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DavidYorkshire's avatar
DavidYorkshire
Iron Contributor
Aug 16, 2021
Solved

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 ...
Hyper-V
windows server
  • Elden_Christensen's avatar
    Elden_Christensen
    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

     

Elden_Christensen's avatar
Elden_Christensen
Icon for Microsoft rankMicrosoft
Oct 21, 2021
Hi Brian, for you migration plans... is there a reason Azure Stack HCI or Windows Server 2022 Standard edition or Windows Server 2022 Datacenter edition are not viable? While I understand the attractiveness of free, I'm trying to understand what blockers you have from a technology perspective. There are many options with SKU's that have a rich Hyper-V platform.

Thanks!
Elden
imschmidt's avatar
imschmidt
Brass Contributor
Oct 21, 2021

Elden_Christensen 

Hi Elden, 

 

As I've previously noted, the biggest problem with this model is you're tying the Hypervisor licensing to the VM licensing. You can't do a hardware migration to a newer hypervisor unless the you have licensing for All the VM's updated at the same time. ie: We regularly have HV servers running 2012-2019 VM's. We can deploy HV2019 to them, without purchasing new licensing for the 2012's at the same time. In our new hardware deployments we're going to have to purchase licensing for VM migrations planed 18-24 months out. 

 

We can't use S2022 core, to host 2012 VM's without buying S2022 licensing for them on day one.

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