Forum Discussion
Hyper-V Server 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
MicrosoftFree '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
Elden_Christensen I'll risk a final bit of noise to say Thank You for making this clear. We're all doing the best we can - we just need to know, clearly, what the situation is. And now we do. Thank you for that.
Thank you also for answering all the other questions. For myself, I'll be looking at Server 2022, and ASHCI, and watching with great interest as Microsoft rolls out new products and features.
OMG,
Why is this conversation even still something that ding's in my email... Let's lay it out real quick (ok, turned out long) for people not caught up on the last 3+ years or so of conversation. (Yes I had issues with hardware vs software lifecycles I had to deal with... (in 2021!?); done... Years ago)..?
1) If you do not have a single Windows Server VM in your environment, Don't run Hyper-V. That's it... just don't do it? Why would you? Move along...best wishes?
2) If you have Windows VM's in your environment that are not S2022, run HV2019, done... You've already done the hard part and licensed the S2003-S2019 VM's 'Somehow'(right?)...
3) If you have S2022 VM's in your environment; run S2022 core w/HV role installed. DO NOT count this HV as a Server in your licensing for Windows Server VM's. The HV with no other roles installed Does Not count towards your S2022 workloads. It Doesn't Exist from a licensing perspective if it's Only a HV role is installed. (which is exactly the same as HV2008,HV2012, R2, HV2016, & HV2019) Nothing Has Changed.? (why are we still talking about this?!?!?)
4) License your Windows Server is based on the number of physical cores that can be assigned to Any VM on a HV (16c minimum). You get two VM's per Server Standard Lic. (don't count the HV server doing HV ONLY), by the time you cross ~7 vm's, you're better to go with Datacenter and get unlimited VM's on the physical box. (Clarity, a physical server with 16 or less physical cores, can run S2022 with nothing but the HV role, that serves no purpose than running up to two Windows Server 2022 VM's, with unlimited Linux VM's. All with a default Server Standard 2022 license for the physical box)
5) In any scenario beyond #1, where you do not have any single Windows Server VM above S2019, go ahead and run 39,6732 VM's of any other operating system (arbitrary number). You ONLY LICENSE YOUR WINDOWS VM's.
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If you are "Testing", "Lab", "Pre-production", "doing something anywhere that is not in production, making money, learning, or anything other than using Windows Server to run a functioning organization. Download and install an evaluation and run that... Bonus, every three year you are forced to learn about how to do a new migration to the next version of Windows Server Eval, which you need to practice anyways if you're an IT professional....
===========***You Do Not Pay for the physical box running your VM's. The Hypervisor role is, and Always Has Been "Included" (not free because you pay for the VM's). You pay for the Production VM's running workloads that your business (or client businesses) need.
This is not a "cash grab", this is not the end of the world, this is day to day changes in IT infrastructure. License your sh*t, NOTHING has actually changed if you're running Windows VM's in your environment beyond how you install the hypervisor.OMFG
F*kJacobW1195 uhh that was a weird flex but ok.
- "It's the year of give us your money and shut up. Follow us like the sheep you are!"
Which is why I use Linux virtualization. It has the added benefit of supporting containers
(Freedom of speech is a protected right) Didn't see any impact from all our use-cases for various things needed or issues with the plan with HCL - at all. Bummer, 2022 looks like the year of "pound-sand/kick-rocks" from MS on pretty much every front it appears.
So long and thanks for all the fish
