For anyone on other clouds than Azure, it's incredibly hard to test out these new server releases, since that would typically involve building vms locally and then uploading to the cloud provider - some providers even don't support this because the generated vm version is an "unkonwn" type because of its new version. I'd urge Microsoft to supply an upgrade path, for example from a vanilla 2016 Core - this will make it much easier for a broader audience to test out the new bits.

Hi Trond, Thank you for the feedback! <waves magic wand> Ask and you shall receive!!! :-) We have just enabled In-place Upgrades, and it will be coming in the next Windows Server Insiders build which is released. This will simplify the process to upgrade from build-to-build. One question... usually when we think about the need for In-place OS Upgrades, it is for traditional applications. But I see that you are using containers, can you provide more details in what your scenarios are around containers and upgrading the images? Thanks!Elden

I guess an alternate aspect of this question is: How can I run the "Semi Annual Channel" releases on a cloud provider other than Azure? I have no idea how the "cooperation" between Microsoft and Amazon/Google is, but I would very much like some info regarding this. We're on AWS. I'd very much start building out labs for running Kubernetes on Windows, and right now it seems that I can't.

Awesome, that's really good news. Do you happen to know (cirka) when the next release will be? As for use case, it's quite simple: We run Kubernetes on AWS, and need to be able to provision Windows-based Kubernetes nodes.

Just to add a bit of context: On a "non-azure" cloud there's no such thing as a "semi-annual-release" version of Windows server. There's just windows server 2016 core or full, and that's that. It seems to me that these "release rings" are more fitting for an on-prem world than in the cloud - why would I be a part of a special "ring" or release cadence? I just want to provision vms and let them live for as long as I need them (an hour or a week or a month) before I terminate them and provision another when when I need to. If I decided to move from one major version to the next, I'll make sure I test my provisioning/deployment pipeline with that version before I start using it. I have no idea if it's the fault of the "other cloud vendors" or Microsoft, but imho these "release cycles" (is that the name?) seem counter-intuitive. I need to be able to trust that every time I spin up a Windows 2016 VM it will behave the same (albeit with the newest patches already installed), in the same way that I can trust that Ubuntu 16.04 stays the same and compatible. If there's a newer version of the OS I would expect that to be called "Server 2016.2 or "Server 2017" or something.

Responding to your question as to when the next build will be released - we'll post new images roughly ever two weeks to the Insider community during each development cycle, however, there are a number of factors that could affect the release schedule for preview builds including build stability, holiday schedules, etc. New builds are announced here and in the Feedback Hub application as well as on blogs. Stay tuned!

Please add upgrade packages | Microsoft Community Hub

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Spendon Gavekort
Copper Contributor
Dec 11, 2017
I guess an alternate aspect of this question is: How can I run the "Semi Annual Channel" releases on a cloud provider other than Azure? I have no idea how the "cooperation" between Microsoft and Amazon/Google is, but I would very much like some info regarding this. We're on AWS. I'd very much start building out labs for running Kubernetes on Windows, and right now it seems that I can't.
- Elden_Christensen
  Microsoft
  Dec 11, 2017
  Hi Trond,
  
  Thank you for the feedback!
  
  <waves magic wand>
  
  Ask and you shall receive!!! :-)
  
  We have just enabled In-place Upgrades, and it will be coming in the next Windows Server Insiders build which is released. This will simplify the process to upgrade from build-to-build.
  
  One question... usually when we think about the need for In-place OS Upgrades, it is for traditional applications. But I see that you are using containers, can you provide more details in what your scenarios are around containers and upgrading the images?
  
  Thanks!
  Elden
  - Spendon Gavekort
    Copper Contributor
    Jan 23, 2018
    I was really looking forward to this, until I saw the fine print of today's release: You can only upgrade from 1709, not the GA version. Which leaves me dead in the water.
    
    Please provide an update experience from the GA version of 2016 so that any user on any cloud can get access to the insiders builds. We have absolutely no local infrastructure, and I would hate to have to start building local hyper-v clusters just to be able to test a new OS.

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Please add upgrade packages

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