoServer-Host-Package

Secure startup -Packages Microsoft-NanoServer-SecureStartup-Package

Microsoft-NanoServer-SecureStartup-Package

Shielded VM -Packages Microsoft-NanoServer-ShieldedVM-Package

Microsoft-NanoServer-ShieldedVM-Package

Table 1: Roles and Features

The Hyper-V role seems clear enough. With a minimum installation and all the benefits described in the

Why? Section, Nano Server should be the option of choice for each deployment. However, as of today in

TP5, there are still a few differences between Hyper-V running on Nano Server, or on any other

installation option. More information can be found within Appendix A, section Hyper-V

Clustering services is also a straightforward role. In my opinion, it doesn’t matter whether this is for

Hyper-V or for file servers. As long as it is servicing the customers and you can do all the management

and monitoring remotely, all the resources you can take away from the OS and give to the application

services is beneficial. You can find more information about the clustering package under Appendix A,

section Failover Clustering

The OEMdrivers (or basic drivers) provide the same set of drivers that are also in the core version of the

operating system. While it is possible to add other drivers (which I will explain later), you can easily add



defaults just by adding this package.

The Storage package will add the necessary file server services and other storage components. Think

about the necessary solutions for connecting to storage such as MPIO or deploying scale-out file servers.

The Windows Defender package will add Windows Defender, including a default signature file. Note

that it will need to be updated if you want this. Because most of my host servers are not connected in

any way to the internet or any other network where there is a risk for infection, I actually think it is great

that you can decide whether or not you are going to deploy Defender.

The DNS server package will add the DNS server on top of Nano Server. However, there are some

catches, which I will cover in the DNS Package chapter.

The Desired State Configuration package adds the necessary components to work with this

technology. In the current preview, it is only push, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t already great things

you can do with Desired State Configuration.

The IIS package will add the necessary binaries to run IIS and certain features of that service. However,

not all features are already supported. For more information, look at chapter IIS Server under Appendix

A: Additional information on packages.

The Containers package will add host container support into the Nano Server. At this point, the

deployed Nano Server will be able to run containerized applications.

The System Center Virtual Machine agent actually comes in two flavors and can be a bit confusing.

There is a little catch: You don’t need to use the –Compute option when you want to create a Hyper-V

host with the SCVMM agent. Instead, you need to use –Packages Microsoft-NanoServer-Compute-

Package, Microsoft-Windows-Server-SCVMM-Compute-Package

If you do not include the -SCVMM package at the time of creation, but rather at the host or cluster to

VMM at a later point, the VMM agent will automatically deploy then. Note that this package requires the

Windows Defender package first.

The Network Performance Diagnostics Service (NPDS) package enables a new feature that comes

more — or less — straight out of the Azure world, and builds on top of the network discovery.

The Data Center Bridging package is a set of standards to enable converged fabrics in a data center to

allow storage, networking, clustering and the like, so traffic can all share the same network infrastructure.

Nano Server supports this also, just like the other server options.

The Ability to boot and run from a RAM disk package allows you to run Nano Server in an

environment where there is no physical disk, by using a RAM disk.

The Deploying on a virtual machine package tells your deployment you want to use it as a virtual

machine and automatically deploys the Hyper-V guest drivers

The Deploying on a physical machine package gives you support for bare metal deployments

The Secure startup package provides support for secure startup

The Shielded VM package is the host guardian that provides everything necessary to provision shielded

virtual machines. Note that this package is only available in the datacenter edition of Nano Server.



Finally, you can monitor Nano Server with Microsoft System Center Operations Manager. System Center

TP5 includes an agent that you can deploy onto Nano Server TP5.

As you can see, you can already install quite a few roles and features on Nano Server, and I believe more

will come.

Some additional roles and features that don’t come in a package but are still important are MPIO, SET

NIC teaming and the Windows Update WMI provider.



Advanced installation/deployment options As you may recall, I used the –Verbose parameter when I imported the module

NanoServerImageGenerator. We saw in the output that it added three cmdlets or scripts.

