Windows Server-Installation, Storage, Compute (Exam 70-740)

Compare Windows Server 2016 editions—Essentials, Standard, Data Center, Storage Server, and Hyper-V edition—covering cores, RAM, virtualization licensing, and features like Storage Spaces Direct and VM shielding.

Meet the minimum hardware for server 2016: 64-bit, 1.4 GHz CPU, 512 MB RAM, 32 GB disk; plan according to the server's purpose and nano server options.

Explore Windows Server 2016 installation options, including full desktop experience, server core, and Nano Server. Learn remote management with RSAT and PowerShell remote, plus Nano Server as a container host.

Boot from installation media and set language and keyboard. Install Windows Server 2016 by choosing edition and desktop experience or server core, performing a custom install, and setting the administrator password.

Explore the activation options for Windows Server 2016, including manual activation, Key Management Server, Active Directory Activation, MAT keys, and Automatic Virtual Machine Activation for Datacenter edition.

Nano Server offers a tiny 64-bit headless footprint, supports roles like Hyper-V, DNS, and web server, and from 1709 onward serves as a container-host only.

Copy the Nano Server Image Generator files from the installation media, build a VHD, and deploy a Gen. 2 Hyper-V virtual machine managed via Windows Remote Management.

Server Core is the default installation for server 2016, delivering a smaller footprint and no GUI, enabling remote management via PowerShell and RSAT, with no switch to desktop.

Install and configure a server core machine from scratch, using sconfig to set IP, DNS, and computer name, then enable remote management, domain join, and no GUI.

Evaluate migration over in-place upgrades to avoid legacy issues; upgrade only to same or higher editions, while migration handles older 32-bit servers with role-specific steps and solution accelerators.

Explore data deduplication, IPAM, and DHCP failover from 2012 and 2012 R2, plus work folders, dynamic access control, storage spaces with tiering, and DC virtualization.

Discover Server 2016's new capabilities, including Nano Server and remote management, nested virtualization, Windows and Hyper-V containers, and Docker support, plus PAM and Azure AD join.

Choose between MBR and GPT based on disk size, and decide between basic and dynamic disks. Format using FAT, NTFS, or ReFS to balance security and resilience.

Manage server disks with Disk Manager by initializing disks, choosing MBR, and creating simple, spanned, striped, mirrored, and raid-5 volumes on dynamic disks.

Explore disk management in Windows Server using GUI tools like Disk Management and Server Manager, or the DiskPart and PowerShell command line to create, format, and manage disks and volumes.

Extend or shrink volumes in disk management to reclaim space or create another volume, defrag first to avoid immovable files and data loss.

Explore how raid creates a redundant array of independent disks to provide fault tolerance and improved performance through striping, disk mirroring, and parody parity, while backing up remains essential.

Explore how raid levels like raid 0, raid 1, raid 5, and raid 10 balance performance, redundancy, and storage capacity through striping, parity, and mirroring.

Explores storage options from direct-attached storage to network-attached storage and storage area networks, highlighting shareability, file-level vs block-level access, performance, and cost considerations.

Explore storage area networks by examining fiber channel SAN components, costs, and alternatives like fiber channel over ethernet and iSCSI for production and testing.

Install and configure an iSCSI target server on Windows Server 2016 to create a diskless, network-bootable iSCSI SAN with block-level storage, PXE boot, and optional NFS access.

Build a target server in Server Manager, install the iSCSI target service, and create iSCSI virtual disks, then configure the initiator to connect by IP and present disks as local.

Learn to implement multipath i/o to eliminate single points of storage failure by configuring multipath i/o, discovering iSCSI support, and managing required reboots.

Implement data center bridging to optimize traffic across multiple iSCSI SANs by signaling the sender to slow down, enabling continuous data flow to the fast SAN.

Install the file server role and create SMB shares from Server Manager to share storage with users. Configure access-based enumeration, caching, and NFS or application shares as needed.

Create a storage pool from multiple disks, build virtual disks and volumes with automatic allocation or hot spares, and choose simple, mirror, or parity layouts with thin or fixed provisioning.

Enhance storage with Storage Spaces Direct by building a software-defined pool across standard ethernet servers, enabling scale-out file servers, VMs, and resilience from 2 to 16 servers.

Utilize data deduplication in Windows Server 2016 to compress and dedupe block-level chunks with reparse points via the Chunk Store, saving storage on non-OS drives.

