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
MicrosoftIf Azure Stack HCI does not meet your needs, would love the feedback in how we can make it better.
Thanks!
Elden
Elden_Christensen I use windows server 2019 hyperv on my home server like dev. Server. Lightweight, I love it! So sad to see windows server 2022 hyperv is not available.. hopefully in next version I wish that you guys bring it back.
SpenceFoxtrot We looked into XCP-NG and Proxmox to replace our Hyper-V Server usage, and found the following two missing features at this point in time:
- Support for more recent products / features e.g. Docker, WSL 2, Microsoft Connected Cache / EFLOW (the new WSUS https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/deployment/do/waas-microsoft-connected-cache, https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/iot/iot-enterprise/azure-iot-edge-for-linux-on-windows), and Virtualization-based security (https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/security/threat-protection/device-guard/enable-virtualization-based-protection-of-code-integrity) all of which require Nested Virtualization support. We found that support for this is patchy at best in XCP-NG and Proxmox https://xcp-ng.org/forum/topic/4643/nested-virtualization-of-windows-hyper-v-on-xcp-ng https://forum.proxmox.com/threads/nested-virtualization-gpu-passthrough-causes-vm-crashes-bluescreens.119564/ and currently has issues like only supporting AMD or Intel CPUs which are ‘very recent’ properly, blue screens and performance issues. We didn't see evidence that resolving these issues was easy or considered a priority by the community, and since Docker is definitely the future for any server apps, this seemed pretty worrying.
- Full support for full disk encryption (i.e. BitLocker) https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/security/information-protection/bitlocker/bitlocker-overview which is included in Hyper-V Server but an outstanding issue for both XCP-NG https://github.com/xcp-ng/xcp/issues/463 and Proxmox
If you don't care about future-proofing support for nested virtualisation / Docker and/or encryption, you may find that XCP-NG/Proxmox are perfect for your needs.
- I use docker for temp VMs. 😉
First, any mini pc consum 200w all time.
Same for normal pc.
Second, you NEVER keep on the management pc.
You open, you do your job, and you close the management pc.
The only management interface keep on, is the hypervisor, and the management VM if exist.Last, it was not an order, it's a typical way to manage :
Never do administration on the main... Only for loud maintenance
SpenceFoxtrot you cant tell what i need or not. I am using my mini home server(200W) running 24/7. If I use my main pc(650W), I have to use x3 electricity
I think this is the wrong approach. Do I disagree with the decision to discontinue HV server, Absolutely! For several reasons I've posted in this thread over the past several months. The costs at the end of the day are paid by the client, and it is what it costs. Those costs aren't any different even, just now bundled between software and hardware. As long as you are running one single Windows Server VM, than I don't see any reason whatsoever to not do Server Core w/HV role.
- With moving to xcp-ng, as user, what is missed you of hyperv ?
I know there is the surface attack increasing with webbrowser management (I hate that).
But, functionnality, what is lost (from hyperv) ? - Your response is exactly why MS is making this move.
Move on and prove them wrong. We already are across our entire install base. We're moving to XCP-NG. The discussion is over, it's happening. It is a bad move in many opinions but we don't make the decisions.
Move on - You don't need windows "SERVER" for that.
You can do use windows 10 pro. You can use hyperV platform.
You can RDP to Hyperv server without any GUI on the server.
It's the safer hypervisor with lowest attackable surface, lower resources comsuption.
No useless role. Only Hypervisor.
It's a very bad news and a big lost this SKU was no longer update in futur. DavidYorkshire you dont understand how convenient to use windows server with hyper-v. As a windows user , I can rdp to my server update and restart and use hyperv manager (gui) handle all the resources in the server.
- You obviously haven't read many scenarios presented on the last 10 pages here.
But I will repeat one: One of our customers run Hyper-V Server 2019 and regularly swaps various licensed VMs on it. While licensing allows them run the 3rd virtual host only instance of the licensed Servers, installed as you described, it certainly wouldn't pass audit if caught mismatched, i.e. the guests version and key not matching the host(s). Hyper-V Server 2019 alleviated that concern significantly for them. - He is saying if your using a free guest OS like Linux, why should you pay for the hyper-v hypervisor just for that.
The Linux minded person would just say kvm/proxmox or some other opensource flavor. Though I did know some Linux guys that liked the free version of hyper-v for clustering, live migration etc which at the time the Linux flavors didn't have an answer for. Since Microsoft changed plans on the hyper-v only version of windows so did they. - Thought my point was fairly clear, and no I'm not saying what you state! To clarify, if you are running Linux VMs you don't need a license for the VMs, but if you are using the standard/datacentre editions of Windows Server as the hypervisor hosting those VMs then you do need a license for that hypervisor (whether running the full desktop install or the Core install - it doesn't make any difference). With Hyper-V Server you don't need a license for the hypervisor.
Given that this whole discussion has been about licensing of the hypervisor...
DavidYorkshire wrote:I expect everyone reading this is aware of that - the issue is licensing: if you are running Linux workloads or using it as a test server with trial licenses, or as a VDI host running client OSs, you don't need any Windows Server licenses with Hyper-V Server whereas you do with Standard / Datacentre, in all cases.
Did you mistype? Are you saying if I have a Server 20xx server running Hyper-V role, and then I create a Linux VM under it, that we have to pay for some kind of licensing for it? I don't believe you are correct here, citation? What SKU is that to run a Linux VM on a HV Role'd Server?
I expect everyone reading this is aware of that - the issue is licensing: if you are running Linux workloads or using it as a test server with trial licenses, or as a VDI host running client OSs, you don't need any Windows Server licenses with Hyper-V Server whereas you do with Standard / Datacentre, in all cases.
Download Windows Server 2022 and install the Core Edition on a physical machine.
Then add the Hyper-V feature from PowerScript.
You now have a Hyper-V Hypervisor.
(I could post commands if needed)
Yes it's not free as before, but won't you buy at least a one Windows Server 2022 Standard License ?
I also setup a AWS bare metal instance,
installed Windows Server 2022 Core,
remote via RDP and then added the Hyper-V feature
I created a test VM and also took a backup of it:
You can check our video here: https://youtu.be/-mvIZZiBkuk?t=5
It's a Windows Server 2022 Datacenter Core with Hyper-V.
In other words a typical Hypervisor Hyper-V.
We have developed a free community backup software for Hyper-V 2012 and later that runs on the Hyper-V itself, offering a GUI to manage backups.
- Elden_Christensen
Eelvlee To be really clear, the ONLY change is that Microsoft is no longer giving Hyper-V away for free.
If you are using Windows Server there is no change, this is only a discontinuation of the free 'Microsoft Hyper-V Server' product. I apologize that we have a product that has the Hyper-V feature name in it and the incredible confusion this is causing. 😞
The Hyper-V feature is critical to Microsoft, we are committed, and heavily investing, there is no change to the Hyper-V feature.
"Windows" server 20xx hyperv don't exist.
It's :
Hyperv server 20xx (and it's stop now with 2019 as last version)
Or
Windows server 20xx with role (feature) hyperv (and continue life as 2022).
Most of us are going on KVM or proxmox.
