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
News from Ignite today:
New benefit for Software Assurance customers
Today we’re introducing a new Azure hybrid benefit for Windows Server customers.
We heard your feedback that you want to adopt Azure Stack HCI, but you’re already locked into a Software Assurance contract for Windows Server Datacenter. That’s why, effective today, Enterprise Agreement customers with Software Assurance can exchange their existing licensed cores of Windows Server Datacenter to get Azure Stack HCI at no additional cost. This includes the right to run unlimited Azure Kubernetes Service and unlimited Windows Server guest workloads on the Azure Stack HCI cluster! See the licensing terms for full details.
This new benefit dramatically reduces the cost of modernizing your Hyper-V environment to Azure Stack HCI.
Activate the benefit directly from the Azure Portal on your cluster’s Configuration page
https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/azure-stack-blog/what-s-new-for-azure-arc-and-azure-stack-hci-at-microsoft-ignite/ba-p/3650949
Elden_Christensen This is good news, although note that this is for Enterprise Agreements. Are there any plans to extend this to other licensing models such as Open License and Open Value Subscription?
ChrisAtMafElden_ChristensenI, too, am curious about this. I purchased Windows Server 2022 without SA or CALs because I am the sole user. I needed some integration that my Linux servers do not fully provide/support.
My understanding is that I cannot simply install the Hyper-V feature without GUI and use it as a type 1 hypervisor, like Hyper-V server, and run my Windows Server 2022 as a VM. I would need to purchase another Windows Server 2022 license to do this, correct? I will look into Azure Local. My biggest frustration is cloud dependency. My home is my office and my NOC, and the only fail over internet access I could get would be 5G/LTE. Switching to Spectrum Business would be the exact same SLA and equipment path to the backbone. I have my rack because I prefer on-prem with policy routing for split tunnel wire guard/OSPF site-to-site for some special needs.
So as to not derail the thread, is there a way to discuss more separately, either via thread or .... Teams? I've pulled away from MS server/azure since around earlier 2019 and I am curious what sort of integration with Azure hybrid might work for me. Utilizing my free tier Azure is fine, but one reason for on-prem is that azure/AWS/gcp/IBM/Oracle data buckets with hybrid failurover/HA compute machines would likely result in a net loss. I still need to look at HCI
Thanks for your dedication to this thread, even if none of us are happy with the elimination of Hyper-V server.
Hi Elden,
I think you should clarify your message as people are linking here thinking if they license a Hyper-V server with Standard Edition you can run unlimited Linux VMs.
The license for 2 VMs is per OSE
Microsoft define an OSE as:
Operating system environment (OSE) means all or part of an operating system instance, or all
or part of a virtual (or otherwise emulated) operating system instance which enables separate
machine identity
By that definition when licensing Windows Server for Hyper-V you neede to license it for each Windows Server VM and any other OS such as Linux.
Love to hear your take - thanks,Alex
- Elden_Christensen
Microsoft
Guest OS licenses depends on the edition you choose. If you have Standard, then it includes 2 guest OS licenses. If Datacenter, then it includes unlimited guest OS licenses.
So yes, you can install the Hyper-V role on your Windows Server. Then create a VM and install another instance of Windows Server in the VM. You can also run all the Linux VMs you want.
Thanks!
Elden
