Introduction
Windows Server 2019 went RTM on October 3rd 2018. Ever since we have been waiting for the Hyper-V Server 2019 edition. It has been sadly missing in action until now. Hyper-V Server 2019 is available since June 14th 2019. We’ll kindly distract the time for which Windows Server 2019 went AWOL for a month after RTM due to certain issues and bugs. It became available again on November 13th 2018. That means we had to wait 214 days ( 7 months, 2 days) to get it Hyper-V Server 2019. This makes the time it took to get the evaluation ISO of Windows Server 2019 look short (January 2019).
You can download Hyper-V Server 2019 here on the Windows Server Evaluations page.
What is Hyper-V Server?
Microsoft Hyper-V Server is a free product that delivers the same enterprise-class virtualization you get with Windows Server 2019. Hosters of Linux servers and VDI deployments are prime customers. Any one looking for the best performing hypervisor for free is interested in this version. It comes a “core only”and does not support any any other roles and features bar what is necessary to make Hyper-V work. Basically it is the hypervisor and not the rest of Windows. Which is fine!
Why does this matter?
The fact that it is here now is a big deal. The fact that it was missing so long sent many on speculations about the reasons for this. It fed the rumors that Hyper-V is dead to Microsoft and the Windows Server doesn’t matter anymore. Taking away the free version had people guessing that Microsoft was not even interested anymore in competing with VMware on this front.
Now, the IT landscape is changing and we’ll see the next generation hyper-visors appear that are tailored for and specialized in modern workloads. But sending of Hyper-V to the pastures already would be a huge mistake. Just like missing or incomplete features are hurting the product. Servers are going to be around for may years still and we need a modern, capable and reliable product to serve those needs for a long time.
Not having that is sending the wrong message and is a breach of trust. Trust is important. With trust you feel confident to rely on a technology and build on it. knowing. Only focusing on the new, which evolves ever faster and lasts ever less, is not how one builds long term customer loyalty. In this regards the fact that Hyper-V Server 2019 is here is hopefully enough to put the minds of people that rely on it at easy.