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Thank you for joining us this week for the Windows Server Summit! Q&A is now closed, but all sessions are available on demand so you can watch and learn when it is convenient for you. We hope you enjoyed the event.
Considering the WinRE patching, will Windows Server 2025 create a larger, let's say 1 GB WinRE partition on fresh installation or IPU?
This move could avoid the issues we have right now in the field when patching WinRE.
Additional question: Will IPU patch / replace existing WinRE content, so customers can considered be safe (for now) in this area?
For audience not familiar with this topic, I've recently written an article about that highlighting solutions.
https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/windows-server-for-it-pro/guidance-for-windows-recovery-partition-winre-patching-and-why/m-p/4060887- will WU Update require me to deploy wsus/arc enable my server if i had 1 server to upgrade or what requierments/prerequisites are needed
- Rob-Hindman
Microsoft
WSUS and Arc are not requirements or prerequisite to get the Windows Server 2025 Feature Update using the Settings Dialog or SConfig - only connectivity to Windows Update should be required. We plan to enable the Settings Dialog in Windows Server 2019 and Windows Server 2022 to receive the Windows Server 2025 Feature Update when it is published. We plan to enable SConfig on Windows Server 2022 to receive the Windows Server 2025 Feature Update when it is published. Customers running a volume license and KMS will not need to purchase a product key to activate Windows Server 2025 after the Feature Update completes. Customers running retail or OEM versions of Windows Server 2019 and Windows Server 2022, however, will need to purchase a product key to activate Windows Server 2025 after the Feature Update completes.- thank you 🙂
What do you think about including setupdiag into the routine and running it when upgrade fails, in addition to presenting the error code? Can the setupdiag binaries, if not already included into the previous OS, could be updated with the setup process when it is searching for dynamic updates?
- Rob-HindmanThis is a good suggestion that we can explore for future releases! Thank You.
- When checked documentation last, Azure Arc did not support in-place upgrade, which would hinder the great news when Adaptive Cloud / Hybrid Cloud is adopted by customers. Is Azure Arc Connection Agent this still a blocker in supporting IPU?
- seems like this is gone. Downloaded the current docs as PDF and cannot find this anymore. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-arc/overview
With the unclear (delayed) roadmap on Exchange on-premises, are you considering to support in-place upgrade of the Windows Server OS when Exchange is installed?
This was previously not supported.
Very understandably as back in the time with Exchange 2013 / 2016 / 2019 there were many under the hood dependencies like mainly PowerShell 2>5.1, eventually .net 3.5 > 4.x, IIS, IE10 > 11.
Do you believe this could be lifted when upgrading Exchange 2019+ to WS 2025?- Rob-HindmanThe Exchange Server team only support Clean OS installations. They have pointed me to this document: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/exchange/plan-and-deploy/plan-and-deploy?view=exchserver-2019
Thank you for your confirmation and asking. Remain hopeful the Exchange Team could investigate the limiting factors and follow the notable example the Windows Server team set. Could imagine that the constrains are fewer. Another one to dislike / not supporting IPU is Citrix. True for PVS Service, Delivery Controller and Storefront, Virtual Apps and Desktops (VAD). Currently it is fine to uninstall their software packages, upgrade the WS fleet and install theirs again. They have their reasons. Same with Exchange I hope that these limitations could be lifted with some good coffee and cookies 🙂 Have good weekend ahead!
- I really hope this works as advertised. I'd probably do a little additional prep work, such as disabling any AppLocker policies and removing 3rd-party malware/behavior anomaly detection products.
- Rob-HindmanI encourage Windows Server customers to try and test Feature Update (In-place OS Upgrade) by using scratch or lab machines (or VMs). We have been testing these features internally, and external feedback so far has been positive. While there are some edge-cases, and while it is not 100% perfect, I'm confident that Feature Update is a viable option for most Windows Server customers.
Usually when doing IPU, Windows Server and Windows Client including "flighting insiders", I encounter that the upgrade will bring back all "optional featues" I have removed, like ISE, WMIC, Math Calculator etc.
Do you plan to avoid this in the future, so removed optional feature remain removed, or is there an intention to bring these back?- Rob-HindmanWe have not addressed this issue yet - we hope to address this in a future release. Apologies for the inconvenience!!!
- Thank you very much!
- N-4 in-place upgrades, are you serious? WOW that's huge! Seems like the under the hood work in servicing deals out now. AMAZING!
- Hope the upgrade experience is better than with WS 2022 - here I have multiple systems which report "an error" before the first reboot happens. The same system upgraded from 2016 to 2019 in one case worked, further attempt to go to 2022 failed again.
- Rob-HindmanWe are always focusing on improving Feature Update, and we are trying to make it easier for our customers. This is a great article for troubleshooting upgrade errors: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/deployment/upgrade/resolve-windows-upgrade-errors. Please reach out to me if you encounter an upgrade issue that you can't diagnose.
