How to run a Windows 11 VM on Hyper-V
Happy new year everyone! Last month, before the holidays I wanted to run a Windows 11 VM on Hyper-V to run a few tests on Windows containers in a different environment than my local machine. However, it took me some time to get that VM up and running, simply because I forgot about the new hardware requirements for Windows 11 and that I had to get them configured before I installed the new OS in it. This blog post is my contribution so you don’t have to go through the same!Using WSL 2 on Windows Server 2022 to run Linux containers
Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 (WSL 2) is one of the most popular features for developers on Windows 10 and 11. It has recently been made available on Windows Server 2022. With this addition, you can now run Linux containers on WSL 2 on Windows Server 2022 for development and testing purposes.Everything you need to know about containerizing existing apps on Windows
It’s been almost 7 years since we released the first version of Windows containers on Windows Server 2016. I was there to watch the launch and remember even the early adopter versions. So much has changed since then. However, there’s one thing customers have asked since then that we haven’t really addressed in writing – A complete guide on what can be containerized on Windows containers.How to Manage Containers with Windows Admin Center
As a Windows admin you know that managing containers is not as easy as managing VMs. Using PowerShell commands, writing docker files, and so on is a daunting process - specially if you want to containerize an existing application. Just recently we launched an update to the Containers extension in Windows Admin Center and today I wanted to give you a tour of the new functionality!5 tips for IIS on containers: Bonus – IIS remote management
While the intent with the Microsoft Ignite session and this blog series was to provide 5 tips for running IIS workloads on Windows containers, we could not leave this one out – so here’s a bonus blog post for you! Many times when containerizing an existing application with Windows containers, you’ll get caught on the process of writing a Docker file, to then build a container image, to then run a new container, to then test if the application work… and if it fails, you have to start all over: re-write your Docker file, then build a container image, then run a new container, then test if the application work. Depending on how complex your application is structured, this will be a tedious process. To solve that, sometimes all you need is to open the IIS MMC console and check how the configuration of your website is showing up. However, the IIS remote management is not available on Windows containers. Since this is just an additional feature, all you have to do is to enable it. Before we get started though, keep in mind this is something you can use while developing/testing your application. This should not be used in production.5 tips for IIS on containers: #3 Hardcoded configuration
We’re getting into the third topic of our blog post series about IIS on Windows containers. In case you missed, check out the blog on SSL certificate lifecycle management and IIS app pools and websites. Today, we’re covering hardcoded configurations on IIS. This blog post covers the concept on IIS, but the idea is that any type of workload going into a container and running at scale on a Kubernetes environment should follow these best practices.Upgrading your container app from Windows Server 2019 to 2022 on Azure Kubernetes Service
If you’ve been playing with containers, the thought of upgrading to a new OS version might seem way too simple: Isn’t it just change the FROM statement on my docker file? You’d think so, right? In reality, moving from one version of Windows to the next on a managed K8s cluster, such as Azure Kubernetes Service, requires you to look at many other aspects. From a Kubernetes standpoint you need to ensure docker file, node pool, node selector, and yaml files are correctly configured. However, from an application lifecycle standpoint, there’s much more to look at: Active Directory (gMSA) integration, node pool access on other resources, Azure Key Vault integration, just to name a few. In this blog post we will cover some of these aspects so you can properly plan your upgrade from Windows Server 2019 to Windows Server 2022 on AKS.5 tips for IIS on containers: #1 SSL certificate lifecycle management
Today, my colleague Amy Colyer and I are starting a new blog series based on our talk at Microsoft Ignite 2022. In the session we covered 5 tips for containerizing IIS applications with Windows containers. On that 45-minute session, we covered the management challenges on IIS that customers face today and how Windows containers and Azure Kubernetes Services can help with IT Ops practices. In this blog series, we will explore these tips in more detail. We will go over the management challenges, how Windows containers and other Azure services can help, and how to implement these in detail.Adding optional font packages to Windows containers
Customer feedback is the main driver for the Windows container team when planning new features and improvements to the platform. Since we launched containers in Windows Server 2016, customers have told us how a slim container image impacts the overall performance. With that in mind, we removed as much of the base container images as we could, including components such as fonts – which in most cases is not relevant. In the past few months, we also heard your feedback about scenarios that do need these fonts back for applications to properly work. Today we’ll cover how you can add fonts back to Windows containers on the Server Core base container image in a way that is supported for both Windows Server 2019 and 2022.
