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
Microsoft
Also... the same could be said about other vendors, such as VMWare's free ESXi hypervisor which (although limited) can be used commercially and was free both before and after Microsoft's Hyper-V free offering was made available.
There are myriad other examples of companies offering free, however limited, tiers of their product or service that hasn't seemed to cause them to all go out of business.
DavidYorkshire thanks for sharing your usecases.
Linux only.
Agreed Windows Server makes no sense. Windows Client is a good option.
It is not less stable or needs more updates. Same core OS, same Hyper-V. Eventually some special features missing like GPU pooling, now with Windows Server 2025.
VDI
Windows Client as a host might work if there is nothing in licensing terms that does not allow it.
Testing
Both Windows Client and Windows Server are best fit with github mslab which offer easy and near automated lab deployments. Try this with Proxmox. You cannot due lack of PowerShell Host to VM communication.
Hardware
Windows Client OS will work with Server hardware. You can put your RAID Controller into Bypass Mode and use Storage Spaces instead. Best with Windows Enterprise (needs Qualified OS + Enterprise addon or M365) With Windows 11 Enterprise you can leverage ReFS which is superb with storage Spaces and performance. The the only thing missing compared to Server is dedup and compression.
If you used Windows Server 2019 Hyper-V SKU with SAN, well not that good with Windows Client. It can use iSCSI though.
I don't want to appear stubborn, but seriously changing platform, I see no benefits, except higher complexity. Am I happy about Hyper-V SKU gone? Nope.
As soon you are hosting Windows Server VM this change does not affect anyone. It's an unfortunate side effect.
"You can consider Windows 11 and Hyper-V if you do not need much VM."
This would only apply if only you would need access, you had a sufficiently powerful local machine, and you weren't running on server hardware. In many cases, using a client version of Windows as the host really isn't suitable.
"The point is that's only for Linux workloads. For Windows Server licensing apply and so could favour Windows Server or Azure Stack HCI as a platform depending your licensing and needs. "
Plus manage with WAC your comment assumes your VMs are Linux only otherwise you have had to license Windows Server on Hardware anyway."
Not necessarily. I can think of three scenarios where Hyper-V server was useful:
- Linux (as you say) - and the same would apply to any other non-Microsoft OSs
- Client versions of Windows, either standalone or as part of a VDI setup. M365 E3 and above subscriptions allow running of W10/11 Enterprise in a VM
- Testing - Windows Server has a grace period before activation, and this is useful for short-term, non-production testing. E.g. you might want to create a VM to test some new GPOs before applying them to live systems, and the test VM could be created, the testing done and the VM deleted again within a few days and without it ever being activated
But we are where we are, and Microsoft is clearly not going to back down on this. VMWare is also not an option now. I've been doing some testing with Proxmox, as I'm sure others have too.
You can consider Windows 11 and Hyper-V if you do not need much VM.
The point is that's only for Linux workloads. For Windows Server licensing apply and so could favour Windows Server or Azure Stack HCI as a platform depending your licensing and needs.
Plus manage with WAC your comment assumes your VMs are Linux only otherwise you have had to license Windows Server on Hardware anyway.
RichardP63 i have Benchmarked it in 2017 and raised an issue. The problem was the same on Windows Client 1607. Fixed in 1703, so a release later but MSFT couldn't backport due reasons.
Windows Server 2019 has this fixed. Please configure Delivery Optimization for Windows Server 2019 or later.
Windows Server 2022 and 2025 inherit the same Servicing improvements as Windows 10/11.
Update packages are extremely small now and also incremental in Windows 11 23H2 and later as well as in upcoming Windows Server 2025. Does this help you?
As it's offtopic please do not Mark best answer in any case. Like is ok to show your agreement.
The problem is, that download of updates takes a lot of time even if you have a very fast internet connection and that the restart takes a lot of time. Something was broken there in Server 2016 - there were 40+ minutes blue update screen with no kind of activity on cpu/disk/network.- "Or, how about just running your workloads on HyperV under Windows 11? That works too, and it's not going anywhere, and it's just fine! AND FREE with your Windows 11 Pro license."
