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
MicrosoftSzeraax Thank you for the thoughtful feedback. For kicking the tires and trying it out we currently have two options:
1. Free Trial - This was originally 30-days, but we bumped it up to 60-days based on feedback. I've even seen some customers script rebuild test systems to reset the trial timer. Azure Stack HCI 60-Day Free Trial Now Available | Azure updates | Microsoft Azure
2. Preview Channel - The Preview Channel gives early access to bits, but is not supported in production and comes without CSS support. Join the Azure Stack HCI preview channel - Azure Stack HCI | Microsoft Docs
Note: We also heard the feedback, which is important for your scenario to support 1-node... that's coming soon.
Do either of the above suit your home lab needs? If not, do you need full functionality? What if there was a mode that had significantly reduced functionality but allowed basic VM hosting? Such as maybe removing enterprise grade / production critical features... like clustering / HA? VM mobility? DR capabilities?
Thanks!
Elden
Yes. That's what significant portion of people here would love to see. Separate product "Azure Stack Lite" or installation option, without the features you mention (although keeping VM migration would be sweet), and provide that product on the same licensing terms as Hyper-V Server 2019.
As I wrote before, we have currently handful of Hyper-V Servers both in lab and production, that VMs (licensed in various ways) get moved onto and out as needed. And there's currently not a good and proper way forward with this scenario without incurring additional licensing costs.