Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity Support for
Windows Server 2019 Failover Clusters:
Planning, Deployment, Management and Troubleshooting
Windows Server 2019 is the on-premises release of Microsoft's server OS. Windows Server 2019 incorporates all the updates for Windows Server 2016 formerly offered only through Microsoft's Semi-Annual Channel (SAC). Microsoft Windows Server 2019 offers important improvements in capacity, throughput, manageability, cybersecurity, app compatibility, Linux co-existence, container technology, and hybrid integration of local and cloud assets.
Headline new features of Microsoft Windows Server 2019 are Windows Admin Center for unifying the management and monitoring of hybrid local/cloud-hosted resources, System Insights for utilizing advance predictive intelligence to control on-premises networks, Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection Exploit Guard for host-intrusion prevention, container networking with Kubernetes, Cluster Sets for building and administering massive high-availability scale-out clusters, and Storage Migration Service for streamlining the migration from outdated versions of Windows Server.
Progent can assist you to integrate Windows Server 2019 with the latest versions of Microsoft's key apps by providing expert services such as Microsoft Exchange Server expertise, Microsoft SQL Server 2019 integration consulting, SQL Server 2017 upgrade expertise, SharePoint 2019 design and integration, and Microsoft 365 hybrid integration consulting. Progent's consulting, troubleshooting and education services for Windows Server 2019 are offered remotely and Progent also offers onsite support in major metropolitan areas across the U.S. and Canada.
Hybrid Cloud Solutions with Windows Server 2019
Windows Server 2019 makes the Azure stack accessible to organizations of all sizes for creating on-premises networks, private cloud solutions, or hybrid architectures that integrate local IT assets with infrastructure and services hosted on the cloud.
The majority of today's businesses manage a combination of on-premises and cloud-based IT assets to deliver the appropriate balance of control, economy, throughput, reliability, and security they require. In some fields, regulatory compliance require that certain classes of network resources and information be managed internally. In other instances, company policies or compatibility issues necessitate mission-critical applications to be run from a local data center. Windows Server 2019 provides a cloud-aware platform that permits you to implement and administer powerful hybrid ecosystems that seamlessly access resources spread across local data centers and the cloud.
Designing, building and administering optimized hybrid environments with Windows Server 2019 calls for a broad range of knowledge and experience. This can be beyond the comfort zone of typical IT groups in smaller organizations. Progent's team of subject-matter experts (SMEs) offers as-needed access to the skills you require for any facet of hybrid network implementation and management. Progent's Microsoft-certified and Cisco-certified consultants, project managers, and information security professionals can help your business to assess the advantages of Windows Server 2019 for your company and build a hybrid ecosystem powered by Microsoft Windows Server 2019 that offers maximum business value.
A Good Moment to Upgrade
The introduction of Windows Server 2019 was accompanied by the notification of End-of-Support (EOS) status for Microsoft's popular Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2 products. This means there will be no more security fixes onsite, no non-security enhancements, no free support options, and no online technical content updates. Because of this, security and compliance will be increasingly challenging, support costs and effort may increase, and network stability may drop.
If your company could use expertise moving up to Microsoft Windows Server 2019 from Windows Server 2008 or any other legacy release of Windows Server, Progent can provide the skills to make your upgrade process smooth, economical, and on-schedule. Progent can help you:
- Identify your apps and server roles on your current Windows Servers
- Migrate your virtual machines to the Progent Cloud or upgrade to the latest release of on-prem Windows Server or to Microsoft Azure
- Fine-tune your resources to minimize costs, manage assets, and enhance security and compliance across hybrid applications
Windows Server 2019 is offered in the economical Standard edition and the enterprise-class Datacenter edition. The Datacenter version permits unlimited server virtualization whereas the Standard version allows two VMs. The Datacenter edition also includes powerful technologies such as Shielded Virtual Machines, Network Controller automation, Host Guardian Service (HGS), Storage Replica disaster recovery, Software-defined Networking (SDN), and Storage Spaces Direct. Many of these technologies are described in Microsoft Windows Server 2016 expertise.
Microsoft Windows Server 2019 has two installation options: Server Core and Server with Desktop Experience. The Server Core option features a small attack surface and no traditional desktop interface but supports all role-based workloads. This "headless" version needs to be managed remotely, e.g. with Power Shell or Windows Admin Center. The Server with Desktop Experience alternative is a complete installation and includes a comprehensive GUI for local management. Progent's experts can help you to determine the versions and deployment options best suited to your environment, understand Microsoft's licensing rules, and pick an efficient on-premises, cloud-based, or hybrid deployment architecture.