3 interests of hv server :
1) Free
2) Very low consumption
3) Minimum attack surface
No sense to use windows pro/ent for these 3 raisons, windows server for 1st and 3rd raisons.
I dont understand that :
"and VMware's demise in the wake of the acquisition is imminent" (translate in french hard to understand).
MS will buy VMWARE ? - I agree every single word you said. It is even nice of them to provide us the azure benefits. Still I cant afford to pay the server license… ㅠㅠ for my little home server(currently, 2019hyper-v).
Thank you again Elden_Christensen for engaging with this thread and dealing with all of the complaining that is being leveled unfairly at you. There is as always a large silent majority that I think is grateful for Microsoft and what it brings to the world.
I grew up with Microsoft, from BASCOM for the TRS-80 way back when, all the way through today. I'm a (small) customer, a (small) partner, and a (small) shareholder, so I look at this from lots of different perspectives. I used Hyper-V Server 2019, and was sad at the news as were many people (because who doesn't love free stuff?!) but I understand and agree that Microsoft can't be investing tons of money in giving away free things. It doesn't scale, and it doesn't help.
Everyone here needs to understand that Microsoft didn't celebrate this decision, any more than they might celebrate layoffs or any other trimming. They're not sitting around in some room going "Ha ha ha, let's get 'em!" They would much rather be all things to all people. But they just can't right now. It's clear they gave it long thought, and did this because they believed it would be in the best interests of everyone's future.
At the end of the day, many of us, myself included, want Microsoft to survive, and grow, and thrive, because Microsoft brings a lot of good to us all. And if that means shedding some free stuff, whether it's HyperV or SQL... or trimming in other ways, there are many out there who support Microsoft and want it to survive. I would hate to live in a world where Microsoft wasn't pushing technology ahead.
Elden_ChristensenI hope you will convey these things to your team. There are lots of us out here who appreciate Microsoft, and you specifically, and I at least want to make sure you know that.
For everyone else: If you are a home user, and can't afford anything at all, HyperV 2019 is not going anywhere. You can still get it! It's still supported. It's got 6 more years ahead of it - with an extended end date (I just looked) of January 2029. Go download it. Play with it. Have fun! It's still there!
Or, how about just running your workloads on HyperV under Windows 11? That works too, and it's not going anywhere, and it's just fine! AND FREE with your Windows 11 Pro license.
Or, if you're a home user but can't stand the thought of using a Hypervisor with ONLY six more years of support, grab something like XO.
For everyone else, the employees and the companies out there, we should all be paying for what we use. I can't get my dayjob to pay for squat, so they're on XO for now. But for my consulting stuff, I paid for a Datacenter 2022 license, and yes, it was expensive, but it was a worthwhile investment, and highly recommended.
But let's not be beating on the Microsoft rep because we don't like the fact that our lollipop isn't everlasting. Elden's doing us all a favor by even engaging here, and even if you don't agree with a corporate decision, he nevertheless deserves our thanks, not our derision.
- Of course, Microsoft can make any business decisions it deems necessary, but Hyper-V "generates zero revenue in return" is disingenuous at best.
Most companies don't develop, test, ship, certify, fix products or services that generate zero revenue.
That said, I accept that Microsoft has every right to make the decision it did. (Just not happy about it after having been available for about a decade). - Elden_ChristensenYup, there are strategic reasons for doing things as well. But the battle for the on-prem hypervisor of a decade ago is over and VMware's demise in the wake of the acquisition is imminent. So a shift in strategy, competitive landscape, and a lack of revenue... result in a shift in priorities and business decisions.
I think it is corporates’ decision. But i think up to 4 core(on-premises) should be free.
- Or Microsoft Office Online (free) or Microsoft Teams (free) or Visual Studio Community Edition (free) or Microsoft Security Essentials (free) or...
- oh... dur... Elden_Christensen, what about SQL Express? Is that being retired? That would make headlines.
- Microsoft also does it elsewhere themselves too - e.g. SQL Server has for a long time had a free 'express' edition with database size limitations.
