In August 2023, I tried out a preview version of Windows Server vNext and was quite disillusioned with the new features. Now it's a new year and something has changed in the Windows Server vNext version. I have therefore tested the current build 26010 of Windows Server vNext and have to reaffirm a few of my statements. from August correct. So here is a short article on the current build:
There are now new features in Active Directory in build 26010. A new overall structure and domain function level has been introduced:
With the new function levels, the Active Directory database page size is increased from 8KB to 32KB. The larger page size makes it possible to store more and larger attributes per object in the Active Directory. In addition, the Active Directory will be able to scale better in very large environments in future.
The new Active Directory version also includes improvements to security and monitoring. An overview of the new features in Active Directory can be found here:
Another new feature was previously only available in the Windows Server Azure Edition: SMBoverQuic. Using SMBoverQuic, file servers can be made directly accessible on the Internet via HTTPS and the Quic protocol without a VPN.
Windows Server vNext will also support HotPatching. HotPatching allows Windows updates to be installed very quickly and without rebooting. This was previously a feature reserved for Windows Server Azure Edition. With Windows Server vNext, this now also works with onPrem servers, but these must be Azure Arc enabled.
There are also further innovations in Hyper-V, failover clusters and containers. There are some very interesting innovations in Hyper-V, so it is apparently worth taking a closer look thanks to Broadcom. Hyper-V seems to be able to catch up with vmware vSphere in some important features. So there is still a lot going on with Windows servers.