Top New Features of Windows Server 2019
Windows Server 2019 offers enhancements in scale, throughput, manageability, virtualization, cybersecurity, hybrid deployment support, availability, container management, Linux compatibility, and other key enhancements. Versions of Windows Server 2019 licensed under the SAC release model are updated two times annually, making new features available more quickly than under Microsoft's Long-Term Servicing Channel release model.
Microsoft Windows Server 2019 offers significant improvements in scale vs. Microsoft Windows Server 2016:
| Capacity Limit | Windows Server 2016 | Windows Server 2019 |
| Max raw capacity per cluster | 1 PB | 4 PB |
| Max raw capacity per server | 100 TB | 400 TB |
| Max number of volumes | 32 | 64 |
| Max size per volume | 32 TB | 64 TB |
Other headline enhancements in Windows Server 2019 include:
- Cluster Sets is a feature that allows orders of magnitude expansion in cluster nodes in a Software Defined Data Center (SDDC) by combining multiple Failover Clusters into a single massive, uniformly controlled fabric. Network managers can transparently migrate virtual machines throughout the Cluster Set fabric and control every facet of a Failover Cluster from onboarding to decommissioning. Clusters included in a Cluster Set can benefit from extra disk storage and RAM in a separate cluster without requiring that you buy additional hardware. CPU and storage assets do not need to be the same, and robustness is as good or better than with ordinary Failover Clusters.
Prior to Windows Server 2019, multiple Hyper-V clusters for virtual machines were cumbersome to manage and modify 
Windows Server 2019 introduces Cluster Sets for unified control of failover clusters - Storage Replica is now part of the Standard version of Microsoft Windows Server 2019. Storage Replica provides advanced disaster recovery capability and is discussed in Windows Server 2016 Storage Replica configuration. New features of Storage Replica are a test failover option that allows you to bring a target volume online temporally for testing and backup. Also, you can now manage Storage Replica with Windows Admin Center, which offers a GUI tool for controlling operations like server-to-server and cluster-to-cluster replication.
- Storage Spaces Direct enhancements include deduplication and compression for Resilient File System volumes, integrated support for persistent memory, support for using a commodity flash drive to act as a witness with dual-server clusters, greater scale (as high as 4 PB for each cluster), twice the performance for mirror-accelerated parity volumes and storage tiers, outlier detection for physical disk latency, and improved availability by selectively delimiting volume allocation. Windows Server's Storage Spaces Direct features are discussed in Microsoft Windows Storage Spaces Direct consulting.
- Storage Migration Service streamlines the task of moving the volume data from legacy servers to volumes in newer versions of Windows Server. You can use Storage Migration Service to move to current hardware or to virtual machines. The tool automatically inventories Windows and Linux servers and their data; copies files, shares, and policy configurations to their new servers; and permits destination servers to take over the identity of the source servers so users and applications can have access to existing data without making any changes. Windows Admin Center's graphical interface can manage many simultaneous migrations.
- Expanded Linux support allows you to host Ubuntu Linux, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server within shielded VMs. Microsoft's Shielded VMs capability is described in Windows Server 2016 Shielded Virtual Machines consulting.
- Windows Admin Center is a web-based app deployed locally for controlling servers, clusters, hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) running Storage Spaces Direct, Windows 10 endpoints, and Azure-based VMs. Windows Admin Center can be utilized to manage Windows Server 2012 and later. Windows Admin Center is an "in-box" management tool and therefore can be utilized to manage servers on private networks disconnected from the public Internet. By publishing the Windows Admin Center gateway server to the public Internet, you can manage your servers securely from anywhere.
Windows Admin Center enables you to administer on-premises and Azure cloud virtual machines from a single pane of glass - Container orchestration with Kubernetes, the popular open-source management tool for Docker containers, offers improved features such as the ability to use embedded network security to protect Windows and Linux services. For a discussion of containers on Microsoft Windows Server, refer to Microsoft Windows Server containers consulting.
- Deduplication and Compression for Resilient File System (ReFS) Volumes allows 10 times more data on a given Resilient File System volume. The ReFS file system, first released in Windows Server 2012, integrates RAM-level high-performance tiers for handling hot data along with HDD/SDD high-capacity tiers for volume and resilience.
- Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection comes with Windows Server 2019 as an integrated capability that needs no additional activation fee and no agent software to install.
