Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity Support and Service for
Windows Server 2019 Failover Clusters:
Planning, Deployment, Management and Troubleshooting
Windows Server 2019 is the self-hosted version of Microsoft's server OS. Microsoft Windows Server 2019 includes all the updates for Windows Server 2016 formerly offered only via the Semi-Annual Channel. Microsoft Windows Server 2019 features significant enhancements in capacity, throughput, manageability, security and compliance, application compatibility, Linux support, Kubernetes networking, and hybrid combinations of on-premises and cloud resources.
Headline new features of Windows Server 2019 are Windows Admin Center for centralizing the management of hybrid on-premises/cloud deployments, System Insights for utilizing advance predictive intelligence to manage on-premises networks, Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection Exploit Guard for host-intrusion defense, container networking using Kubernetes, Cluster Sets for building and managing massive non-stop scale-out clusters, and Storage Migration Service for simplifying the migration from outdated releases of Windows Server.
Progent can help you to configure Microsoft Windows Server 2019 with current versions of Microsoft's key apps by providing services that include Exchange Server expertise, SQL Server 2019 integration expertise, SQL Server 2017 upgrade support, Microsoft SharePoint 2019 planning and integration, and Office 365 hybrid integration expertise. Progent's consulting, troubleshooting and education support for Microsoft Windows Server 2019 are offered online and Progent also offers onsite services in major metropolitan areas throughout the United States and Canada.
Hybrid Cloud Integration with Microsoft Windows Server 2019
Microsoft Windows Server 2019 makes the Azure stack accessible to organizations of all sizes for creating onsite data centers, private clouds, or hybrid architectures that combine local resources with infrastructure and services hosted on the cloud.
Many of today's companies manage a combination of local and cloud-based IT assets to deliver the right trade-off of flexibility, affordability, performance, availability, and security/compliance they need. In some fields, regulations require that certain classes of resources and information be kept internally. In other cases, company policies or legacy applications necessitate line-of-business software to be hosted from a local data center. Microsoft Windows Server 2019 provides a cloud-friendly platform that permits you to build and manage productive hybrid ecosystems that seamlessly access resources spread across local facilities and the cloud.
Designing, building and managing efficient hybrid environments with Windows Server 2019 demands a broad array of knowledge and experience. This can be beyond the expertise of most in-house IT groups in smaller organization. Progent's team of experts offers as-needed access to the knowledge you require for any aspect of hybrid network implementation and management. Progent's Microsoft-certified and Cisco-certified consultants, project managers, and information security specialists can assist you to determine the benefits of Microsoft Windows Server 2019 for your organization and build a hybrid ecosystem powered by Microsoft Windows Server 2019 that offers maximum return on investment.
The Right Moment to Migrate
The introduction of Windows Server 2019 was accompanied by the notification of End-of-Support (EOS) status for Microsoft's popular Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2 platforms. The result is that there will be no additional security fixes on-premises, no other updates, no free support options, and no online technical updates. Consequently, security will be more challenging, maintenance costs may increase, and system reliability may suffer.
If your organization wants help moving up to Windows Server 2019 from WS 2008 or any other legacy version of Microsoft Windows Server, Progent offers the knowledge and experience to make your migration efficient, affordable, and on-schedule. Progent can help you:
- Inventory your applications and server roles on your current Windows Servers
- Migrate your virtual machines to the Private Progent Cloud or move to the latest version of on-premises Windows Server or to Microsoft Azure
- Optimize your configuration to reduce costs, manage assets, and enhance data security across hybrid applications
Microsoft Windows Server 2019 is offered in the economical Standard version and the high-end Datacenter version. The Datacenter version permits unlimited VMs while the Standard edition supports only two VMs. The Datacenter edition also includes advanced technologies like Shielded Virtual Machines, Network Controller, Host Guardian Service (HGS), Storage Replica disaster recovery, Software-defined Networking, and Storage Spaces Direct. Many of these technologies are discussed in Microsoft Windows Server 2016 consulting services.
Microsoft Windows Server 2019 has two deployment options: Server Core and Server with Desktop Experience. The Server Core option features a small footprint and has no local interface but handles all server roles. This "headless" version needs to be managed remotely, for example via Power Shell or Windows Admin Center. Server with Desktop Experience option is a complete installation and features a comprehensive graphical user interface (GUI) for local management. Progent's consultants can help your company to determine the editions and installation options best suited to your environment, understand Microsoft's licensing rules, and choose an optimal onsite, cloud-based, or hybrid network architecture.
