IIS Container images for Windows Server 2019 are now available

Now that Windows Server 2019 is generally available, we have published IIS container images for Windows Server 2019. You can pull the new Windows Server image via-

docker pull mcr.microsoft.com/windows/servercore/iis:windowsservercore-ltsc2019

As you may have noticed in the docker pull command, the image is now being served from the Microsoft Container Registry (MCR). Starting with Windows Server 2019 and going forwards, all new tags will be published exclusively to MCR. All existing tags have been syndicated from DockerHub to MCR.

If your existing Dockerfile begins by specifying microsoft/iis as the base layer as shown below-

FROM microsoft/iis:windowsservercore-ltsc2016
…

Our guidance is to move to adopting MCR as your base layer. You should change your Dockerfile to what’s shown below-

FROM mcr.microsoft.com/windows/servercore/iis:windowsservercore-ltsc2016
…

As part of this transition, we are only changing the source from where you download your images to MCR. DockerHub continues to be the preferred medium for container image discovery. I encourage taking a look a Steve Lasker’s blog post taking about the value proposition we can offer our customers through MCR.

IIS Images on Nanoserver are no longer supported

In the past, we’ve published IIS container images based upon the Nanoserver base image for sac2016 (microsoft/nanoserver). As outlined in the Windows Server Semi-Annual Channel Overview, microsoft/nanoserver:sac2016 has passed 18 months from it's original release date and is no longer supported. As a consequence, we have decided to stop publishing the IIS on Nanoserver image.

Existing images continue to be available, but we strongly caution against using them as they are no longer supported. Our guidance would be to recommend you move to the IIS images based on Windows Server Core.

We look forward to your feedback regarding these new changes. Let us know in the comments or send me a tweet.