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
I refuse to let internet controled remotely my servers.
It's Always the attack surface the pb.
Hyper-v server standalone, in current state, is the most perfect Microsoft system for maximum security.
If I can operate sub system or system through internet, you destroy that...
This azure is not for "on oremise" system.
In terms of basic licensing costs, having reviewed the issues raised in this thread, in summary there are just a few broad scenarios under which losing access to the dedicated Hyper-V Server SKU is going to have an impact on licensing costs or cause other issues while the option to run Windows Server Core Standard or Datacenter with the Hyper-V role still exists.
- It will no longer be possible to install or upgrade to a later version of Hyper-V Server on the hypervisor host without paying the upgrade cost for the latest version of Windows Server Standard or Datacenter. So you will no longer be able to run Hyper-V Server 2022 when you only have guest OSE licenses purchased for Windows Server 2019 or below.
- It will no longer be possible to use Hyper-V Server in situations where none of the guest OSEs are running Windows Server - for example, running all-Linux, or BSD, or other non-Microsoft services, or all Windows client operating systems in VDE deployments.
- In certain edge cases such as embedded scenarios where it is desirable to set up a hypervisor on servers with small amounts of storage such that disk space is at a absolute premium.
Some of the other scenarios people have raised:
- Would require additional licensing in order to be properly licensed in the first place (using a 'spare' Hyper-V Server for failing over Windows Guest OSEs, for example).
- Have an equivalent option under existing Windows Server licensing (using Windows Server Core with the Hyper-V role) with no additional licensing costs.
- Are not covered under the existing terms for Hyper-V Server anyway (using the Hyper-V Server for purposes other than those permitted in the EULA - i.e. to provide hardware virtualization services and run software to manage and service operating system environments on the licensed server).
It seems that Microsoft need to make Azure Stack HCI more palatable for enthusiasts, SMBs and nonprofits - or they need to work harder to advertise the option of the perpetual 'Windows Server' model for smaller deployments and nonprofits where the current Azure Stack HCI license model is just too expensive to make it worthwhile and they may feel forced to carry out an (in some cases entirely unnecessary) move to an alternative hypervisor.