Let’s look at all the parameters that exist with the scripts that come with Nano Server and what you can

customize.

Note: You can only use these scripts on a Windows 8.1, Windows 10, Windows Server 2012 R2 or Windows

Server 2016 TP installation. Other OSs are not supported.

New-NanoServerImage This function allows you to create a new Nano Server image. In the quick installation, we only briefly

touched the potential of what we can do, so let’s dive a bit deeper into all the parameters that exist.

Parameter Value Explanation -AdministratorPassword Securestring

This sets the image’s administrator password. If you do not specify this on the command line, you will be interactively prompted to do so.

-BasePath String

This is the location for the copy of the source media. It will be under a folder (auto-created if not exist) and contains the packages, tools, hard disk image and WIM file.

-Clustering N/A This allows you to add the clustering role. -Compute

N/A With this, you can add the Compute (Hyper-V) role.

-ComputerName String

This sets the computer name of the image. Note that the computer name can’t be longer than 15 characters

-Containers N/A This allows you to add the Containers role. -CopyFiles String[] This parameter specifies additional

directory path on the computer where you create the image and that directory and the files in it will be added to the root of the VHD(X).

-DebugMethod

String With this parameter, you will enable kernel debugging on the target image with the specified method. The values can be Serial, Net, 1394 or USB



Depending on the value of this parameter, other parameters may become available. See kernel debugging for more information.

-Defender N/A This adds the Windows Defender feature. -DeploymentType String Guest or host, depending on whether you

want to deploy a virtual or physical Nano Server.

-Development N/A This is used to test on Nano server which allows unsigned drivers, copy debugger binaries and so on.

-DomainBlobPath String This lets you Join the image to the domain as specified in the given domain blob. For more information, see the chapter about domain join.

-DomainName String This joins the image to the specified domain performing an offline join. For more information, see the chapter about domain join.

-DriversPath

String If you need additional drivers or specific ones instead of the OEM drivers, you can add them with this parameter. It should point to the path containing the drivers (.inf and binaries). Note that the drivers need to be signed, otherwise the command will fail.

-EMSBaudRate UInt32 This is the baud rate to use for EMS. The default is 115200bps.

-EMSPort Byte This is the port to enable EMS on. The default is 1.

-Edition String Standard or Datacenter, the windows edition you want to deploy

-EnableEMS

N/A This enables EMS (Emergency Management Services) and BootEMS on the image. See Emergency Management Services for more information.

-EnableRemoteManagementPort N/A This parameter opens port 5985 for inbound TCP connections for Windows Remote Management (WinRM). See Windows Remote Management for more information.

-InterfaceNameOrIndex

String If you want to change the IP settings of an adapter, you need to use this parameter in conjunction with the below IP parameters. You can retrieve these using Get-NetAdapter, netsh or EMC if you already created an image, and in a VM, the first will always be named Ethernet.



-Ipv4Address

String This sets the given IPv4 static address on the interface specified by InterfaceNameOrIndex.

-IPv4Dns String[] This sets the given IPv4 DNS server (can be multiple DNS servers) on the interface specified by InterfaceNameOrIndex

-Ipv4Gateway

String This sets the given IPv4 gateway on the interface specified by InterfaceNameOrIndex.

-Ipv4SubnetMask

String This sets the given IPv4 subnet mask on the interface specified by InterfaceNameOrIndex.

-Ipv6Address

String This sets the given IPv6 static address on the interface specified by InterfaceNameOrIndex.

-Ipv6Dns String[] This sets the given IPv6 DNS server on the interface specified by InterfaceNameOrIndex

-MaxSize Uint64 Size in bytes of the dynamic VHD(X) to be created. Default is 4 GB.

-MediaPath * String The location of the source media. If a local copy of the source media already exists, and it is specified as the base path, then no copying is performed. This is the downloaded ISO that you either have mounted or copied to a specific location. This is only necessary the first time.

