Just three weeks ago, Microsoft made available Windows Server, version 1709, the first Windows Server (core only) release in the new Semi-Annual Channel release cadence.

Now, on Microsoft Windows Server Team is making available for Windows Insiders the first RS4 preview build 17035.

New Storage Spaces Direct: Feedback requested!

It is an important release because Microsoft not only brought S2D back, but new and important updates are added to it. Maybe, the most important is support for Data Deduplication for Storage Spaces Direct and ReFS. Microsoft announced that starting in this new build we’ll be able to save up to 50% of data footprint.

New Honolulu Technical Preview: Feedback requested!

As you know for sure, Project Honolulu is the new Server Management Experience platform based on REST APIs, a management gateway service and a powerful web UI. Project Honolulu Technical Preview 1711 Build 01003 is now available to Insiders too. Project “Honolulu” is the resulting of all significant customer feedback with support for both hybrid and traditional On-Premise environments. New Honolulu Technical Preview release includes:

Switch Embedded Teaming (SET)

Short of SCVMM, there was previously no GUI experience to configure Switch Embedded Teaming (SET), a new feature released in Windows Server 2016. With this new build, we will find this feature in the Virtual Switches tool. So cool !

Remote Desktop

With the remote desktop tool in the Server Manager solution, you can connect to your machine to complete scenarios that are not yet supported natively in Honolulu. If you want to configure a feature that has no GUI tool, connect with Remote Desktop and open PowerShell!

Windows 10 Client Management

You can now add Windows 10 client machines as connections in Honolulu, and manage them with a subset of tools in the “Computer Management”.

Data grid performance improvements

Microsoft have updated the grid in the Events and Certificates tools to offer a more performant control to be able to handle large datasets without loss in performance. In the next release, it will be updated across all tools.

How to get started, new features, and known issues

To test and evaluate new RS4 features, if you haven’t yet, sign up for the Windows Insiders program and navigate directly to the Windows Server Insider preview download page.

Another cool links:

As you can see, a lot of powerful solutions and technologies are upcoming! So, take time to test and evaluate new RS4 preview features for the next release in the Semi-Annual Channel and new Server Management Experience with Project Honolulu!

Enjoy,