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The free Hyper-V server is a slimmed-down server core that can run the Hyper-V role and offers a few other infrastructure functions, such as clustering or storage connectivity.
Platform for Linux VMs and VDI
The license is limited to a bare metal installation and does not include rights to run Windows Server in the VMs (see Free Hyper-V Server 2019: New features and limitations).
Hyper V Server 2019 supports VM Configuration Version 9.0 at most
Due to the license terms, Hyper-V Server is primarily suited for running Linux in VMs, such as for firewalls, web servers, or management tools. Another main application is desktop virtualization, where Windows 10 runs as a guest OS in virtual machines.
No Hyper-V Server 2022
With the release of Windows Server 2022, users wanted to know from Microsoft if and when Hyper-V Server 2022 would be available. In fact, with Windows Server 2019, the free hypervisor appeared only several months after the main product.
In this thread on Microsoft's Tech Community Forum, program manager Elden Christensen clarified that there will be no Hyper-V Server 2022. Instead, he explained that support for the 2019 version will continue until 2029.
Microsoft is thus discontinuing another product line Windows Server, after the company recently announced the end of Windows Server SAC.
Azure Stack HCI as an alternative
In both cases, the vendor recommends switching to Azure Stack HCI. This is also a GUI-less version of Windows Server that may only be installed on bare metal. Unlike the free hypervisor, it also includes features for provisioning software-defined storage, i.e., primarily Storage Spaces Direct.
Azure Stack HCI is based on a customized Windows Server Core
And unlike Hyper-V Server, this OS is not free, but requires a subscription that costs $10 per CPU core per month.
Another difference from the free hypervisor is that Azure Stack HCI cannot be used to set up standalone hosts. Rather, it requires a cluster with at least two nodes.
Azure Stack HCI as the preferred Hyper-V platform
Christensen asserts, however, that Microsoft is working to support a single-node configuration of Azure Stack HCI in the future. It is also expected to include features for connecting external storage, since it has so far been limited to a purely hyper-convergent solution.
The background for these plans is to position Azure Stack HCI not just as a platform for hyper-converged infrastructures, but generally as the preferred environment for running virtual machines.
Windows Server only as a guest OS
With that in mind, it's foreseeable that Windows Sever will be limited to serve as a guest OS running in VMs on Azure Stack HCI or in the Azure cloud.
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For those switching to Azure Stack HCI, the vendor has extended the system evaluation period from 30 to 60 days.
$10 per core. So, if we have an EPYC 64-core server, we will pay $640 per month at most. Dual socket? You double that price. And then we also if we need SQL licences, Windows server licenses of which each of them have complex licenses that need rocket scientists to understand. Then you have Device/User CALs on the client side.
So complex and very expensive and so painful to run an all-Microsoft data center.
I will just go to Linux and pay for support if its needed. No complexity, simple and fun to administer.
What I’m seeing here is a move to computer ownership as a service. Everything from your OS to your productivity, even gaming software, will all be on the cloud with no local option. Your data, all of it, will be on the cloud with no local storage.
Worst of all, your data will owned by the corporations. Everything you create, whether it be a novel or a wildlife photo, will be the property of the corporations. Further, they will own the governments’ data too. If the government steps out of line and attempts to ally themselves with the citizen, then the corporation will ruin that government.
Everything-as-a-service is a cancer and a plague that needs to be halted and legislated out of existence before a tiny number of corrupt, evil, and greedy individuals wind up owning us all. It’s not too late. This can still be stopped.