This topic wraps us back around to our discussion about Nano Server and why it has partially disappeared as a Windows Server installation option. Before discussing the purpose that Nano Server now serves, let's take a quick look at the structure of a Windows-based container. Here is a graphic borrowed from a public slide deck that was part of a Microsoft Ignite presentation:
The lowest layer of a container is the base operating system. When spinning up a container, you need a base set of code and kernel from which to build upon. This base operating system can be either Server Core or Nano Server.
The next layer of a container is the customization layer. This is where the technologies that will ultimately be used by your application reside. For example, our containers may include IIS for hosting a website, PowerShell, or even something such as ...