-OEMDrivers N/A This is used to add the OEM Drivers package. Those drivers are the same set of drivers that exists in Server Core.

-Packages String[]

Include the following packages separated by a comma. This is the specific parameter that adds the packages that don’t have a specific parameter. See the Packages chapter for more information.

-RamdiskBoot N/A You can run Nano Server in an environment with no physical disk by using a RAM disk. To generate media that can boot from a RAM disk, use the —RamdiskBoot parameter and pass the path to a WIM file as –TargetPath.

-ReuseDomainNode

N/A When joining a domain, reuse a node with the same name if it exists. For more information, see the chapter about domain join.

-ServicingPackages String[] With this parameter you can add servicing packages (multiple is possible) that you downloaded from the Microsoft Update catalog.

http://catalog.update.microsoft.com/v7/site/Install.aspx?referringpage=home.aspx



-SetupCompleteCommands String[] You can add custom commands here as part of setupcomplete.cmd.

-Storage N/A This adds the Storage role. -TargetPath String This is the location of the final, modified

image. The image format is determined based on the file extension. Possible extension values are .VHD and .VHDX. VHD will come with MBR and VHDX with GPT disk layout.

-UnattendPath String Location to add your own, custom, unattend.xml file.

Now, let’s look at an example. What I want to create is a Nano Server that has the packages clustering

and compute (I want to build a Hyper-V cluster). It also needs to be automatically joined to the domain

MD.local, because that is the domain in which I am working (I will explore in this topic further in the

Domain join options). Remote Management is enabled, Guest drivers are installed and a static IPv4

address is attached to it. I also want my VHDX (it is going to be a Generation 2 machine) defined with a

maximum of 100 GB (but it will be smaller as it is dynamically expanding). I’ll add my local scripts

directory (D:\Scripts) into the C: volume of that Nano Server. This is how the PowerShell line will look: New-NanoServerImage -DeploymentType Guest -Edition Datacenter -TargetPath .\NanoServerVMs\TP5Nano03\TP5Nano03.vhdx -BasePath .\Base -Clustering -Compute -ComputerName TP5Nano03 -CopyFiles D:\Scripts -DomainName MD.local -EnableRemoteManagementPort -InterfaceNameOrIndex ethernet -Ipv4Address 192.168.1.203 -Ipv4Dns 192.168.1.220 -Ipv4Gateway 192.168.1.1 -Ipv4SubnetMask 255.255.255.0 -MaxSize 100GB

Figure 19: Advanced creation of a Nano Server

Again, I want to add this as a VM to my environment. But as promised, I will not go through the wizard

again, I’ll use PowerShell to do the job instead. To do this, I’ll create a new VM, attach the created VHDX to

it, give it a startup memory of 256 MB and attach it to the LAN virtual network. New-VM -VHDPath .\NanoServerVMs\TP5Nano03\TP5Nano03.vhdx -Generation 2 -MemoryStartupBytes 268435456 -Name TP5Nano03 -Path D:\VM -SwitchName LAN



Figure 20: New-VM through PowerShell

Get-NanoServerPackages This script won’t let you do anything, but it makes it easy to see which packages are included in the base

image or on the media. We talked about all of these packages before, and if you want to figure out which

ones are included (with or without different languages), this cmdlet will give you all the information you

need.

It comes with two optional parameters.

Parameter Explanation BasePath You can add the location of where the base

files are here. The script will look at that location and output the packages it has found.

MediaPath You can add the location of where the media is here (mounted ISO as example). Again, the script will look at that location and output the packages it has found.

Below is a simple example of how I checked the packages that were included on my base image: Get-NanoServerPackage -BasePath .\Base



Figure 21: Packages available on my base image

As you can see, I have the available packages I described before.

Edit-NanoServerImage If you already created a Nano Server but want to add additional packages — maybe change the IP

address or do any other customizations — you don’t need to rebuild or create a new image. You can

modify a created image afterwards. Before TP4, this had to be done with DISM. For those of you who

prefer this method, this is still possible but it can be done with the cmdlet Edit-NanoServerImage also.

