It's been less than a month since Microsoft last released a preview build of Windows Server to Insiders in the form of build 18344, but the company is at it again today. Build 18346 is now available for download, though it comes without much in the way of new features.
The single new addition in today's release is that the Hyper-V Manager (Virtmgmt.msc) is now compatible with the Server Core App Compatibility Feature on Demand (FoD). This means you can now create and connect to virtual machines using the feature. Microsoft also notes the added support for the Task Scheduler, though this was actually added in build 18344.
Aside from that, there's a a single bug fix in this release, which addresses an issue where Remote Desktop Preview was not be able to connect to ServerCore and ServerACore SKU's. There's also a long list of known issues in this release, some of which are new:
- (New) Error after remoting to machine with RDP post FOD installation. The error message indicates immediately that the remote session has ended with potential reasons, followed by a black RDP screen. This only impacts remoting to a physical machine with Server Core + FOD.
- (New) Applies to App Compat FOD MMC.exe only: Multiple Active Directory Users and Computers snap-ins added to the same MMC.exe instance could show inconsistent or no data on part of the snap-ins after adding extra columns to the UI view. Wokaround: for UI user management, use a separate MMC for each ADUC (DSA.MSC) snap-in.
- A local user’s last logon time output from “net user username” may not be recorded even when the user has accessed the server’s network share.
- Scheduled startup tasks may fail to run. An event is logged, ID 101 with the error code ERROR_LOGON_FAILURE when the failure occurs.
- A virtual machine may not report all virtual fibre channel (vfc) LUNs after powering on if there are 2000+ vfc LUNs. WMI queries from the host show the LUNS available. Restarting the VMMs may show the LUNS again as available.
- DCPromo fails if the interface metric of the physical NIC is larger than Loopback Interface.
- Third-party password filter dlls may not be notified when the local Administrator account’s password was changed.
- [New] Attempting system image recovery from an image located on a network share may result in error “A specified logon session does not exist. It may already have been terminated”
- Server FODs are not retained after in-place (or B2B) upgrade.
- Domain Controller rename updates incorrect attributes in AD leaving orphaned data behind (ValidateSPNsAndDNSHostNameActual). This can be reproduced by adding a new FQDN, setting it as primary, restarting the domain controller, then removing the current FQDN. Checking the msDS-AdditionalDnsHostName, msDS-AdditionalSamAccountName and servicePrincipalName attributes will incorrect values.
- Invalid file may be created in %Systemroot%\System32\LogFiles\Sum by User Access Logging.
- Self-service users cannot install Feature on Demand (FOD) packages and Language Packs for Windows Server Update Service (WSUS), System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM), and Autopilot scenarios.
- A container host may become unresponsive due to a deadlock when attempting to mount a volume. On an affected system, Docker hangs on all commands.
- When a Windows Defender Application Guard container crashes, the resulting type of dump may be unexpected.
This build is part of the semi-annual release channel for Windows Server, which should get a public update sometime this spring. As we draw closer to a final release, Microsoft seems to be focused on ironing out any issues.
You download the latest build of Windows Server Insider Preview here, along with the accompanying builds for the Server Core App Compatibility FoD and the Language Packs. In addition, you can download Windows Admin Center 1902, which was released to Insiders just a couple of weeks ago.
