800 MB is the required minimum when installing Windows Server 2016 as a VM.Īs often is the case, the minimum hardware requirements quoted by Microsoft rarely come close to mirror what’s actually needed to run production boxes. RAM: 512MB or 2GB for a Desktop Experience installation.The CPU must support NX, DEP, CMPXCHG16b, LAHF/SAHF, PrefetchW and second-level address translation. Have a look at this link to learn how each edition differs from the rest.Īs far as hardware requirements go, Microsoft’s documentation suggests the following. Windows Server 2016 also comes in 3 editions Essentials, Standard, and Datacenter. Nano server has recently been refactored to primarily support and run containers. The latter is Microsoft’s headless server, one that is completely managed remotely with no local logon capabilities making it a perfect solution cloud deployments. Windows Server 2016 comes in 3 flavors Server Core (no GUI), Server with Desktop Experience (with GUI) and Nano Server. For something a little bit more advanced in relation to installing Windows Server on VMware, you can take your pick from the complete list of published posts to date.

This step-by-step how-to install Windows Server 2016 on VMware vSphere guide is aimed at readers who have yet to install a Windows OS on a VMware hypervisor. In today’s post, I’ll be showing you how to install Windows Server 2016 on VMware ESXi with Desktop Experience on an ESXi 6.5 U1 host managed by a vCSA 6.5 U1 instance.

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