A few notes on this script:

• The Nano Server needs to be turned off

• You cannot change VHD to VHDX with this script

Most parameters that are described in the New-NanoServerImage cmdlet are the same but some can’t

be used, and Edit-NanoServerImage also has a few additional ones:

There are four parameters that cannot be used when editing a Nano server:

• DeploymentType

• Edition

• MaxSize

• MediaPath

On the other hand, Edit-NanoServerImage has two additional parameters:

• LangPackages

• NeutralPackages

Please note that those two will be deprecated in the GA version and were intended for internal tests at Microsoft, so don’t use them.

In the example below, I’m going to modify the Nano Server we created in the Quick Start chapter and



add a fixed IP address (and some more networking data), but I’m also going to add the IIS and DNS

package. This is something I will use later on when diving deeper into those two packages. Edit-NanoServerImage -BasePath .\Base -TargetPath .\NanoServerVMS\TP5Nano02\TP5Nano02.vhdx -EnableRemoteManagementPort -InterfaceNameOrIndex Ethernet -Ipv4Address 192.168.1.202 -Ipv4Dns 192.168.1.220 -Ipv4SubnetMask 255.255.255.0 -Ipv4Gateway 192.168.1.1 -Packages Microsoft-NanoServer-IIS-Package, Microsoft-NanoServer-DNS-Package

Figure 22: Script is running and modifying the Nano Server

After running this script and starting the Nano Server again, I can check if everything worked. In the DNS Package chapter, I will actually show you how I did it.



Additional information for advanced installation/deployment Before we continue our mission with Nano Server, there are a few things I want to talk about. Let’s take a

deeper look at the domain join possibilities and the specific Azure parameter you can use.

Domain join options

There are many possibilities to join your Nano Server to an existing domain. I prefer the first option

described below, but this will not always be the best option. Let’s look at the five different methods you

can use.

Joining the to the domain where the local computer resides

This is by far my most favorite option, because it is very easy to do. In TP3, joining a domain took quite a

bit of work, but starting from TP4 (and of course also in TP5), it is much easier. If the workstation or server

on which you are building the image is joined to the same domain to which you want to join the Nano

Server, you only need to use the appropriate switch within the PowerShell script and the rest will be

automatically done for you.

You might recall the example that we used in chapter the New-NanoServerImage New-NanoServerImage -DeploymentType Guest -Edition Datacenter -TargetPath .\NanoServerVMs\TP5Nano03\TP5Nano03.vhdx -BasePath .\Base -Clustering -Compute -ComputerName TP5Nano03 -CopyFiles D:\Scripts -DomainName MD.local -EnableRemoteManagementPort -InterfaceNameOrIndex ethernet -Ipv4Address 192.168.1.203 -Ipv4Dns 192.168.1.220 -Ipv4Gateway 192.168.1.1 -Ipv4SubnetMask 255.255.255.0 -MaxSize 100GB

One of the switches we use is –DomainName and the name of my domain. This is all you need to do to

get that computer joined to the domain.

An offline domain join happens in the background and the script will automatically harvest a domain

blob for the specific domain and use that to do the domain join. You need to have the administrative

rights to perform a domain join when you perform this action. So, make sure that the user you are

running the PowerShell cmdlets with has those rights.

If you want to know what happens in the background exactly, read on, because the next methods will

require more manual work.

Joining a different domain

If the workstation or server you are working on is not joined to a domain or is joined to another domain,

you can’t work with the fully automated parameter. However, it still isn’t difficult. What you need to do is

harvest a domain blob. You need to keep a few things in mind:

The blob must be manually harvested on a computer that is joined to the specific domain.

You need to have the rights to perform this action.

