What Is Nano Server?

Nano Server is a headless (meaning there is no user interface on a monitor), 64-bits-only deployment option for Windows Server 2016. Microsoft created this server “component” specifically with two key scenarios in mind:

Image As a key component of cloud fabric (Azure) and infrastructure (Hyper-V host, clustering, networking, storage)

Image As a deployment option for applications that are born in the cloud (Platform-as-a-Service v2 and ASP.NETv5 applications)

How is Nano Server different from Server Core discussed earlier in this chapter? While Nano Server shares similarities with the Server Core option introduced in Windows Server 2012, Nano Server is leaner than Server Core (it’s twenty times smaller than Server Core). A smaller OS results in fewer operating system components to maintain with fewer security exposures than the current Windows Server operating systems.

Nano doesn’t support a graphical user interface at all, and unlike Windows Server Core, it doesn’t support console login locally or via RDP (the remote desktop protocol). All operation and management is performed remotely via WMI, PowerShell, and Remote Server Management Tools.

In addition, your traditional GUI-based applications cannot run on Nano Server. The operating system does not support the traditional installation of software and products like MSI (Windows Installer) are not supported either.

So what is Nano Server good for?

Image As a “compute” host for Hyper-V virtual machines, stand-alone and in clusters

Image As a storage host for Scale-Out File Server

Image As a DNS server

Image As a web server running Internet Information Services (IIS)

Image As a host for applications that are developed using cloud application patterns and that will run in a container  or in a virtual machine guest operating system