Top New Features of Windows Server 2019
Windows Server 2019 offers enhancements in scale, performance, administration, Hyper-V virtualization, cybersecurity, hybrid networking, availability, orchestration, Linux co-existence, and other major enhancements. Versions of Windows Server 2019 acquired under the Semi-Annual Channel (SAC) model are updated twice annually, making enhancements available much sooner than with the LTSC model.
Microsoft Windows Server 2019 delivers substantial enhancements in capacity compared to Windows Server 2016:
| Scale Limit | Windows Server 2016 | Windows Server 2019 |
| Max raw capacity per cluster | 1 PB | 4 PB |
| Max raw capacity per server | 100 TB | 400 TB |
| Max number of volumes | 32 | 64 |
| Max size per volume | 32 TB | 64 TB |
Other headline enhancements in Microsoft Windows Server 2019 include:
- Cluster Sets is a technology that supports orders of magnitude increases in cluster nodes in a Software Defined Data Center by combining numerous smaller Failover Clusters into a single massive, uniformly managed interconnected topology. You can transparently migrate VMs throughout the Cluster Set fabric and control all facets of a Failover Cluster from initial deployment to decommissioning. Clusters joined in a Cluster Set can take advantage of added storage and memory in another cluster without requiring you to buy more hardware. CPU and storage resources do not have to be the same, and resiliency matches or exceeds traditional Failover Clusters.
Before Windows Server 2019, multiple Hyper-V clusters for virtual machines were complicated to manage and expand 
Microsoft Windows Server 2019 introduces Cluster Sets for centralized control of failover clusters - Storage Replica has been added to the Standard edition of Microsoft Windows Server 2019. Storage Replica offers advanced disaster recovery support and is discussed in Windows Server 2016 Storage Replica expertise. New capabilities of Storage Replica include a test failover function that enables managers to bring a target volume online temporally for testing and backup. In addition, administrators can now manage Storage Replica with the new Windows Admin Center, which provides a GUI utility for managing processes such as server-to-server and cluster-to-cluster replication.
- Storage Spaces Direct improvements include deduplication and compression for Resilient File System volumes, native support for persistent memory (PMem), support for using a consumer flash drive as a witness with dual-server clusters, increased scale (up to 4 PB for each cluster), twice the throughput for mirror-accelerated parity, outlier detection for physical disk latency, and the ability to increase fault tolerance by manually changing the limit of volume allocation. Microsoft's Storage Spaces Direct technology is discussed in Windows Storage Spaces Direct experts.
- Storage Migration Service simplifies the task of moving the volume data from legacy servers to newer releases of Windows Server or Azure. You can deploy Storage Migration Service to move to current physical devices or to VMs. The utility inventories Windows and Linux servers and their data; moves files, shares, and security configurations to their intended servers; and permits destination hosts to assume the identity of your legacy servers so users and apps can access existing data without making any changes. Windows Admin Center's graphical interface can manage multiple concurrent migrations.
- Broader Linux support allows organizations to host Ubuntu, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, and SUSE Enterprise Server on shielded VMs. Shielded VMs technology is described in Windows Server 2016 Shielded Virtual Machines consulting.
- Windows Admin Center is a new web-based application deployed locally for controlling servers, clusters, HCI infrastructure with Storage Spaces Direct, Windows 10 computers, and Azure-based virtual machines. Windows Admin Center can be used to manage Windows Server 2012 and later. Windows Admin Center is an "in-box" tool and so can be used to manage servers on private networks not connected to the public Internet. By publishing the Windows Admin Center gateway server to the public Internet, you can manage your servers safely from anywhere.
Windows Admin Center enables you to manage on-premises and Azure cloud VMs from a centralized console - Container networking with Kubernetes, the open-source management automation tool for Docker containers, includes improved capability like the ability to use embedded security tooling to guard both Windows and Linux services. For information about containers on Windows Server, visit Windows Server containers expertise.
- Duplicate Elimination and Data Compression for Resilient File System Volumes allows 10 times more data on a given Resilient File System volume. The ReFS file technology, introduced in Microsoft Windows Server 2012, combines silicon performance tiers for handling hot data along with HDD/SDD high-capacity tiers for scale and fault tolerance.
- Windows Defender ATP comes with Microsoft Windows Server 2019 as an integrated capability that needs no special activation fee and no agent software to install.
- Encrypted Networks is a function that encrypts data traveling between VMs interacting within subnets you have set to be Encryption Enabled. DTLS on the virtual subnet prevents anyone with access to the physical network from looking at, modifying, or faking network data. Data traveling between encrypted subnets is not encrypted.
