Getting Started with Nano Server

Charbel Nemnom

• Publisher: Packt Publishing
• Year: 2017
• eBook ISBN: 9781785284656
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Computer Science
• Subtopic: Operating Systems
• Index: Computer Science

Remain highly competitive in the server and VM market by gaining the practical skills needed to operate Nano ServerAbout This Book• The days of the local server are numbered, and this book will make you an ace by giving you the skills needed to administer Nano Server and survive in the brave new server world• Learn to quickly automate multiple VMs and support Hyper-V clusters, all through small footprints from a single host• Apply up-to-date, real-world examples presented in this book and improve the scalability and efficiency of large-scale VM deploymentsWho This Book Is ForThis book opens up new potential for both developers and IT pros alike. The book is primarily for Server administrators and IT Professionals who would like to deploy and administer Nano Server within their organizations, and for developers who are trying to make maximal use of Server Containers and Hyper-V Containers with Nano Servers.What You Will Learn• Understand Nano Server• Deploy Nano Server• Deploy Hyper-V Clusters on Nano Server• Deploy Nano Server with SCVMM• Manage Nano Server using PowerShell and Remote Server Management Tools• Manage Nano Server with third-party tools• Run Server Containers and Hyper-V Containers on Nano Server• Troubleshoot Nano Server• Validate developed applications that run on Nano ServerIn DetailNano Server allows developers and operations teams to work closely together and use containers that package applications so that the entire platform works as one. The aim of Nano Server is to help applications run the way they are intended to. It can be used to run and deploy infrastructures (acting as a compute host, storage host, container, or VM guest operating system) without consuming significant resources. Although Nano Server isn't intended to replace Server 2016 or 2012 R2, it will be an attractive choice for developers and IT teams.Want to improve your ability to deploy a new VM and install and deploy container apps within minutes? You have come to the right place! The objective of this book is to get you started with Nano Server successfully. The journey is quite exciting, since we are introducing you to a cutting-edge technology that will revolutionize today's datacenters.We'll cover everything from the basic to advanced topics. You'll discover a lot of added value from using Nano Server, such as hundreds of VM types on a single host through a small footprint, which could be a big plus for you and your company. After reading this book, you will have the necessary skills to start your journey effectively using Nano Server.Style and approachGauge all the information needed to get up-and-running with the latest Nano Server built by Microsoft using this easy to follow step-by-step guide.

Troubleshooting Nano Server

In Chapter 8, Running Windows Server Containers and Hyper-V Containers on Nano Server, we talked about how to run Nano containers and Hyper-V containers on top of a Nano Server container host.

One of the most frequent questions that we hear a lot is, how do we troubleshoot a headless server without logging into it? There is no support for a remote desktop to administer and troubleshoot the system. Whether we like it or not, sometimes things go wrong and we need to troubleshoot. We already saw in Chapter 6, Managing Nano Server with Windows PowerShell and Windows PowerShell DSC, how to do things remotely. We also discussed that, as long as you can connect to the server through the various methods, you can do your troubleshooting with PowerShell or with the remote management consoles. However, sometimes even that isn't possible and you find yourself in a situation where the server does not boot correctly or is completely stuck. Here you need to troubleshoot and resolve the problem.

In this chapter, we will show you how to effectively troubleshoot a Nano Server installation with:

• Nano recovery console
• Emergency management services
• Kernel debugging
• Setup and boot event collection
• Enabling access to Nano Server event logs

Nano recovery console

You read in earlier chapters about all the benefits of Nano Server, such as performance, less disk footprint, less patches, security, and so on. But without the GUI, it's not easy to troubleshoot a Nano Server.

This is why in Windows Server 2016, the Nano Server deployment option of Windows Server comes with full Nano Server recovery console support. The purpose of the recovery console is to provide direct local access to a Nano Server operating system in order to re-establish remote network connectivity. The Nano recovery console does not provide you, command-line access nor PowerShell access locally. However, it does provide you with the ability to fix whatever might be causing remote management not to work. In this case, you can use the recovery console to fix your issues and get remote connectivity again. With the recovery console, you can configure networking, and Firewall rules, and reset the Windows remote management (WinRM) service, which is required for PowerShell remoting.

The recovery console is the default interactive console on every Nano Server installation. Just log in with local access using the administrator and password you supplied while creating the Nano Server image and the menu will be loaded.

When you log on to Nano Server interactively either in a virtual or physical machine, the recovery console looks as shown in Figure 1:

Figure 1. Nano Server recovery console logon Window

After you logon, you will see a screen that displays server information as shown in Figure 2:

Figure 2. Nano Server recovery console home page

You will be able to see the domain (or workgroup), version of the OS, the local date and time, Networking, inbound Firewall rules, outbound Firewall rules, WinRM, and the VM host (if Nano Server is running a Hyper-V host). More importantly you can use the following options:

• Select > Networking (by using the Tab key), scroll down with the arrow keys to select Inbound Firewall Rules, Outbound FirewallRules or WinRM and press Enter.

The Nano Server team has added the following capabilities that you can manage through the Nano Server recovery console:

• View computer name
• View domain/workgroup
• Logon/log out
• Shutdown/restart
• Enable/disable NIC
• View IPv4/IPv6 address
• Set IPv4/IPv6 address
• View gateway
• Set gateway IP address
• View routing table
• View primary/secondary DNS
• View MAC address
• View network driver name
• View network driver date
• View network driver version
• View network driver provider
• View network driver installation date
• Set Firewall rules (enable/disable)
• Reset WinRM service

Setting network configurations using the Nano Server recovery console

In this section, you will see how to set basic networking configurations in Nano Server without PowerShell or advanced command-lines.

To manage Nano Server installation using the recovery console, carry out the following steps:

1. Select >Networking by pressing the Tab key, and on the Network settings page, list all your network cards; you can select which NIC you want to view or configure (see Figure 3):

Figure 3. Nano Server recovery console network adapter settings

Here you will see that:

• By pressing F4, you can toggle the state (disable/enable) for a specific NIC
• By pressing F10, you can see the routing table, and by pressing F10 again, you can add a static route, or press Delete to delete the route
• By pressing F11, you can toggle the DHCP state for IPv4, and by pressing Enter, you can set/update the NIC IPv4 address for a particular NIC
• By pressing F12, you can toggle the DHCP State for IPv6, and by pressing Enter, you can set/update the NIC IPv6 address for a particular NIC
• You can go back to the main recovery console page by pressing the Esc key

2. Select >Inbound Firewall Rules on the main recovery console page, and on the Firewall Rules page, you can view all the inbound rules (see Figure 4):

Figure 4. Nano Server recovery console inbound Firewall rules

• By pressing Enter on any inbound rule, you can view all the details for a particular Firewall...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Copyright
• Credits
• About the Author
• About the Reviewers
• www.PacktPub.com
• Customer Feedback
• Preface
• Introduction to Nano Server
• Getting Started with Nano Server
• Deploying Nano Server in a Virtual Machine and on Physical Hardware
• Deploying Hyper-V Cluster on Nano Server
• Deploying, Managing, and Monitoring Nano Server with System Center 2016
• Managing Nano Server with Windows PowerShell and Windows PowerShell DSC
• Managing Nano Server with Third-Party Tools
• Running Windows Server Containers and Hyper-V Containers on Nano Server
• Troubleshooting Nano Server
• Running Other Workloads on the Nano Server