Windows Server 2022: Perspectives and New Features of the Operating System

Windows Server is a series of server operating systems developed by Microsoft, with its history dating back to 1993 with the release of Windows NT 3.1 Advanced Server. Since then, Microsoft has regularly released new versions, incorporating current features and improvements. In the fall of 2021, the latest version was released, Windows Server 2022, aimed at providing a high level of security, reliability, and integration with the Azure cloud platform in the era of hybrid infrastructures and modern threats.

 

Key Editions of Windows Server 2022

The new version is available in several editions, differing in supported roles and maximum configurations:

  • Windows Server 2022 Standard — a universal edition for physical and virtual environments, supporting up to two virtual machines and one Hyper-V host.
  • Windows Server 2022 Datacenter — an extended edition for large virtualized and cloud environments with unlimited virtual machines and advanced networking capabilities.

Key Security Enhancements

The main feature of Windows Server 2022 is the Secured-core server multi-layer security system. It provides comprehensive protection at the hardware, firmware, and virtualization levels:

  • Hardware-level protection is implemented using TPM 2.0 to store sensitive data and UEFI Secure Boot to control the bootloader’s integrity.
  • Firmware-level protection utilizes DMA protection to isolate driver access to memory and DRTM to detect rootkits in microcode.
  • Virtualization security is ensured by VBS technologies for isolating critical processes, HVCI for kernel integrity control, and KDP for protecting hypervisor memory regions.
  • Network security is enhanced by supporting TLS 1.3 at the OS level, DNS query encryption via HTTPS, AES-256 encryption for SMB traffic, and the ability for SMB to operate via the QUIC protocol.

Improvements in Application and Container Platform

The Windows container platform has received several significant enhancements:

  • Reduced the size of container images by up to 40%, resulting in faster startup speeds by 30% and reduced overhead.
  • Added support for group Managed Service Accounts (gMSA) without the need to join a domain, as well as compatibility with MSDTC and MSMQ.
  • Implemented support for hardware-accelerated DirectX-based graphics in containers for machine learning scenarios and high-performance computing.
  • Simplified deployment of .NET applications in containers with an updated version of Windows Admin Center.

Performance and Scalability

Windows Server 2022 raises the scalability bar, allowing for up to 48 TB of RAM and 2048 logical processor cores across 64 physical sockets. Support for new Intel Ice Lake processors with SGX technology opens up possibilities for confidential computations in trusted enclaves.

The network stack performance has been improved in several areas:

  • Accelerated TCP protocol interaction using HyStart; optimized UDP traffic processing through hardware offloading of segmentation (USO) and packet aggregation (RSC).
  • Implemented support for SMB traffic encryption in hyper-converged systems based on Storage Spaces Direct.
  • Improved performance of Hyper-V virtual switches through hardware offloads.

Innovations in Data Storage

The Storage Spaces Direct component has received several significant enhancements. Recovery after failures has been accelerated through optimization of the data resynchronization process between nodes. A new API for creating ReFS file snapshots operating in copy-on-write mode has been introduced. Automatic tiered caching on SSDs speeds up access to hot data when using Storage Spaces on individual servers.

Compression mode has been added to the SMB protocol, increasing data transfer speeds over the network. Simultaneously, support for the AES-256 algorithm for encrypting all SMB traffic between nodes in a resilient cluster has been introduced.

Other Significant Improvements

Among other notable innovations in Windows Server 2022 are:

  • Automatic recovery from failures caused by installing incorrect updates is achieved through the rollback of problematic packages.
  • Support for importing CIFS resources from NetApp arrays for migration to Windows file servers using the Storage Migration Service.
  • Acceleration of dynamic Hyper-V virtual machine migration through parallelization of operations on multiple threads.
  • Replacement of Internet Explorer with Microsoft Edge in server roles with graphical interfaces.

Deployment and Licensing Scenarios

The choice of Windows Server 2022 edition depends on specific needs and workloads. For small companies with basic file servers, Standard is suitable, while large organizations with virtualization and remote desktop scenarios should consider Datacenter.

Licensing is still based on the number of physical processor cores, with 16 cores being the minimum requirement for each server. The Datacenter edition traditionally includes unlimited virtualization rights, while Standard allows for up to two virtual machines per license.

Conclusion

Windows Server 2022 represents an important step by Microsoft towards modern information security challenges and the needs of organizations for flexible and efficient IT infrastructure. All of this makes Windows Server 2022 an attractive choice for both traditional and cloud and container workloads.

The main scenarios for transitioning to the new version include:

  • Replacing outdated servers based on Windows Server 2012/2012 R2, full support for which ends in 2023.
  • Defining the future direction of local infrastructure development for organizations planning tighter integration with the cloud.
  • Deploying hyper-converged systems and enterprise-level software-defined storage.
  • Transitioning to modern information security standards and perimeter protection.

Microsoft positions Windows Server 2022 as a platform for creating a hybrid and multi-cloud data center of the new generation and securely connecting local infrastructure to Azure services. Therefore, migrating to the new version will be most justified for organizations considering cloud integration as an integral part of their IT strategy.