---
title: Kubernetes v1.9 releases beta support for Windows Server Containers
date: 2018-01-09
slug: kubernetes-v19-beta-windows-support
url: /blog/2018/01/Kubernetes-V19-Beta-Windows-Support
author: >
  Michael Michael (Apprenda)
---

_At the time of publication, Michael Michael was writing as SIG-Windows Lead._

With the release of Kubernetes v1.9, our mission of ensuring Kubernetes works well everywhere and for everyone takes a great step forward. We’ve advanced support for Windows Server to beta along with continued feature and functional advancements on both the Kubernetes and Windows platforms. SIG-Windows has been working since March of 2016 to open the door for many Windows-specific applications and workloads to run on Kubernetes, significantly expanding the implementation scenarios and the enterprise reach of Kubernetes.  

Enterprises of all sizes have made significant investments in .NET and Windows based applications. Many enterprise portfolios today contain .NET and Windows, with Gartner claiming that [80%](http://www.gartner.com/document/3446217) of enterprise apps run on Windows. According to StackOverflow Insights, 40% of professional developers use the .NET programming languages (including .NET Core).  

But why is all this information important? It means that enterprises have both legacy and new born-in-the-cloud (microservice) applications that utilize a wide array of programming frameworks. There is a big push in the industry to modernize existing/legacy applications to containers, using an approach similar to “lift and shift”. Modernizing existing applications into containers also provides added flexibility for new functionality to be introduced in additional Windows or Linux containers. Containers are becoming the de facto standard for packaging, deploying, and managing both existing and microservice applications. IT organizations are looking for an easier and homogenous way to orchestrate and manage containers across their Linux and Windows environments. Kubernetes v1.9 now offers beta support for Windows Server containers, making it the clear choice for orchestrating containers of any kind.  



### Features
Alpha support for Windows Server containers in Kubernetes was great for proof-of-concept projects and visualizing the road map for support of Windows in Kubernetes. The alpha release had significant drawbacks, however, and lacked many features, especially in networking. SIG-Windows, Microsoft, Cloudbase Solutions, Apprenda, and other community members banded together to create a comprehensive beta release, enabling Kubernetes users to start evaluating and using Windows.  

Some key feature improvements for Windows Server containers on Kubernetes include:  

- Improved support for pods! Multiple Windows Server containers in a pod can now share the network namespace using network compartments in Windows Server. This feature brings the concept of a pod to parity with Linux-based containers
- Reduced network complexity by using a single network endpoint per pod
- Kernel-Based load-balancing using the Virtual Filtering Platform (VFP) Hyper-v Switch Extension (analogous to Linux iptables)
- Container Runtime Interface (CRI) pod and node level statistics. Windows Server containers can now be profiled for Horizontal Pod Autoscaling using performance metrics gathered from the pod and the node
- Support for kubeadm commands to add Windows Server nodes to a Kubernetes environment. Kubeadm simplifies the provisioning of a Kubernetes cluster, and with the support for Windows Server, you can use a single tool to deploy Kubernetes in your infrastructure
- Support for ConfigMaps, Secrets, and Volumes. These are key features that allow you to separate, and in some cases secure, the configuration of the containers from the implementation