- A USB Flash Drive plugged into your router can be assigned as a witness in two-server clusters under Storage Spaces Direct. With this low-cost, no-hassle solution, if a server fails and then recovers, the USB drive cluster can tell you which of the servers in the cluster holds the more current data.
Microsoft Windows Server 2019 allows a USB Flash drive to act as a witness in two-server clusters - Low Extra Delay Background Transport automatically avoids network traffic jams by consuming bandwidth only if the network is being sparsely utilized. LEDBAT allows an organization to send large, important updates across an enterprise network without degrading the performance of business-critical applications.
- System Insights uses advanced analytics to improve capacity planning. System Insights operates internally on every Windows Server 2019 instance and analyses performance stats and events to forecast capacity needs in important areas such as utilization for volumes, storage capacity, processing, and network traffic volume.
- Windows Time Service works with the modern time synchronization technique called Precision Time Protocol (PTP) and provides correct time during a leap second. Windows Server 2019 also offers time traceability and software time-stamping. These features provide improved accuracy and precision, allow compliance with UTC and other standards like as Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), and meet the requirements of various time-critical applications. Because network setup is challenging to support PTP, Network Time Protocol (NTP) is still the default time synchronization method for Microsoft Windows Server 2019.
Progent's Microsoft-certified consultants can help your business to design and implement an efficient migration to Microsoft Windows Server 2019 using a local deployment model or a hybrid on-premises/cloud-hosted architecture. Progent can assist you to use the new Storage Migration Service to cut down effort and cost from the project of migrating from legacy Microsoft Windows Server platforms as far back as Windows Server 2003, and Progent can assist you to benefit from the latest functions of Windows Server 2019 to enhance throughput, scale, uptime, and ease of management. Progent's Exchange Server 2019 consultants can assist you to implement Microsoft Exchange Server 2019 Mailbox and Edge Transport server roles and management tools, which depend on Windows Server 2019. Progent's SQL Server 2019 consultants can help you to configure Microsoft's primary database platform with Windows Server 2019 to handle your vital workloads in a leading-edge IT environment.
Progent's certified data security experts can help your company to follow best practices to build a modern information security environment that is seamless across local and cloud resources as well as mobile devices. Progent can help you to set up centralized and proactive data security monitoring and management using an effective combination of security solutions from Microsoft as well as other leading providers. Progent also can run cybersecurity assessments to make sure that your network meets government and industry information security mandates such as SOX, PCI DSS 3.2, and FedRAMP.
Progent's roster of Cisco-certified CCIE network infrastructure experts is one of the biggest of any independent IT support company in the U.S. Progent can help your business to design, deploy and maintain a resilient and affordable hybrid network infrastructure that incorporates the advanced high-availability and recovery technologies included with Windows Server 2019. Progent's disaster recovery and business continuity preparedness experts can help your company create and test an end-to-end solution for recovering rapidly from any anticipated disaster.
To help your business to support your Microsoft Windows Server 2019 and Hyper-V virtualized environment, Progent can provide a range of services like Windows Admin Center consulting, PowerShell programming, SC Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) hybrid cloud management expertise, and System Center Operations Manager (SCOM) integration. Progent also offers the ProSight family of remote monitoring and management outsourcing services that provide small and middle-size businesses an economical and effective solution for network management.
Progent's Remote Consulting and Debugging Services
Progent has 20 years of background delivering fast, advanced remote technical guidance and debugging expertise and has provided online support to clients in every state in the United States and throughout Canada. (Refer to Progent's Client Testimonials.) Progent also provides onsite assistance in major U.S. metropolitan areas. Progent offers on-demand support to help you to resolve challenging technical problems or comprehensive project management outsourcing support.
If you are looking for urgent online technical support from a Microsoft-certified expert, visit Progent's Online Support Services.
Contact Progent for Expertise with Windows Server 2019
To learn more about Progent's consulting support and troubleshooting services for Windows Server 2019, call
An index of content::
ProSight Email Guard Spam Filtering Services Technology Professional
Email Anti-fraud Intelligence Specialist
Progent's ProSight Email Guard solution uses the services and infrastructure of leading data security companies to deliver web-based control and world-class protection for all your inbound and outbound email. The hybrid structure of Email Guard integrates cloud-based filtering with a local gateway appliance to offer complete protection against spam, viruses, Denial of Service Attacks, DHAs, and other email-borne threats. The Cloud Protection Layer acts as a preliminary barricade and blocks the vast majority of threats from making it to your security perimeter. This decreases your exposure to external threats and saves system bandwidth and storage. ProSight Email Guard's onsite gateway appliance adds a deeper layer of inspection for inbound email. For outgoing email, the onsite gateway offers anti-virus and anti-spam protection, protection against data leaks, and encryption. The onsite security gateway can also assist Microsoft Exchange Server to monitor and safeguard internal email that originates and ends inside your corporate firewall.
