Anyone know whether there will be a Hyper-V Server 2022? i.e. the free version which is just for running VMs and has no GUI?
I've seen mentions on forums that this SKU is being dropped, but not found anything official.
Thanks
Aug 16 2021 08:28 AM
Anyone know whether there will be a Hyper-V Server 2022? i.e. the free version which is just for running VMs and has no GUI?
I've seen mentions on forums that this SKU is being dropped, but not found anything official.
Thanks
Feb 16 2023 10:36 AM
Feb 16 2023 10:41 AM
Feb 16 2023 10:48 AM - edited Feb 16 2023 10:50 AM
I think it is corporates’ decision. But i think up to 4 core(on-premises) should be free.
Feb 16 2023 10:54 AM
Feb 16 2023 11:16 AM
Feb 16 2023 11:21 AM
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.
Feb 16 2023 11:43 AM
Feb 16 2023 12:26 PM
May 07 2023 01:48 PM
@DavidYorkshire If you want to run a newer, free hypervizor. If HyperV 2019 is not suitable. Then run vmware esxi 8. Its free, to run a single server hosting it. Without vSphere running vCenter etc.
You need to register for a free license:
The license key can be created for free at VMware's website. It has no expiration date and the binaries you will receive as "Free Hypervisor" are 100% identical to the paid version but with some software limitations.
Nov 29 2023 12:33 PM - edited Nov 29 2023 12:33 PM
After the Broadcom/VMware news I thought I'd check back into Hyper-V since someone mentioned things had gotten much better than the 08/2012 versions. Then found this thread when looking for the latest, hah.
Guess I'll look at proxmox or ride out esxi until its gone too.
Nov 29 2023 12:46 PM
@SQLSlacker there has been considerable innovation in the last decade. Thinking of what Hyper-V was in it's first release is not accurate. We just announced the next set of features coming to vNext at Ignite a week ago: What’s New in Windows Server v.Next (microsoft.com)
This thread discusses the discontinuation of giving Hyper-V away for free with the "Microsoft Hyper-V Server" edition. Which has nothing to do with the Hyper-V feature. Hyper-V is foundational technology for Microsoft, it's the foundation of Azure, XBox, Windows Server, Windows 11, Azure Stack HCI, and more. Do not confuse the decision to no longer give it away for free, with our commitment and investments in the Hyper-V feature.
Thanks!
Elden
Nov 29 2023 06:35 PM - edited Nov 29 2023 06:46 PM
I wrote a long reply, then deleted it before hitting send because it occurred to me that MS does not seem to actually care about what we think, need, or see in our clients (MSP in SMB space) needs. Just built our first XCP-NG and Proxmox clusters since this announcement. I'd prefer HV but you're forcing our hand and Stack is just out of the question expensive, and running full OS on bare metal with HV role is not wise for a number of reasons. Still feel like a "Stack Light" offering was a missed opportunity for SMB - it basically addresses all issues/concerns and gets people into the new ecosystem which is the entire point of this it seems.
I want to love MS as I have since the 90's, but this change, the partner program changes, and NCE are really bumming me out.
Nov 30 2023 09:44 AM
Nov 30 2023 10:25 AM
Nov 30 2023 01:30 PM
without forgetting that the real problem we were pointing out was not the price, but the exhibition space; hyperv server had no unnecessary services, unlike windows servers.
Paying a hundred euros for hyperv server for the license is acceptable.
Low resource usage,
Low penetration surface,
No cloud...
All that we want...
Not to mention that there were no dedicated devs, since we had to ping them here to tell them that there was an update error that had been going on for 3 months...
Support until 2024? my eye...
They already forgot that hyperv server existed xD
Nov 30 2023 07:49 PM - edited Nov 30 2023 07:50 PM
You're hung up on thinking I am bitching it isn't free anymore. That isn't the core problem (unless compared to Stack as being the replacement, more on that later). I am not a home user, or home labber. I run an MSP and serve clients in the SMB space. Standard practice is everyone is a VM for portability and ease of recovery/migration and currently we use HV Server as said hypervisor. The new options don't meet the needs of the SMB markets we service - it's a step backwards to run full Windows server, just to get the hypervisor and just feels like a Lab vs production environment. SO, the only other alternative per MS is to use Stack. That is out of the question for SMB due to costs, special hardware requirements, and cluster size minimums - all are not realistic for SMB.
These users all own licenses of Windows Server, SQL etc; it's the architecture of the network that I have beef with in increasing the attack surface and complexity and arguably license costs to do "the new way". These are not users looking to get something for nothing, they pay for Windows - it's just the new way is either a step backwards or a giant cost increase.
There are other reasons I don't like it, like for getting newbies into the system to learn etc (assuming stack is the other option), but I'll leave the "not listening" topic where it lies and that we disagree there.
I just can't help but think some kind of "Stack Light" would be the path forward that addresses the needs of SMB as outlined, and still funnels everyone in the direction MS obviously wants everyone to go and eliminates this "putting dev into HV Server" problem being cited as a reason in killing HV Server since people would be using Stack. The upside too would be that people are already then using the "new" platform - making the knowledge base current and upgrade path to Stack "full/premium" or straight up Azure an easy option.
Dec 21 2023 07:22 AM
Interesting video, some nice features coming.
Hot patching of course will be fine - but:
At least our problem here is not the fact, that after patching a server has to be restartet.
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.
It's got better with Server 2019 but not good, installation of updates mostly takes more time then a complete server installation.
So our requirement is not hot patching - fast "normal" updating will do it (means: A repair of the broken update process).
If I understood the video right, for hot patching it's needed (again!) to connect servers to the Azure cloud even, if this is not wanted.
This is a problem especially here in Europe for data protection reasons.
The main problem of Azure Stack HCI for me is not, that this is not a free Hyper-V Server, it's the connection to the cloud.
Time will come when MS requires a cloud connection (and monthly license fee) for the computers mouse to function, I think.
(Maybe also for mousepads?)