Upgrading Hyper-V Host 2016 > 2019

[Michael]

Morning all,

 

Any tips on upgrading a Hyper-V Host from 2016 Std > 2019 Std?

 

I've upgraded Hyper-V Guests from 2016 > 2019, but not the Host.

 

Presumably it'd be a good idea to shutdown the Guests and export backups beforehand? Any other advice/gotchas? TIA!

[Roberto]

Morning all,

 

Any tips on upgrading a Hyper-V Host from 2016 Std > 2019 Std?

 

I've upgraded Hyper-V Guests from 2016 > 2019, but not the Host.

 

Presumably it'd be a good idea to shutdown the Guests and export backups beforehand? Any other advice/gotchas? TIA!

 

Microsoft have ended support for HyperV server 2019 (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyper-V#Microsoft_Ending_Support_of_Hyper-V_Server). They're moving to either using Windows Server Core or Azure Stack HCI (https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure-stack/hci/overview). It's one thing to keep a deprecated system running while considering your options but I'd be hesitant about upgrading to something that was already deprecated.

[ssouth]

Morning all,

 

Any tips on upgrading a Hyper-V Host from 2016 Std > 2019 Std?

 

I've upgraded Hyper-V Guests from 2016 > 2019, but not the Host.

 

Presumably it'd be a good idea to shutdown the Guests and export backups beforehand? Any other advice/gotchas? TIA!

 

Worked absolutely fine for me. but as mentioned shutdown the VM's and ensure you have good backups just in case.

[PotNoodleTech]

Microsoft have ended support for HyperV server 2019 (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyper-V#Microsoft_Ending_Support_of_Hyper-V_Server). They're moving to either using Windows Server Core or Azure Stack HCI (https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure-stack/hci/overview). It's one thing to keep a deprecated system running while considering your options but I'd be hesitant about upgrading to something that was already deprecated.

 

That's the dedicated Vmware style Hyper V only Host O/S version that's being depreciated (the one which literally no one uses).

 

I expect the OP is just using standard Windows 2019 server with the Hyper V role installed which is fine to continue using till the end of 2019 extended support (Jan 9 2029)

[Michael]

Microsoft have ended support for HyperV server 2019 (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyper-V#Microsoft_Ending_Support_of_Hyper-V_Server). They're moving to either using Windows Server Core or Azure Stack HCI (https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure-stack/hci/overview). It's one thing to keep a deprecated system running while considering your options but I'd be hesitant about upgrading to something that was already deprecated.

 

Thanks for the heads up. I guess it depends on your definition of depreciated, given you can still run Hyper-V on Server 2022. Similarly to AD, it hasn't massively changed in recent years, but I don't see that as a bad thing. I'm all for consistency/stability of a mature product.

 

To be honest, I think the biggest hurdle will be (as far as I can tell) Azure Stack HCI is a subscription model. I get it's a hybrid arrangement, but then schools no doubt will ask why are they paying for both a local server and an Azure instance.

[Norphy]

Thanks for the heads up. I guess it depends on your definition of depreciated, given you can still run Hyper-V on Server 2022. Similarly to AD, it hasn't massively changed in recent years, but I don't see that as a bad thing. I'm all for consistency/stability of a mature product.

 

To be honest, I think the biggest hurdle will be (as far as I can tell) Azure Stack HCI is a subscription model. I get it's a hybrid arrangement, but then schools no doubt will ask why are they paying for both a local server and an Azure instance.

 

I think what Roberto means is not that Hyper-V as a feature is deprecated, it's that Hyper-V Server (the free hypervisor product that MS used to have) is no longer being published and that the product is now out of mainstream support. On top of that, Server 2019 mainstream support has also ended. It will get security fixes for the next five years, but nothing else. He's advising that if you want to continue using Hyper-V, you should use Server 2022 Core with the Hyper-V feature enabled or use Azure Stack HCI.

 

Assuming that you're running Windows guests on the hypervisor, there shouldn't be much if any license implication. None at all if you're using Datacenter.

[Roberto]

That's the dedicated Vmware style Hyper V only Host O/S version that's being depreciated (the one which literally no one uses).

 

I expect the OP is just using standard Windows 2019 server with the Hyper V role installed which is fine to continue using till the end of 2019 extended support (Jan 9 2029)

 

Well I would certainly hope so, but it wasn't clear from the question and I thought Michael was running Hyper-V server and that it might need to be clarified as the distincition is quite important in terms of the effort required to update.

[Primus]

Well I would certainly hope so, but it wasn't clear from the question and I thought Michael was running Hyper-V server and that it might need to be clarified as the distincition is quite important in terms of the effort required to update.

 

I think you might have missed this bit of his post:

Any tips on upgrading a Hyper-V Host from 2016 Std > 2019 Std

 

Std = Standard ie. Server 2016 Standard edition rather than Microsoft Hyper-V Server which is the deprecated one.

[Norphy]

Either way, 2019 is out of mainstream support. It doesn't make a huge amount of sense not to upgrade to 2022 considering it's been on the market for, what, 2-2.5 years?

[gaz350b]

If this is a cluster.

 

Drain

Evict

Upgrade +1 os level

Rejoin to cluster

 

Do above on all nodes

 

Upgrade functional level of cluster to upgraded version

 

Then do your next +1 OS upgrade by starting from the top again!

[supportman]

Morning all,

 

Any tips on upgrading a Hyper-V Host from 2016 Std > 2019 Std?

 

I've upgraded Hyper-V Guests from 2016 > 2019, but not the Host.

 

Presumably it'd be a good idea to shutdown the Guests and export backups beforehand? Any other advice/gotchas? TIA!

If you have Veeam you can live restore them to the backup server then upgrade the host. Would go with 2022 though for longer support.