Install and configure data deduplication on Windows Server 2016 using Server Manager and PowerShell, enabling dedup on volume E as a general purpose file server with age, exclusions, and schedule.

Explore the new Hyper-V features in Server 2016, including host resource protection, nested virtualization, rolling upgrades, shielded VMs, production checkpoints, and PowerShell Direct.

Identify Hyper-V prerequisites: require a 64-bit SLAT processor with VM Monitor Mode extensions, at least 4 GB memory, a virtualization-enabled chipset (Intel VT or AMD-V), and BIOS DEP enabled.

Install Hyper-V via server manager by adding the role and RSAT tools for remote management, then configure storage locations and live migration options in Hyper-V settings.

Enable nested virtualization on server 2016 host with Hyper-V in a VM. Requires Intel and mac address spoofing via PowerShell; dynamic memory, production checkpoints, and live migration are not supported.

Explore Hyper-V storage options for virtual machines, including VHD 2 TB and VHDX 64 TB, fixed and dynamically expanding discs, pass-through, VHDS, and differencing discs for testing environments.

Learn to pre-create virtual disks in Hyper-V Manager by choosing VHD, VHDX, or VHD Set, using dynamic expansion or differencing, and naming and placing the disk.

Configure Hyper-V networking by creating private, internal, and external switches to control VM and host connectivity, VLANs, and fiber channel options.

Learn to create and configure a Hyper-V virtual machine, set generation and memory, attach a VHD, connect an external switch, and boot from an ISO to install the OS.

Learn how Hyper-V's live migration moves a running virtual machine between hosts with zero downtime, without shared hardware or storage, using Hyper-V manager.

Perform a shared nothing storage migration in Hyper-V to move virtual machine storage to a new location while the machine stays online, copying content and synchronizing changes with no downtime.

Enable Hyper-V Replica to replicate virtual machines between locations. Configure replica server and firewall, choose replication frequency and VHDs for efficient failover.

Ensure high availability across data centers by implementing redundant power, cooling, NICs, memory, switches, and RAID storage with replication. Use diverse ISPs to avoid single points of failure.

Use failover clustering with clustered shared storage and separate networks to keep a stateful application with always-on availability by failing the workload to another cluster node.

Ensure all cluster nodes access shared storage and pass the Validate a Configuration Wizard, using Windows Server certified hardware and a domain level of 2008 or newer.

Install the failover cluster service on all nodes with PowerShell, validate configuration via Failover Cluster Manager, and fix Hyper-V switch issues to prepare for cluster creation.

Configure a two-node failover cluster named DemoCluster with IP 172.16.0.17, add shared storage, and manage nodes, storage, and clustered roles via the failover cluster manager.

Configure a role service in the failover cluster manager to create a general use file server with shared storage, ensuring all nodes have the role service installed for automatic failover.

Move role services between nodes and set preferred owners in the failover cluster manager. Configure quorum, dynamic quorum with a witness, and manage nodes, disks, networks, and events.

learn how cluster heartbeats verify node availability by exchanging packets, adjust same-subnet and cross-subnet delays and thresholds in PowerShell, and control failover timing for multiple subnets.

Cluster aware updating automates patching a failover cluster. Choose remote mode or self-updating mode to update nodes by failing resources, rebooting, and returning services online.

Review how to achieve virtual machine high availability with host failover clustering, guest clustering inside VMs, and guest clustering across hosts, plus network load balancing for stateless apps.

Enable multiple cluster nodes to access the same storage via cluster shared volumes, improving failover recovery, reducing LUNs, and simplifying disk space management without extra hardware.

Scale-out file server provides active-active access to SMB3 file shares, increasing bandwidth for stored virtual disks and enabling seamless VM moves across clusters using shared storage with CSV write-through cache.

Learn to create a highly available virtual machine in a failover cluster, migrate existing virtual machines, and store disks on clustered shared storage to enable seamless failover.

Manage host shutdowns in a Hyper-V failover cluster by using automatic stop actions, graceful guest shutdown, or drain on shutdown that moves VMs to other nodes before host shuts down.

Upgrade a 2012 R2 failover cluster to 2016 by adding 2016 nodes, evicting 2012 R2 nodes, and raising the cluster functional level with a PowerShell command.

Network load balancing provides scalable, high-availability for stateless web frontends by distributing traffic across up to 32 nodes and handling node failures, unlike stateful databases.

