Forum Discussion
DavidYorkshire
Aug 16, 2021Steel Contributor
Hyper-V Server 2022
Anyone know whether there will be a Hyper-V Server 2022? i.e. the free version which is just for running VMs and has no GUI? I've seen mentions on forums that this SKU is being dropped, but not ...
- Mar 25, 2022
Free 'Microsoft Hyper-V Server' product update
Since its introduction over a decade ago in Windows Server 2008, Hyper-V technology has been, and continues to be, the foundation of Microsoft’s hypervisor platform. Hyper-V is a strategic technology for Microsoft. Microsoft continues to invest heavily in Hyper-V for a variety of scenarios such as virtualization, security, containers, gaming, and more. Hyper-V is used in Azure, Azure Local, Windows Server, Windows Client, and Xbox among others.
Starting with Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2019, the free ‘Microsoft Hyper-V Server’ product has been deprecated and is the final version of that product. Hyper-V Server 2019 is a free product available for download from the Microsoft Evaluation Center: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/evaluate-hyper-v-server-2019
Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2019 will continue to be supported under its lifecycle policy until January 2029, see this link for additional information: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/lifecycle/products/hyperv-server-2019.
While Microsoft has made a business decision to no longer offer the free 'Microsoft Hyper-V Server' product, this has no impact to the many other products which include the Hyper-V feature and capabilities. This change has no impact to any customers who use Windows Server or Azure Local.
For customers looking to do test or evaluation of the Hyper-V feature, Azure Local includes a 60-day free trial and can be downloaded here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-local/ . Windows Server offers a free 180-day evaluation which can be downloaded from the Evaluation Center here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter
Microsoft remains committed to meeting customers where they are and delivering innovation for on-premises virtualization and bringing unique hybrid capabilities like no other can combined with the power of Azure Arc. We are announcing that Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2019 was the last version of the free download product and that customers begin transitioning to one of the several other products which include Hyper-V or consider Azure.
Thank you,
Elden Christensen
Principal Group PM Manager
Windows Server Development Team
asdlkf
Aug 30, 2021Brass Contributor
Again, as an MCSE: Cloud Platform and Infrastructure (I am literally certified on microsoft hypervisor platforms), I know the difference between the SKUs and licensing models.
I am very disappointed to hear that the Microsoft Hyper-V Server is being discontinued.
I know the Hyper-V feature in windows server is alive and well; I am not misunderstanding the statement.
To be clear: I am disappointed the free hypervisor only non-licensed product Hyper-V Server is being discontinued. It was a valuable product and it served a specific purpose: Allowing densification of virtual machines on stand-alone servers with active-directory integrated authentication and no additional licensing.
Stop redirecting or pretending this is a good thing. Microsoft is discontinuing the only "free and unlicensed" way of perpetually using Hyper-V without using windows. Plain and simple.
I am very disappointed to hear that the Microsoft Hyper-V Server is being discontinued.
I know the Hyper-V feature in windows server is alive and well; I am not misunderstanding the statement.
To be clear: I am disappointed the free hypervisor only non-licensed product Hyper-V Server is being discontinued. It was a valuable product and it served a specific purpose: Allowing densification of virtual machines on stand-alone servers with active-directory integrated authentication and no additional licensing.
Stop redirecting or pretending this is a good thing. Microsoft is discontinuing the only "free and unlicensed" way of perpetually using Hyper-V without using windows. Plain and simple.
Elden_Christensen
Microsoft
Aug 30, 2021Hi asdlkf,
I appreciate the passion, but please take a deep breath. I was responding to Mirza who was confused between the Hyper-V feature and the Microsoft Hyper-V Server SKU.
Microsoft Hyper-V Server still required licenses for the Windows Server guests running on top. Unlike Windows Server Datacenter which includes the guest licenses. So I'm a little confused by your statement that it was completely free.
I thank everyone for their feedback, I recognize change is hard and taking away anything which might have been perceived as completely free is unpopular. I would love any specific feedback around the scenarios, and we can look at how to incorporate them into Azure Stack HCI. I thank the several people who have take the time to do so already!!!
Thanks!
Elden
- MinkusMeOct 05, 2021Copper ContributorHi Elden,
In terms of specific feedback on the shift from Hyper-V Server to Azure Stack HCI as the 'premier hypervisor platform', here's a viewpoint as someone who recommends hypervisor solutions for systems operated by multinational nonprofit sites.
Obviously Microsoft's focus is now 'cloud first', but from the perspective of entities that operate in the developing world, dependence on the cloud (with the dependence on reliable, low-latency, higher-bandwidth Internet connections to work well) is less of an option - there's no point having all your virtual machines in the cloud if you're running over an unreliable 3G or satellite link. Since budgets are limited the cost of a hypervisor is also a key ingredient.