- Encrypted Networks is a new feature that encrypts traffic between VMs communicating inside subnets that are designated as Encryption Enabled. Datagram Transport Layer Security (DTLS) on the virtual subnet blocks entities with access to the physical network from looking at, altering, or faking network data. Traffic between encrypted subnets is not encrypted.
- A USB Flash Drive plugged into your router can be assigned as a witness in dual-server clusters under Storage Spaces Direct. Using this economical, no-hassle technique, if a server fails and then returns to operation, the USB drive cluster can say which server has the more current data.
Windows Server 2019 permits a USB Flash drive to act as a witness in two-server clusters - LEDBAT automatically avoids network traffic jams by taking up bandwidth only during periods when the network is being sparsely used. LEDBAT enables an organization to send massive, critical updates across a corporate network without degrading the responsiveness of mission-critical applications.
- System Insights uses predictive analytics and machine learning to improve capacity planning. System Insights runs internally on each Windows Server 2019 instance and analyses performance stats and system events to forecast capacity requirements in important areas including utilization for volumes, total storage capacity, CPU, and network traffic volume.
- Windows Time Service works with the new time synchronization technique known as Precision Time Protocol (PTP) and provides correct time during a leap second. Windows Server 2019 also offers software time-stamping and clock source stability. These capabilities deliver greater accuracy and precision, comply with UTC and other regulations like as FINRA, and support various time-critical applications. Because network setup is challenging to support the PTP protocol, the older Network Time Protocol remains the default time synchronization technique for Microsoft Windows Server 2019.
Progent's Microsoft Gold-certified experts can help you to design and carry out an efficient migration to Windows Server 2019 using an on-prem network architecture or a hybrid local-plus-cloud architecture. Progent can show you how to use the new Storage Migration Service to cut down effort and expense from the project of moving from outdated Microsoft Windows Server platforms as far back as Windows Server 2003, and Progent's experts can show you how to benefit from the latest features of Windows Server 2019 to improve throughput, expandability, availability, and manageability. Progent's Exchange Server 2019 experts can help you to implement Exchange Server 2019 Mailbox and Edge Transport server roles and management tools, which need Windows Server 2019. Progent's Microsoft SQL Server 2019 experts can help you to integrate Microsoft's primary database engine with Windows Server 2019 to run your vital workloads in a modern network environment.
Progent's certified data security consultants can help your company to adhere to best practices to create a modern security solution that is seamless across on-premises and cloud-based resources as well as mobile devices. Progent can help your company to set up 24x7 remote data security monitoring using an effective combination of cybersecurity solutions from Microsoft and other leading providers. Progent also can run cybersecurity audits to confirm that your IT environment meets government and industry information security mandates such as SOX, ISO 27001, PCI DSS 3.2, and FedRAMP.
Progent's team of Cisco-certified CCIE network consultants is one of the largest of any independent IT support company in the U.S. Progent can help your business to design, configure and manage a modern and cost-effective hybrid network infrastructure that incorporates the state-of-the-art high-availability and disaster recovery technologies built into Windows Server 2019. Progent's disaster recovery and business continuity (DR/BC) preparedness experts can help your business plan and validate a comprehensive strategy for rebounding quickly from any foreseen catastrophe.
To assist your business to manage your Microsoft Windows Server 2019 and Windows Hyper-V virtualized environment, Progent can provide a variety of services such as Windows Admin Center deployment, PowerShell programming, SC Virtual Machine Manager hybrid cloud management consulting, and SCOM deployment. Progent also has assembled the ProSight line of remote monitoring and management (RMM) outsourcing packages that give small and mid-size businesses (SMBs) an affordable and effective solution for network management.
Download the Datasheet for Progent's Windows Server 2019 Consulting Services
To see the datasheet describing Progent's consulting services for Windows Server 2019, select:
Progent's consulting services for Microsoft Windows Server 2019. (PDF - 319 KB)
Progent's Remote Consulting and Debugging Services
Progent has 20 years of experience delivering fast, advanced remote technical guidance and debugging expertise and has provided online expertise to businesses in every state in the United States and across Canada. (See Progent's Customer Testimonials.) Progent also offers on-premises support in major U.S. metropolitan areas. Progent offers on-demand support to help you to resolve challenging technical problems or end-to-end project management outsourcing services.
If you are looking for urgent remote assistance from a Microsoft-certified consultant, see Progent's Remote Support Services.
Contact Progent for Expertise with Microsoft Windows Server 2019
To find out more about Progent's consulting support and troubleshooting services for Windows Server 2019, phone
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