Chapter 1, Getting Started with Windows Server 2016, gives us an introduction to the new operating system and an overhead view of the new technologies and capabilities that it can provide. We will also spend a little bit of time exploring the new interface for those who may not be comfortable with it yet.

Chapter 2, Installing and Managing Windows Server 2016, dives right into the very first thing we will have to do when working with Server 2016, install it! From there, we will start to expand upon Microsoft's centralized management mentality, exploring the ways that we can now manage and interact with our servers without ever having to log into them.

Chapter 3, Core Infrastructure Services, gives us a solid baseline on the technologies that make up the infrastructure of any Microsoft-centric network. We will discuss the "big three"—AD, DNS, and DHCP—and also address some Server Backup capabilities as well as a cheat-sheet list of MMC and MSC shortcuts to make your day job easier.

Chapter 4, Certificates in Windows Server 2016, jumps into one of the pieces of Windows Server that has existed for many years and yet the majority of server administrators that I meet are unfamiliar with. Let's take a closer look at certificates as they become more and more commonly required for the new technologies that we roll out. By the end of this chapter you should be able to spin up your own PKI and start issuing certificates for free!

Chapter 5, Networking with Windows Server 2016, begins with an introduction to that big scary IPv6, and continues from there into building a toolbox of items that are built into Windows Server 2016 and can be used in your daily networking tasks. We will also discuss Software-Defined Networking.

Chapter 6, Enabling Your Mobile Workforce, takes a look at the three remote access technologies that are built into Windows Server 2016. Follow along as we explore the capabilities provided by VPN, DirectAccess, and the Web Application Proxy.

Chapter 7, Hardening and Security, gives some insight into security and encryption functions that are built into Windows Server 2016. Security is the top focus of CIOs everywhere this year, let's explore what protection mechanisms are available to us out of the box.

Chapter 8, Tiny Servers, throws us into the shrinking world of headless servers. We will take a look at both Server Core, which has existed for years unbeknownst to many IT personnel, and also at Nano Server, which is brand new for Server 2016.

Chapter 9, Redundancy in Windows Server 2016, takes a look at two different platforms in Server 2016 that provide powerful data and computing redundancy. Follow along as we discuss Network Load Balancing as well as Failover Clustering.

Chapter 10, Learning PowerShell 5.0, gets us into the new, blue command-line interface so that we can become comfortable using it, and also learn why it is so much more powerful than command prompt. PowerShell is quickly becoming an indispensable tool for administering servers, especially if you are interested in Nano Server.

Chapter 11, Application Containers and Docker, brings the terms open source and Linux into a Microsoft book! Let's figure out together why Microsoft thinks this new containers thing is going to be such a big deal, and try out some of the new tools that we will have to learn in order to start using these containers to enhance our DevOps story.

Chapter 12, Virtualizing Your Datacenter with Hyper-V, covers a no-brainer topic to learn when working in a Microsoft network. Organizations have been moving their servers over to virtual machines in mass quantities over the past few years. Let's use this chapter to make sure you understand how that hypervisor works and gives you the resources needed to build and manage one if and when you have the need.

Each technology that we discuss within the pages of this book is included in or relates directly to Windows Server 2016. If you can get your hands on a piece of server hardware and the Server 2016 installer files, you will be equipped to follow along and try these things out for yourself. We will talk about and reference some enterprise-class technologies that require stiffer infrastructure requirements, and so you may have to put the actual testing of those items on hold until you are working in a more comprehensive test lab or environment, but the concepts are all still included in this book.

We will also discuss some items that are not included in Server 2016 itself, but are used to extend the capabilities and features of it. Some of these items are provided to us by Azure, such as the Server Management Tools, and some are provided by third parties, such as in the case of using Docker to interact with your containers. Ultimately, you do not need to use these tools in order to manage your new Windows Server 2016 environment, but they do enable some pretty cool things that I think you will want to look into.

Anyone interested in Windows Server 2016 or in learning more in general about a Microsoft-centric datacenter will benefit from this book. An important deciding factor when choosing which content was appropriate for such a volume was making sure that anyone who had a baseline in working with computers could pick this up and start making use of it within their own networks. If you are already proficient in the Microsoft infrastructure technologies and have worked with prior versions of Windows Server, there are some focused topics on the parts and pieces that are brand new only in Server 2016. On the other hand, if you are currently in a desktop support role or if you are coming fresh into the IT workforce, care was taken in the pages of this book to ensure that you will receive a rounded understanding not only of what is brand new in Server 2016, but what core capabilities it includes that are carry-over from the previous versions of the operating system, but are still critical knowledge to have when working in a Microsoft-driven datacenter.

In this book, you will find a number of text styles that distinguish between different kinds of information. Here are some examples of these styles and an explanation of their meaning.

Code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles are shown as follows: "Now instead of using a simple dir, give this command a try: Dir | Format-List."

A block of code is set as follows:

Get-WmiObject –Class Win32_OperatingSystem –ComputerName localhost | Select-Object –Property @{n="Last Boot Time";
e={[Management.ManagementDateTimeConverter]::
ToDateTime($_.LastBootUpTime)}}

Any command-line input or output is written as follows:

route add –p 192.168.1.0 mask 255.255.255.0 192.168.0.254 if 12

New terms and important words are shown in bold. Words that you see on the screen, for example, in menus or dialog boxes, appear in the text like this: "Next you simply press the Submit button."

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