Configure a network load balance cluster to expose a shared virtual ip that distributes incoming requests across nodes; the least-loaded node handles each request while others drop the packet.

Configure a network load balance cluster with static ip addresses on all nics, the same subnet, and choose unicast for multi-nic or multicast for single-nic setups using igmp.

Learn to install network load balancing on two Windows servers using PowerShell and RSAT tools, then create a two-node NLB cluster with a shared cluster IP 172.16.0.150.

Configure network load balancing by setting port rules for specific ports, choose multiple or single host mode, and apply affinity options to control traffic and session persistence.

Configure a virtual machine network load balancing cluster for stateless apps using multiple NICs in unicast mode, with cluster and management NICs, MAC spoofing on Hyper-V, and spread across hosts.

Upgrade a network load balancing cluster to Windows Server 2016 using piecemeal node upgrades or a full cluster upgrade. Support mixed OS versions from 2008 R2 to 2016.

Explore file-based and sector-based image deployments, including WIM files with install.wim, image headers, multiple images, single instancing, and hybrid approaches for common and department-specific apps.

Explore tools for creating and servicing Windows images, from setup.exe for image deployment to unattend files, WDS deployments, and DISM image servicing.

Learn how to use the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit to create a deployment share, import operating system images from WIM files, and assemble task sequences for automated deployments.

Control the update process for Windows servers and client machines using WSUS to download updates, test them with groups before deployment, and roll back if tests fail.

Choose WSUS deployment options across single, multiple, air-gap, and unattached networks. Configure autonomous or replica modes, and decide between Windows Internal Database and SQL Server.

Install and configure WSUS on Windows Server via Server Manager, enabling IIS and .NET, and set an update store. Use the configuration wizard to choose update sources and replica options.

Configure updates for clients using a WSUS intranet service via a group policy object (GPO), setting the intranet update service location and port 8530, and scheduling automatic updates.

Manage updates in Windows Server Update Services by scheduling synchronizations, selecting products and classifications, and approving or declining updates for specific computer groups via Group Policy, ensuring targeted, efficient deployments.

Monitor update status, failed updates, and synchronization using WSUS reports, including update summaries, detailed statuses, and tabular views. Configure approvals, server cleanup, and configuration options to optimize your WSUS environment.

Launch Task Manager to monitor a Windows Server 2016 environment, sort by cpu or memory to identify resource hogs such as malware or SQL Server, then end tasks or processes.

Explore how the resource monitor provides an overview of CPU, memory, disk, and network usage, tracks perfmon, and reveals handles, modules, and network connections for server performance analysis.

Use reliability monitor to assess long-term system stability, view reliability history, and drill into date-specific events to identify issues, with data stored for a full year and day-to-week views.

Use Server Manager to manage roles, features, and other servers from a single console. It provides glanceable status, remote service control, see events across your environment, and supports group management.

Use Event Viewer to inspect Windows logs—application, security, and system—and tailor custom views and filters to surface critical events and errors for quick troubleshooting of services and DHCP.

Set up event subscription to collect critical, warning, and error events from multiple servers using the Windows event collection utility and forwarded events in collector initiated mode.

Use performance monitor to track real-time and historical server metrics. Build baselines with data collector sets and analyze CPU, disk, memory, and network counters via graphs for capacity planning.

Explore how containers isolate apps by sharing a common kernel and namespaces, enabling portability and fast restarts as containers move between hosts.

Learn how Windows Server 2016 supports containers and Hyper-V containers, comparing shared kernel isolation with Hyper-V's independent kernel environments and the associated overhead.

Learn when to use Windows Server containers for stateless apps and rapid testing, and when Hyper-V containers are preferred for multi-tenant isolation, patch-level control, and life-cycle management.

Install the DockerProvider package provider on Windows Server 2016 to access container base images, install NuGetProvider as needed, and restart to start using Docker images.

Explore Docker fundamentals, including images, containers, Docker file, and builds, and learn to manage with the Docker Client, Engine, Compose, Machine, Registry, Kitematic, and Swarm.

Search the docker registry for microsoft containers, then pull the microsoft/iis image on a windows server core, noting the lowercase, case-sensitive name and the potential long download time.

Explore nested virtualization by hosting Hyper-V on a virtual machine running in Hyper-V, leverage containers to abstract the OS, and implement high availability with failover clustering.