This is the command you need to use when harvesting a blob (Note: This is an elevated prompt): djoin /Provision /Domain Contoso /Machine serverName /SaveFile serverName.djoin



Copy that blob to a place on your computer where you are building the image and use the switch –

DomainBlobPath to perform the action. As an example: New-NanoServerImage -DeploymentType Guest -Edition Datacenter -MediaPath \\Path\To\Media\en_us -BasePath .\Base -TargetPath .\ServerName.vhd -DomainBlobPath .\Path\ServerName.djoin

Please note that you don’t add the parameter name –ComputerName anymore, because the blob

already contains the server name. It will throw an error if you do so.

Reusing a domain account

You can use the third method when you want to reuse a domain account. If the server name already

exists in Active Directory, you can use simple the parameter –ReuseDomainNode in your script.

Joining Nano Server to a domain online

All of the previous methods are offline joins when the image is created. But, what happens when your

server is already created and running? Can you still join it to a domain?

Luckily, the answer is yes. Performing an online join to a domain is possible, but it requires a bit of work.

Let’s go over the procedure.

Harvesting a blob.

Just like before, you will need to harvest a blob and use that to join the server online to a domain.

Note: The computer that is in that domain, and the location from which you will harvest the blob, needs

to be running Windows 10 or Windows Server Threshold! However, the domain controller does not. djoin.exe /provision /domain <domain-name> /machine <machine-name> /savefile .\objblob

You will have a file called objblob now. The next step is to copy that file to the Nano Server. You can do it

easily by mapping the administrative C$ share to a drive. net use z: \\<ip address of Nano Server>\c$ md z:\Temp copy odjblob z:\Temp

Note: You might receive an error when doing this. That probably means the firewall on the Nano Server

is blocking the request. In that case, run the following commands first: Set-Item WSMan:\localhost\Client\TrustedHosts "<IP address of Nano Server>" $ip = "<ip address of Nano Server>" Enter-PSSession -ComputerName $ip -Credential $ip\Administrator netsh advfirewall firewall set rule group="File and Printer Sharing" new enable=yes Exit-PSSession

Note: You can find more information on this procedure in the PowerShell Remoting/ chapter.

Now you need to join the Nano Server to the domain. Again, for more information about Enter-

PSSession or about when the command fails, refer to the PowerShell Remoting/PowerShell Direct

chapter. Enter-PSSession -ComputerName $ip -Credential $ip\Administrator



djoin /requestodj /loadfile c:\Temp\odjblob /windowspath c:\windows /localos shutdown /r /t 5 Exit-PSSession

The procedure works like this:

• Connect remotely to the server and start a remote PowerShell session

• Use djoin to load the configuration out of the created blob file and join that server to the domain. (For more information on djoin, go to https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/offline-domain-join-djoin-step-by-step(v=ws.10).aspx)

• Instruct the computer to restart (the parameter /r does this in the shutdown command) and wait 5 seconds.

• Those 5 seconds give you the time necessary to exit the remote PowerShell session (Exit-PSSession)

That’s it. After you reboot, your Nano Server will be joined to the domain.

Using the unattend file

The last option you have is using an unattend file. You will need to use parts of the procedure above to

do this.

First, you will start by harvesting a blob again, just like you did before. When you’re finished with that,

open the blob file with a text editor (Notepad works fine) and copy the files in the unattend file. See the

example below: <unattend xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:unattend" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"> <settings pass="offlineServicing"> <component name="Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS"> <ComputerName>NANO02</ComputerName> </component> <component name="Microsoft-Windows-UnattendedJoin" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS"> <OfflineIdentification> <Provisioning> <AccountData>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 </AccountData> </Provisioning> </OfflineIdentification> </component> </settings> <settings pass="offlineServicing"> </settings> <settings pass="oobeSystem"> <component name="Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS">

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/offline-domain-join-djoin-step-by-step(v=ws.10).aspx

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/offline-domain-join-djoin-step-by-step(v=ws.10).aspx



<UserAccounts> <AdministratorPassword> <Value>P@ssw0rd</Value> <PlainText>true</PlainText> </AdministratorPassword> </UserAccounts> <TimeZone>Pacific Standard Time</TimeZone> </component> </settings> <settings pass="specialize"> <component name="Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS"> <RegisteredOwner>MD</RegisteredOwner> <RegisteredOrganization>MD</RegisteredOrganization> </component> </settings> </unattend>

The important part for the domain join is the data that resides between the <AccountData> and

</AccountData> part. This is the information you can copy from the blob file that you have harvested.