Azure Stack HCI fails on a number of levels:
x Double licensing - we have to license the hypervisor, *and* the Windows Guest virtual machines. This just makes it a complete no-no for nonprofit deployments.
x Dependence on the cloud - if Internet connection is down for a significant period of time this could cause issues (the 30 day disconnect is probably OK - but would be important to ensure this is not reduced/removed at any point to keep it viable).
x Microsoft's do not provide discounts for Azure nonprofits in the same way as they are provided for 'perpetual' products such as Windows Server - instead of a per-item discount, all that is offered is a $3,500 grant. Unlike the perpetual nonprofit discount, this does not scale with the size of the deployment. I can understand why this is the case for normal 'cloud' products - there is no difference in the variable costs (power, connectivity, HVAC, hardware etc) Microsoft need to purchase when providing an Azure product to a nonprofit, whereas perpetual products represent a fixed cost to Microsoft as they are run on-premises - just licensing. However Azure Stack HCI is mostly a fixed cost to Microsoft - it is run on-premises - but for nonprofits it has no discount, like the other cloud products. To put it another way, we can afford to run 1x Azure Stack HCI instance as a non-profit - using the $3,500 annual grant - then we pay full whack for the rest. If Azure Stack HCI was offered at zero/low cost for individuals / nonprofits it would be massively more successful.
x In general you haven't taken into account the fact that Azure Stack HCI is an on-premises product, priced in a cloud fashion. Subscription pricing and the cloud model just don't work well in the scenarios I've described, and having looked into it we had to rule it out as an option, despite the fact it's obviously a good product.
Hope this helps in your future evaluations.- Elden_ChristensenOct 05, 2021
Microsoft
Great feedback, thank you for taking the time to provide such detailed and constructive feedback. Education is also in this same category. We are thinking about it, no announcements at this time... but THANK YOU
- MinkusMeOct 07, 2021Copper Contributor
You're welcome. I can see why Education would be in the same boat!
One other thing that I would add is the 'minimum two node per site' requirement for Azure Stack HCI also mitigates against using it in small, remote branch offices (again, a nonprofit may not have the space or cash to deploy two devices in a remote office and would just rely on redundant PSUs and resilient storage for basic failover) so while understanding this means less redundancy, would be good for Azure Stack HCI to be developed standalone as well.
- adam_schildmeyerSep 22, 2021Brass ContributorOne other great use case was when working at a large hosting scale for an enterprise or even medium business.
Example -
If I have 5000 windows VM's and 2000 Linux VM's does it make sense to co-mingle those on the same hosting effectively reducing efficiencies in windows licensing capacity? Those linux VM's in great number are taking away spots where Windows Server VM's could be.
So Since I'm already hosting AD and Hyper-V clusters using Datacenter edition it would make sense at a larger scale to build a dedicated cluster for running Linux VM's with the (Free) version of Hyper-V with the capability to cluster and tie it to the same AD as what my Windows Server Datacenter cluster is running.
I might of had 8+ hosts for those VM's when all combined in one cluster but now I might have a cluster of 5 hosts for the Windows VM's and 3+ hosts for linux VM's using the free version of Hyper-V. I just saved myself in software licensing for something that shouldn't need Datacenter Edition licensing.
If Azure Stack HCI were to be a true replacement for that scenario it would still need clustering and the capability to utilize SAN storage through iSCSI, FC or SMB. If you are investigating Azure Stack HCI as being a free replacement to what Hyper-V server edition was please consider that scenario. - bakker_erikAug 30, 2021Copper ContributorHyper-V server free was also great if you had a VDI environment running Windows 7/10. you only had to license the Windows 7/10 machine's and you could use the free hypervisor to run them on.
also my homelab ran on 4 hyper-v boxes using the free software. on it where 180 day eval versions of Windows server that I re-deployed almost every week (hence: the lab)
that's gone now. I could still use 2019 server (support till 2029) but everybody knows that a really geek/nerd wants to run the LATEST software and not an older version.
'providing a free hypervisor to run linux on was not Microsofs business goal' ?
.. what's the OS of most of the VMs that run on azure then? linux... that's right. and most of my clients vm's on-prem where also linux - asdlkfAug 30, 2021Brass ContributorHyper-V server was not perceived as completely free.
It was completely free.
Just like ESXi is completely free, in perpetuity, when not connected to vCenter or using certain features.
This is a direct competative disadvantage when trying to sell Hyper-V related architectures and solutions to clients. I can no longer propose "we'll start with the free Hyper-V server to get you started and add on Windows Server licensing, System Center licensing, and other related licensing as you grow".
Now, we basically have to price-compete with "well, you need datacenter licensing for everything so we just set the price floor at $5k licensing per host".- Elden_ChristensenAug 30, 2021
Microsoft
Hi asdlkf,
I read your Reddit post and there is one more piece of great feedback you had in there, which is: What about standalone hosts (not clustered)? So you are right, today Azure Stack HCI requires 2+ hosts and requires HCI (meaning Software-defined Storage and optionally SDN). We are looking to change that! As I said above, our goal is for Azure Stack HCI to be the premier hypervisor platform for HCI and beyond. That includes allowing 1-node hosts as well as customers who want a choice in storage, such as SAN or NAS external storage. We are working on it, that's great feedback!
Thanks!
Elden- DavidYorkshireAug 30, 2021Steel ContributorA 1-node system, where the user has no need for Azure integrations, is pretty much functionally the same as Hyper-V Server - but with monthly licensing fees.
Afraid you've really not convinced me (or seemingly anyone else posting on here) that this is a good move. I'm sure Azure Stack HCI is good for some use cases, but for what many of us are using Hyper-V Server for it simply isn't - we just want a basic, on-prem hypervisor. I will probbaly be moving my standalone test servers to ESXi instead. The downside of this is that they will no longer be able to manage the basic USB-connected UPS units we use with them (Windows-only management software), but I'm sure I can find a workaround (such as an old W10 box running the management software, and a shutdown script).