2016 Nano Server - Proxies

[ekisner]

It would be handy to run the proxies on a Nano Server install. I fully recognize that Nano was never intended to be an application server, but to me it makes perfect sense. Veeam manages the proxies entirely. I don't think I've even logged into my proxies in the better part of a year, I just right-click the VMs and do a guest reboot once a week. The reduced OS footprint would be nice. The reduced updates would be even better so.

The way I see it, the only limitation would be 32 bit binaries with the removal of WoW64.... and of course the lack of an MSI installer would require porting the installs to Windows Server App Installer.

Thoughts?

[nefes]

Please don't consider my answer as official, it is just my personal thoughts.
Nano server lacks most of windows APIs, so to make any windows program work on Nano, especially the one that intensively interacts with low-level OS layer, will require huge re-working of that program.

[dellock6]

I believe you can gain comparable savings in regards of footprint using Core installations, many of our customers use Windows Core as proxies and it's also something we suggest usually for the same reasons you listed. And there's no new code needed, it works right now with both Windows 2012 and 2008.

[Gostev]

Re: backup proxy on Nano - we've done the research last year and this is quite doable from Veeam perspective, however it requires that VMware rewrites VDDK first because the latter is currently based on the deprecated VDS API that did not make it into Nano.

[damadhatter]

Would you put this OS on the same host as your VM's?

[yasuda]

Re: backup proxy on Nano - we've done the research last year and this is quite doable from Veeam perspective, however it requires that VMware rewrites VDDK first because the latter is currently based on the deprecated VDS API that did not make it into Nano.

Anton, what about a pure Hyper-V environment? Are there any blockers there?

[Gostev]

Absolutely not, which is why in 9.5 we will fully support Hyper-V hosts running on Nano with our existing "on-host" backup mode (when backup proxy runs on the actual host)

[paoloatuniurb]

Re: backup proxy on Nano - we've done the research last year and this is quite doable from Veeam perspective, however it requires that VMware rewrites VDDK first because the latter is currently based on the deprecated VDS API that did not make it into Nano.

News? I'll setup a new infrastructure in 2017 feb. and nano may be an option. TYL. Paolo Cecchini

[veremin]

It's not possible to install VMware proxy role on Nano server, if that's what you're asking for. Thanks.