This chapter is designed to provide you with an introduction to Windows Server in general, and Windows Server 2016 in particular. Windows Server 2016 is the server's operating system developed by Microsoft as part of the Windows NT family of operating systems and developed concurrently with Windows 10. Besides introducing Windows Server, right at the beginning of this chapter, there is a reminder of the very basic concepts of computer networks. So, this chapter is organized into two parts, where each part attempts to provide a concise yet complete description. Definitions such as hosts, nodes, peer-to-peer, and clients/servers are covered in the Computer Network Overview section. In contrast, the Windows Server Overview section uncovers the essentials of Windows Server in general and Windows Server 2016 in particular.
In this chapter, we will cover:
- Understanding hosts and nodes
- Understanding clients and servers
- Understanding network architectures
- Understanding IP addressing and subnetting
- Windows Server overview
- Identifying Windows Server 2016 editions
- Identifying minimum and recommended system requirements
- Downloading Windows Server 2016
