Hyper-V Server 2022

Hyper-V in the 2022 Wave

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 Stack HCI, Windows Server, Windows Client, and Xbox among others.

With the release of Windows Server 2022, Hyper-V is included as an in-box role in Windows Server 2022 Datacenter, Standard, and Essentials editions just as it has with previous releases for well over a decade.

We continue to innovate on-premises virtualization with a new product released in December 2020 called Azure Stack HCI.  Azure Stack HCI is a purpose-built virtualization host with deep hybrid integration.  It takes the Hyper-V host you know and love today and combines it with the power of Azure.  It takes those on their first steps in the journey to the cloud, empowers those who live in a hybrid world, yet is still familiar for those existing Hyper-V administrators in what you know and love.  The same tools, processes, and skillset can manage an Azure Stack HCI solution.

Azure Stack HCI is Microsoft’s premier hypervisor offering for running virtual machines on-premises.  We recommend that all customers using Hyper-V today evaluate Azure Stack HCI.  We have an exciting roadmap of features and innovation coming!

With the arrival of Azure Stack HCI, one change is that the free ‘Microsoft Hyper-V Server’ SKU which is a hypervisor host available for download is being discontinued starting with the 2022 version. 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.

For customers looking to do test or evaluation, Azure Stack HCI includes a 60-day free trial and can be downloaded here:  https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/products/azure-stack/hci/hci-download/.  Azure Stack HCI is billed through a subscription model which can be cancelled at any time.  

Microsoft remains committed to meeting customers where they are and delivering innovation for on-premises virtualization and bringing unique capabilities like no other can combined with the power of Azure.  We are announcing that there will be no Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2022 version of the free download, giving customers several years to evaluate, give feedback, and take their journey to Azure Stack HCI.

Thank you,
Elden Christensen
Principal PM Manager
Windows Server Development Team