Now, you need to inject the unattend.xml file into the Nano Server image. This can be done manually

(see Appendix C: Unattend, SetupComplete and DISM) or through the parameter -UnattendPath

included with the New-NanoServerImage cmdlet.

Azure

Running Nano in Microsoft Azure is possible. There are two methods to do so as of today:

Method 1: Deploy Nano Server through the gallery

When you log in to your Microsoft Azure subscription, you can deploy a new VM. It doesn’t matter

whether you are using the classic method or the new resource manager deployment. You will need to

find this image in the gallery by running a search with the keyword Nano. Then, it’s just a matter of

choosing your size, networking and all other options, just as if you are deploying any other regular VM in

Microsoft Azure.

Figure 23: Nano Server build in Microsoft Azure

However, there is a difference. Because you are not building your image with the correct packages, you



can’t add roles to it upfront. Therefore, you will need to deploy your packages online. More information

on that process in Appendix G.

Method 2: Bring your own server to Azure

It is possible to bring your own VHD and use it as a server in Microsoft Azure. In TP4 there was a

parameter called –Azure. In TP5, this parameter is gone, but by simply using the parameters -

DeploymentType Guest and –EnableRemoteManagement, you can prepare a VHD for Azure.

For more information on how to upload your own VHD, visit

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/articles/virtual-machines-create-upload-

vhd-windows-server/.

Finally, note that Nano Server in TP5 does support nested virtualization, so you would be able to deploy

Nano Server hosts onto Azure and inside deployed VMs.

To read more about managing Microsoft Windows Nano Server and getting more details, please, follow the link: https://hyperv.veeam.com/windows-nano-server-all-you-need-to-know-7708/

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/articles/virtual-machines-create-upload-vhd-windows-server/

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/articles/virtual-machines-create-upload-vhd-windows-server/

https://hyperv.veeam.com/windows-nano-server-all-you-need-to-know-7708/



About the Author

Mike Resseler is a Technical Evangelist for Veeam®. Mike is focused on

technologies around Hyper-V and System Center. With years of experience in

the field, he presents on many occasions at large events such as MMS, TechEd

and TechDays. Mike has been awarded the MVP for System Center Cloud and

Datacenter Management since 2010 and received the Hyper-V MVP since 2014.

His major hobby is discussing and developing solid Disaster Recovery (DR)

scenarios. Additionally, he has enterprise-class experience in Private Cloud

architecture and deployment with marked focus on protection from the

bottom to the top. He holds certifications in many Microsoft Technologies such

as MCITP.

Follow Mike on @MikeResseler or @Veeam and on Google+.

About Veeam Software Veeam recognizes the new challenges companies across the globe face in enabling the Always-On

Enterprise™, a business that must operate 24/7/365. To address this, Veeam has pioneered a new market

of Availability for the Always-On Enterprise™ by helping organizations meet recovery time and point

objectives (RTPO™) of < 15 minutes for all applications and data, through a fundamentally new kind of

solution that delivers high-speed recovery, data loss avoidance, verified protection, leveraged data and

complete visibility. Veeam Availability Suite™, which includes Veeam Backup & Replication™, leverages

virtualization, storage, and cloud technologies that enable the modern data center to help organizations

save time, mitigate risks and dramatically reduce capital and operational costs.

Founded in 2006, Veeam currently has 41,000 ProPartners and more than 205,000 customers worldwide.

Veeam's global headquarters are located in Baar, Switzerland, and the company has offices throughout

the world. To learn more, visit http://www.veeam.com.

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