Hey guys,
Super quicky here. With Windows Server Tech preview 4 shipping now, we have a new release of Server Nano to play with. Ben Armstrong wrote a guide for tech preview 3, but the cmdlets have changed since then, so I figured I’d write this out to help you as well!
Step 1: Get the Server tech preview 4 media here
Step 2: Launch PowerShell, browse to the media\NanoServer folder. (In my case, Drive F:)
Step 3: In PowerShell run the following:
New-NanoServerImage -MediaPath F:\ -BasePath X:\Nano -TargetPath 'X:\Nano\VHD\NanoServer.vhd' -GuestDr ivers -Containers -EnableEMS -ComputerName Nano
Let’s break down those parameters:
- MediaPath – the Server TP 4 drive, in my case F:\
- BasePath – the staging directory, this cmdlet will dump a lot of stuff here to do its magic to convert the WIM into a VHD
- TargetPath – where to put the completed VHD
- GuestDrivers – this switch injects the Hyper-V guest Drivers
- Containers – want to try Docker Containers? Put this param in!
- EnableEms – want to play with the new Emergency Management Console for Nano? Sure you do, include this one too!
- ComputerName – Whatcha wanna call this new computer?
These are probaby the most important params.
If it worked, you’ll see something like the following
Now, be warned that this will create a .vhd, so you’re stuck with a Gen 1 VM, which really isn’t so bad, given how little Nano can do today :p
To boot her up:
My next step is to do domain join, and see what all we can load up on her!
Hi, if you change the target path name to .vhdx, it creates it as a gen2 machine. This is weirdly 170 odd MB bigger though. 500 MB exact on my machine for a gen1 nano server with IIS and 672 MB for a gen2.
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Thanks for the tip! I put mine on dynamic memory with a 100 mb minimum and 512mb startup. It idles at 200 mb!
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Nice, I really like it now that it has options for things like IIS and containers now, Nano server is shaping up to be a really amazing product.
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