Systems Support Cisco Switch
Cisco Security Consulting Group
Progent can provide fast online support from Cisco CCIE networking consultants. Progent's CCIE engineers can link to your environment using powerful remote diagnostic utilities to provide fast and affordable troubleshooting and repair of critical network problems.
Applications Consulting Microsoft Dynamics GP
Dynamics GP Software Development Integration
Progent's expert application designers and software developers can assist your company to create enhancements to Microsoft GP that address the special needs of your organization while retaining the benefits of seamless Windows integration. Progent can also offer help with a selection of development technologies that can be utilized to create integrations with Microsoft Dynamics GP. These integration tools include Dexterity, Modifier with VBA, Visual Studio Tools for Dynamics, Continuum, eConnect, Web Services for Microsoft Dynamics GP, and Integration Manager.
24-Hour Windows 2003 Server Support Outsourcing
After Hours Windows Server 2003 Consultancy
Progent's certified Windows 2003 Server consultants can provide computer support and IT consulting services for the complete family of Microsoft .NET Enterprise Servers, Microsoft Windows 2003 Server, and Windows Server 2000. Progent's Microsoft Windows Server 2003 migration, configuration, administration, and maintenance offerings include system design, installation, project management, on-site and remote network support and troubleshooting, Help Desk services, CISM-certified security consulting, comprehensive outsourcing, and cost-effective co-sourcing.
Microsoft Forefront TMG 2010 Online Consulting
Forefront TMG Firewall Consultant Services
Forefront Threat Management Gateway 2010 is based on the proven security capabilities of Internet Security and Acceleration Server 2006 and offers a easily administered web gateway that acts as a one-server platform for an array of security functions such as an application layer and network layer firewall, URL monitoring and filtering, malware inspection, intrusion protection, reputation services, VPN control, plus HTTP/HTTPS inspection. Forefront Threat Management Gateway 2010 provides comprehensive web security logging and reporting features, permits custom reporting powered by SQL Server, works with Active Directory to streamline policy enforcement, and can be installed as a virtual machine to cut expenses and enhance availability. Progent's Microsoft engineers can help you to plan and carry out pilot and production deployments; interface Forefront Threat Management Gateway 2010 with Windows Server 2008 R2, Active Directory, SQL Server, Microsoft Exchange Server, and Microsoft SharePoint 2010; install Microsoft Forefront Threat Management Gateway 2010 to run on a virtual machine with Microsoft Windows Hyper-V; and deliver ongoing consulting and repair services. Progent can also assist your organization to migrate economically to Forefront TMG 2010 from ISA Server.
Adaptive Security Device Manager Consultants
Cisco firewall IPS IT Services
Progent’s Cisco-Certified technology consultants offer professional PIX Firewall consulting services encompassing design, integration and maintenance of Cisco firewall and Cisco security products. The Cisco PIX 500 Security Appliance Series of Cisco firewalls delivers robust user and software policy enforcement, mutlivector threat protection, and safe access services. Ranging from small, plug-and-play desktop appliances for small businesses and home offices to scalable gigabit products, Cisco PIX firewalls offer a healthy level of protection, speed and reliability for business environments of all sizes. PIX firewalls are build around a proven, specially designed platform, PIX OS, minimizing potential OS-specific security vulnerabilities. The Cisco PIX Firewall has been awarded ICSA Firewall and IPsec certification plus Common Criteria EAL4 evaluation status. PIX firewalls deliver an array of integrated security and networking services, including powerful application-aware firewall services, VoIP and multimedia security, multi-site and remote-access IPsec VPN connectivity, intelligent access services, and flexible management solutions. Progent’s Cisco consultants can show you how to select and integrate any Cisco PIX 500 Series firewalls including the Cisco PIX 501 Firewall, the Cisco PIX 506 Firewall, the Cisco PIX 506E, PIX 515 Firewalls, the PIX 515E Firewall, the Cisco PIX 520 Firewall, Cisco PIX 525 Firewalls and the Cisco PIX 535.
Hyper-V 3.0 Virtual Server Technology Professional
Hyper-V 3.0 Server Technology Consulting
Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 Hyper-V improves virtualization in critical areas including multitenancy, agile network infrastructure, cloud support, expandability and performance, and fault tolerance. Progent's Microsoft-certified consultants can help your business to benefit from Hyper-V to install and maintain virtual servers to cut IT expenses and enhance productivity.
Select Topic: