As we continue to innovate, support for older Windows Server versions—including security updates—eventually comes to an end. In accordance with the Microsoft Lifecycle Policy, extended support for Windows Server 2016 will end on January 12, 2027.

Many customers are already upgrading to the latest version of Windows Server to take advantage of the newest innovations and modernize their IT environment. Windows Server 2025 stands as the most secure and cloud‑connected version ever—bringing cloud‑grade security, hotpatching, and centralized hybrid management to on‑premises environments.

However, we recognize that Windows Server often supports complex, business-critical applications, and some customers may need additional time to complete their modernization journey. To help protect these workloads during the transition, we are pleased to offer flexible options and benefits through Azure and the latest Windows Server releases.

Today, we are announcing Extended Security Updates for Windows Server 2016.

Extended Security Updates for Windows Server 2016 deliver an enhanced cloud experience through Azure Arc. Security updates are available through the Azure portal, providing a streamlined, customer-centric way to protect on-premises and multi-cloud environments. For customers who need to keep workloads on premises, Extended Security Updates enabled by Azure Arc provide additional Azure benefits, including licensing flexibility, Azure management capabilities, and advanced security features, while also unlocking flexible subscription billing for Windows Server 2016 workloads.

While this provides an option to continue running Windows Server 2016 to avoid any disruption to business-critical applications, this period also presents the opportunity to upgrade to Windows Server 2025 or consider migrating to Azure.

To get started with planning Windows Server 2016 end of support, please refer to the Extended Security Updates frequently asked questions for more information, and learn about the latest in Azure Migration and Modernization Program. For more information on the Microsoft Lifecycle Policy, see the Windows Server 2016 lifecycle page.

The post Planning ahead for Windows Server 2016 end of support appeared first on Microsoft Windows Server Blog.

How does hotpatching work?

Hotpatching is a new way to install updates in Windows Server 2025 that does not require a reboot after installation, by patching in-memory code of running processes without the need to restart the process, the application, or operating system.

Some of the benefits of hotpatching include the following:

• Greater uptime with fewer reboots, instead of rebooting monthly (12 times a year) rebooting is reduced to quarterly (4 times a year).
• Faster deployment of updates as the packages are smaller, install faster, and have easier patch orchestration with Azure Update Manager (optional).
• Hotpatch packages install without the need to schedule a reboot, so they can happen sooner. This decreases the “window of vulnerability” which can result if an administrator might normally delay an update and restart after a Windows security update is released.

Azure Arc-enabled Hotpatching for Windows Server 2025 is available for a subscription of $1.50 USD per CPU core per month. 

With hotpatching, you will still need to restart your Windows Servers about four times yearly for baseline updates, but hotpatching can save significant time and ease the inconvenience of a traditional “patch Tuesday.” 

Hotpatching for Windows Server Datacenter: Azure Edition has been available for years. In fact, our own Xbox team has used it to reduce processes that used to take the team weeks down to just a couple of days. With Windows Server 2025, we have been able to deliver these efficiencies to on-premises and non-Azure servers through connection with Azure Arc.

What are the requirements?

To use hotpatching outside of Azure such as, on-premises or in multicloud environments, you must be using Windows Server 2025 Standard or Datacenter, and your server must be connected to Azure Arc. You will also need to subscribe to the Hotpatch service.

Important reminder: If you are currently using Windows Server 2025 and opted in to try the hotpatching service through Azure Arc in preview, you will need to disenroll if you wish to end your preview and not subscribe to the service. Otherwise, your subscription starts automatically in July 2025.

If you’re running on Azure IaaS, or Azure Local you can still use hotpatching as part of functionality of Windows Server Datacenter: Azure Edition. This feature is included both with Windows Server 2022 Datacenter: Azure Edition and Windows Server 2025 Datacenter: Azure Edition. There are no new requirements in this case, i.e. you don’t need to Arc-enable those machines, and there’s no additional cost for it. 

How do I enable hotpatching?

First, if your server is not yet connected to Azure Arc, you can do so by following these steps. Azure Arc is available at no extra cost and lets you manage physical servers, and virtual machines hosted outside of Azure, on your corporate network, or other cloud providers. In addition to hotpatching, there are several paid Azure services you can access through Azure Arc, including Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Azure Monitor, and many others. For full details, refer to this documentation.

Once you are connected with Azure Arc, you will sign into the Azure Portal, go to Azure Update Manager, select your Azure Arc-enabled server, and select the hotpatching option as outlined in this documentation.

You can also manage your subscription to hotpatching through the Azure Portal as well.

What is the difference between hotpatches and traditional patches/LCUs? 

At Microsoft we have traditionally shipped patches known as Latest Cumulative Updates (LCU). An LCU can have a few different types of fixes in its payload such as: 

1. Security fixes 
2. Bug fixes that are not security fixes 
3. New feature payload 

In contrast, a hotpatch only includes security fixes which makes the patch smaller and scoped to security only. We still need to deliver on #2 and #3 above, so we synchronize these payloads once a quarter in the Hotpatching schedule. 

What is the hotpatching schedule?

The hotpatch service provides up to eight hotpatches in a year. It follows a three-month cycle with the first month as a baseline month (monthly cumulative update) followed by two months of hotpatches. During baseline months the machines will need a reboot. The four planned baseline months are January, April, July and October.

On rare occasions, for security reasons we may have to ship a non-hotpatch update during a hotpatch month which will also need a reboot. But the goal will be to provide up to eight hotpatches in a year. 

The Windows Server hotpatching subscription is billed monthly, so your cost will be consistent throughout the year in both hotpatch and non-hotpatch months. 

Where to learn more about Windows Server

In addition to the documentation above, please check out our blog posts on Tech Community and watch the on-demand videos from the 2025 Windows Server Summit virtual event. We encourage you to try this time-saving feature and start discovering all the time you’ll save! 

And don’t forget…

As you may have heard at Ignite, hotpatching is also available for Windows 11 Enterprise. Learn more about eligibility and hotpatching for Windows clients here.

*Prices are in US dollars and are subject to change

The post Tired of all the restarts? Get hotpatching for Windows Server appeared first on Microsoft Windows Server Blog.

System Center 2025 and Windows Server 2025 are releasing concurrently, enabling you to start leveraging the latest Windows Server, along with the tools to manage the servers.

About System Center

Managing datacenters is complicated, requiring coordination between multiple teams and tools. System Center provides a unified, simplified solution. System Center is a comprehensive suite of management tools designed to help IT administrators oversee their data centers and IT environments. With tools for orchestrating workflows, managing configurations, and monitoring infrastructure, System Center simplifies the deployment, configuration, operation, and monitoring of infrastructure and virtualized software-defined data centers with a single license. System Center supports a wide range of platforms and environments, making it a versatile solution for organizations with diverse IT landscapes.  

As your datacenter evolves, so do our solutions. Building on the foundation of System Center 2022, this release introduces exciting new capabilities that significantly enhance IT infrastructure management agility and performance.  

System Center 2025 and Windows Server 2025 are releasing concurrently, enabling you to begin leveraging the latest Windows Server features, along with the tools to manage the servers, immediately.  

Let’s dive into what’s new in System Center 2025 and the impact of these updates on users.

Secure by design

With the threat of sophisticated cyberattacks on the rise, investing in security is paramount for all organizations. Powerful security in the datacenter is crucial to protect sensitive data, maintain operational integrity, and defend against bad actors. Microsoft is dedicated to both setting and upholding the highest standards in data privacy and security for our customers, and System Center 2025 delivers on this continued commitment to comprehensive security. 

New capabilities introduced in this release further enhance System Center’s security offerings, including:

• A reduction in the number of scenarios that use Credential Security Support Provider protocol (CredSSP) and NTLM as authentication mechanisms, enhancing the security posture for Windows Servers. 
• TLS 1.3 support to ensure that data transmissions are protected by the most advanced security standards available. 
• Enhanced data security developments on Microsoft Azure to securely store passphrases and apply them to your on-premises environments. 
• Flexibility and efficiency in data protection strategies with features like virtual TPM (vTPM) support and the ability to exclude specific disks from backups in Hyper-V environments. This optimizes the backup process and improves overall system performance. 

With the introduction of these security-focused features, System Center 2025 takes significant steps to further safeguard IT environments. 

Seamless heterogenous infrastructure and workload management

System Center 2025 offers a range of enhancements to streamline the management of heterogeneous infrastructure, ensuring seamless control and improved efficiency. Like a Swiss Army Knife for IT management, System Center consists of a suite of components—System Center Operations Manager, System Center Virtual Machine Manager, System Center Data Protection Manager, and System Center Orchestrator—that work together to provide IT professionals with a unified operational experience.

Newly included in this release are:

• Support for managing Azure Stack HCI 23H2 clusters with Virtual Machine Manager 2025, providing unified control of heterogeneous infrastructure through a single management plane. Monitoring to be added soon with updated management pack for Operations Manager.
• Support for the latest versions of Linux distributions, enabling comprehensive handling of both Windows and Linux environments.
• Data Protection Manager 2025 integrates seamlessly with SharePoint Subscription Edition, providing comprehensive backup solutions for enterprise applications and systems.  

System Center 2025 further improves the management of diverse infrastructures, offering IT professionals a simplified and optimized operational experience.

Tame IT sprawl and modernize complex environments

IT sprawl is a common challenge encountered by many organizations, leading to disorganization, hidden costs, and reduced competency. System Center provides a comprehensive solution to these pain points, allowing IT teams to combat these issues by enhancing operational efficiency and reducing infrastructure complexity so they can focus on optimizing, securing, and innovating.

Features available in System Center 2025 that enable infrastructure modernization include:

• System Center 2025 supports the latest Arc-enabled capabilities of Windows Server 2025, including Hotpatching for Arc-enabled Virtual Machine Manager managed VMs, and provides lifecycle operations for Virtual Machine Manager managed VMs hosted in customers’ datacenters. 
• With Azure Arc-enabled management, System Center 2025 users have the flexibility to simplify their experience, allowing them to migrate to the cloud at their own pace while ensuring optimal resource utilization.

System Center 2025 modernizes the datacenter by enhancing operational efficiency, reducing infrastructure complexity, and streamlining processes.

Get started with Microsoft System Center 2025

System Center 2025 is more than just an upgrade; it’s a comprehensive solution that addresses the evolving needs of modern IT environments. With elevated security, advanced cloud capabilities, and user-centric innovations, System Center 2025 delivers a seamless deployment experience, enabling organizations to efficiently and securely manage their infrastructure and virtualized software-defined datacenters.

With System Center 2025, you can stay in control of your IT estate, whether on-premises, in the cloud, or across platforms.

Ready to upgrade or to get started with System Center? Explore the resources below to learn more about this release. 

• Visit the System Center product site to learn more.
• Go to the Evaluation Center for a free trial of System Center 2025.
• Learn about Windows Server 2025, now generally available.

The post Microsoft System Center 2025 is now generally available appeared first on Microsoft Windows Server Blog.

Windows Server 2025

Investing in your success with Windows Server

Try today

Advanced multilayered security 

In an era where cybersecurity is of utmost importance (see the Microsoft Digital Defense Report 2024 and the Microsoft Threat Intelligence Healthcare Ransomware Report), Windows Server 2025 stands out with a suite of security features designed to safeguard your data and infrastructure. Here are a few key capabilities: 

• Active Directory (AD): The gold standard for identity and authentication only gets better with new security capabilities to help fortify your environment against evolving threats with greater scalability and improvements in protocols, encryption, hardening, and new cryptographic support. 

• File services/server message block (SMB) hardening: Windows Server 2025 includes SMB over QUIC to enable secure access to file shares over the internet. SMB security also adds hardened firewall defaults, brute force attack prevention, and protections for man in the middle attacks, relay attacks, and spoofing attacks. 

• Delegate Managed Service Accounts (dMSA): Unlike traditional service accounts, dMSAs don’t require manual password management since AD automatically takes care of it. With dMSAs, specific permissions can be delegated to access resources in the domain, which reduces security risks and provides better visibility and logs of service account activity. 

These advanced security features make Windows Server 2025 a robust and secure platform for your IT infrastructure that you should begin evaluating immediately.

Cloud agility anywhere

Windows Server 2025 introduces several advanced hybrid cloud capabilities designed to enhance operational flexibility and connectivity across various environments. Key features include: 

• Hotpatching enabled by Azure Arc: Customers operating fully in the cloud have inherent modern security advantages like automatic software updates and back-up and recovery.  Now we’re bringing some of those capabilities to Windows Server 2025 for on-premises customers with a new hotpatching subscription service, enabled by Azure Arc. With hotpatching, customers will experience fewer reboots and minimal disruption to operations. Hotpatching delivers security updates for Azure Arc-enabled Windows Server 2025 Standard or Datacenter running on physical machines, virtual machines, on-premises, or multicloud servers. Hotpatching, currently in preview, will require a monthly subscription. The hotpatching feature remains no additional cost for Windows Server Datacenter Azure Edition virtual machines.

• Easy Azure Arc onboarding: Windows Server 2025 brings Azure’s powerful capabilities directly into your datacenter through Azure Arc. This integration simplifies the onboarding process to Azure’s hybrid features and enhances operational flexibility, allowing you to manage and secure your hybrid and multicloud environments more effectively. 

• Software-defined network (SDN) multisite features: The software-defined network (SDN) multisite features offer native L2 and L3 connectivity for seamless workload migration across various locations, coupled with unified network policy management. 

• Unified network policy management: This capability allows for centralized management of network policies, making it easier to maintain consistent security and performance standards across your hybrid cloud environment.

These hybrid cloud capabilities make Windows Server 2025 an ideal choice for organizations looking to optimize their IT infrastructure and leverage the benefits of both on-premises and cloud environments.

AI, performance, and scale 

Windows Server 2025 is designed to handle the most demanding workloads, including AI and machine learning. Here are some key capabilities: 

• Hyper-V, AI, and machine learning: With built-in support for GPU partitioning and the ability to process large data sets across distributed environments, Windows Server 2025 offers a high-performance platform for both traditional applications and advanced AI workloads with live migration and high availability. 

• NVMe storage performance: Windows Server 2025 delivers up to 60% more storage IOPs performance compared to Windows Server 2022 on identical systems. (Based on 4K randread using Diskpsd 2.2 with Kioxia CM7 SSd) 

• Storage Spaces Direct and storage flexibility: Windows Server supports a wide range of storage solutions such as local, NAS, and SAN for decades and continues to this day. Windows Server 2025 delivers more storage innovation with Native ReFS deduplication and compression, thinly provisioned Storage Spaces, and Storage Replica Compression now available in all editions of Windows Server 2025.

• Hyper-V performance and scale: Windows Server 2025 introduces massive performance and scalability improvements that come from Azure. Windows Server 2025 Hyper-V virtual machine maximums: 
  • Maximum memory per VM: 240 Terabytes* — (10x previous) 
  • Maximum virtual processors per VM: 2048 VPs* — (~8.5x previous) 

*Requires Generation 2 VMs

Windows Server 2025 delivers major advancements across the board for Hyper-V, GPU integration, Storage Spaces Direct (software defined storage), software-defined networking, and clustering. These improvements make Windows Server 2025 an excellent option for organizations looking for a virtualization solution and for organizations looking to leverage AI and machine learning while maintaining high performance and scalability.

System Center 2025 is available now

By delivering System Center 2025 concurrently with Windows Server 2025, management of Windows Server at scale is available immediately. This allows organizations to make the most of new Windows Server features. Designed to enhance agility, performance, and security, this release is set to enhance how organizations optimize their infrastructure and virtualized software-defined datacenters. We encourage you to visit the System Center 2025 post learn more. 

Microsoft Ignite 2024

We look forward to meeting you in person and sharing these and other Windows Server 2025 features in our sessions and at our booth at Microsoft Ignite in Chicago, November 19-21. For those of you who can’t make it, many sessions, including our Windows Server breakout titled Windows Server 2025: New Ways to gain cloud agility and security, will be available for online viewing. 

We are also excited to bring new features to customers on existing Windows Server versions like 2016, 2019, 2022, as well as 2025. Windows Server Software Assurance or active subscription customers can access Azure management tools like Azure Update Manager, Azure Policy Guest Configuration, Disaster Recovery, Change Tracking and Inventory, and more, with access to many features coming at no additional cost**. Tune into Microsoft Ignite where we will show more demos and information on how to access these new offerings.

Additional Windows Server resources

• Try Windows Server 2025 today
• Windows Server documentation
• Learn more about what’s new in Windows Server 2025
• Microsoft Certified: Windows Server Hybrid Administrator Associate 
• Administer Active Directory Domain Services

Notes

1. ** Note: compute and storage may incur additional fees. 

The post Windows Server 2025 now generally available, with advanced security, improved performance, and cloud agility  appeared first on Microsoft Windows Server Blog.

Windows Server 2025

Download the public preview to try these exciting new features.

Start here

Advanced security

With a growing number of cyber security threats and the impact of incidents escalating quickly, security is a top priority for our customers. Windows Server 2025 includes a rich set of security innovations, including:

• Modern, scalable identity management with new security capabilities in Active Directory.
• Server Message Block (SMB) improvements including SMB over QUIC and features to help protect against brute force attacks, spoofing, and relay attacks.
• Security updates with fewer reboots, made possible through Azure Arc-enabled hotpatching, new security capabilities in Active Directory, and SMB hardening.

Hybrid innovation

We’re continuing to hear from our customers that the majority of their organizations work in a hybrid or multicloud state. In fact, a recent survey we conducted revealed that 81% of current hybrid cloud customers expect to remain hybrid for another five years.² Now, you can innovate and govern anywhere, as Windows Server 2025 delivers improved hybrid cloud capabilities such as:

• Software-defined network (SDN) multisite features allow for native L2 and L3 connectivity for workloads in multiple locations, and the ease of unified network policy management.
• Flexible hybrid and multicloud management tools that bring Azure capabilities to your datacenter through Azure Arc.
• If you want to use Azure hybrid capabilities but haven’t started yet, Windows Server 2025 has features that allow easier onboarding to Azure Arc.

AI, performance, and scale

Are you curious about how your organization can do more with AI? Well, you’ve come to the right place! Azure hosts some of the world’s largest workloads that push the limits of CPU and memory capabilities to process huge data sets across distributed environments. With the growth of AI and machine learning, GPUs have become a key part of cloud solutions because they’re great at performing many parallel operations on large data. Windows Server 2025 brings you many of these advantages across GPUs, storage, networking, and scalability. New features include:

• GPU partitioning across virtual machines with live migration and failover clustering; built to support AI workloads and inferencing at the edge.
• Reductions in the time you spend on network setup and issue remediation with new Network Adaptive Traffic Control (ATC) and Network Health and Usage Dashboard (HUD) features.
• Massive increases in storage performance and vastly improved Hyper-V performance and scalability.³
• Easy upgrades through Windows Update.

What we’ve provided above is just a quick overview of our top improvement areas for Windows Server 2025. For more details, we encourage you to read more on Microsoft Learn and watch our 2024 Windows Server Summit on demand.

Windows Server customers on the leading edge

While Windows Server 2025 is only coming into its public preview now, we’d like to share just a few inspiring customer stories you might have missed, to help you plot the journey ahead:

• CTT – Correios de Portugal: Learn how an organization that’s been around since 1520 gets ready for AI.

• Hokkoku Bank: This bank laid the initial groundwork for modernization by moving its entire on-premises estate to Windows Server. This created a seamless path to full cloud transformation on Microsoft Azure.

• DICK’s Sporting Goods: This Windows Server customer created an omnichannel athlete experience using Azure Arc and Azure Kubernetes Service.

System Center 2025

We’re also excited to announce the launch of System Center 2025, a leap forward in infrastructure management, enabling you to make the most of the Windows Server 2025 features from “day 0”. Advanced security focus continues to be a theme for System Center 2025 as well, featuring Azure Key Vault integration and reduced NTLM and Credential Security Support Provider protocol (CredSSP) usage. For hybrid innovation, onboarding machines in your System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) managed datacenters to Azure Arc is simplified with Azure Arc-enabled SCVMM. In addition to at-scale Arc onboarding, it also enables you to manage the lifecycle of the machines in your datacenter in a self-service fashion from Azure. 

Try out the new Windows Server 2025 preview

Today we’ve shared some of the new features and capabilities of Windows Server 2025. They’re the outcome of more than 30 years of working on, refining, and updating the Windows Server platform based on input from dedicated professionals like you. Thank you for being a valuable Windows Server customer and, through your passion and feedback, helping us shape this new release. For more details, read this Windows Server documentation, watch our Windows Server Summit sessions, or check out the “What’s ahead for Windows 2025” video.

Download the Windows Server 2025 preview.

¹This information relates to a prerelease product that may be substantially modified before it’s released. Microsoft makes no warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to the information provided here.

²Based on a 2023 Microsoft survey of Windows Server customers using hybrid cloud in their organization. N=197.

³Up to 70% more IOPs on NVMe SSDs; Windows Server 2025 Hyper-V Virtual Machine Maximums: Maximum Memory per VM: 240 Terabytes* (10x previous) ; Maximum Virtual Processors per VM: 2048 VPs* (~8.5x previous) *Requires Generation 2 VMs ; Windows Server 2025 Host Memory Maximums: 4 Petabytes for hosts that support 5 level paging (166x previous) ; 256 Terabytes for hosts that support 4 level paging (10x previous) 

The post Gain enhanced security and performance with Windows Server 2025—now in preview appeared first on Microsoft Windows Server Blog.

Would you like to avoid spending your weekends patching servers? The new Hotpatch feature in Windows Server 2022 Datacenter: Azure Edition addresses this pain point—it can reduce many IT teams’ headaches including reboot failures and coordinating multitier workloads. It increases productivity and end-user uptime and can reduce the vulnerability window that would result if an update is delayed.

To demonstrate how Hotpatching works, we’ve brought in an example from our very own Xbox team. In this article you’ll learn how Microsoft has been using Hotpatch with Windows Server 2022 Azure Edition to substantially reduce downtime for SQL Server databases running on Windows Server Azure virtual machines on an important set of backend services for the Xbox network.

Windows Server 2022

Run business critical workloads in Azure, on-premises and at the edge.

Discover more

What is Hotpatch?

Hotpatch for Windows Server 2022 Datacenter: Azure Edition allows you to apply every month’s “patch Tuesday” security updates, but does not require the server operating system to restart two out of three months.

While Hotpatch has been available on the Server Core option of Windows Server 2022 Azure Edition for some time, it has just become available in summer 2023 for the more widely used Desktop Experience option. You can see a demo of it in this on-demand session from Ignite.

Here’s what’s great about it:

• Higher availability and fewer restarts.
• Faster deployment of updates because the packages are smaller, install faster, and have easier patch orchestration using Azure Update Management.
• Better protection because the Hotpatch update packages are scoped to Windows security updates that install faster without restarting.

 When you enable Hotpatch, a baseline Cumulative Update is applied to the server. This update does require a reboot. After this point, your team can update easily, with fewer restarts, which can greatly reduce any vulnerability window. Check out this release documentation for details on the Hotpatch calendar.

How the Xbox network team uses Hotpatch

The Xbox network relies on several critical backend services hosted in SQL Server databases running on Windows Server Azure virtual machines. There are 18 different services hosted in this manner, with some services handled by two SQL Servers and others up to 120 SQL Servers. Some of these workloads have been in production for 15 years.

Of course, when you’re running backend services for a group of passionate gamers like Xbox network customers, it’s imperative to patch and restore services with as little downtime as possible.

Approximately 1,000 servers hosting these services started their journey on physical hardware when the services were first deployed, and more than 15 years later, through a process of rolling upgrades and migration, are now running in Azure hosted as infrastructure as a service (IaaS) Virtual Machines (VMs). According to senior service engineer Tim Dreyling, the team has found it “magnitudes easier to manage Windows Server on Azure VMs, over relying on data center support to address ‘machine’ issues.”

After migrating the backend Xbox network services from the earlier version of Windows Server 2022 Azure Edition to the version that supported Hotpatch, the team that supported these specific backend services went from an update cycle every month that could take weeks of careful orchestration to being able to apply Hotpatch updates across a fleet of nearly 1,000 servers in less than 48 hours two months out of every three.

“As a database administrator (DBA) this is the biggest thing to increase our service reliability and uptime since SQL Server Availability Groups were introduced with SQL Server 2012,” says Tim.

Hotpatch with Windows Server 2022 Datacenter Azure Edition isn’t just used with SQL Server with Xbox network backend services, but is also used on IaaS VMs running Active Directory DS Domain Controllers and VMs hosting web services roles.

While your services might not have the complexity and scale of the Xbox network, we think you’ll quickly see the Hotpatch advantage of minimizing reboot downtimes while ensuring the services you host are reliable, protected, and available.

Hotpatch is currently available on Azure Edition (see below for details), but the team has more innovations in the works, and many ways to access cloud innovation in your hybrid cloud environment by connecting your servers to Azure Arc.

In case you weren’t able to join us at Ignite, you can watch two Windows Server-focused sessions on-demand. These talks cover Hotpatching and the Xbox example discussed above, along with a number of new and upcoming features for our Windows Server and SQL Server customers:

1. Do More with Windows Server and SQL Server on Azure—Bob Ward, Principal Architect in the Azure Data team, and Jeff Woolsey Principal PM Manager in Windows Server, do a quick-fire session with descriptions of the latest innovations across these technologies.
2. What’s New in Windows Server v.Next—Elden Christensen, Principal Group PM Manager, joins Jeff Woolsey to explain and demo the features that our engineering team is working on for the next Windows Server.

If you’re interested in being hands-on and trying what’s coming next for Windows Server, you can get early access to the latest features in the works by joining the Windows Insider program.

Learn more about Windows Server and Hotpatch

• Try the latest versions of SQL Server and Windows Server 2022 on Azure.
• You can find out more about Hotpatch for Windows Server 2022 Datacenter: Azure Edition in the documentation and in this blog post.
• Download the image here to get the new edition with Hotpatch (Azure account required).

The post How Hotpatching on Windows Server is changing the game for Xbox appeared first on Microsoft Windows Server Blog.

Options to stay protected for Windows Server 2012/R2 end of support 

As new features and functionality light up the latest versions of our server offerings such as Windows Server 2022 and SQL Server 2022, we want to remind organizations that support for Windows Server 2012/R2 is coming to an end on October 10, 2023. After the end of support date, Windows Server 2012/R2 workloads will be vulnerable as they will no longer receive regular security updates. Organizations can remain protected by:

1. Modernizing to a PaaS platform such as Azure SQL Managed Instance or Azure App Service to always stay up-to-date, or upgrading to the latest version in Azure. With a PaaS platform, customers can fully offload management tasks in the cloud, so teams can focus on delivering innovative apps and experiences for their businesses.   
2. Migrating to Azure  for free Extended Security Updates. This includes options such as Azure Virtual Machines, Azure Dedicated Host, Azure VMware Solution, and Azure Stack HCI. Combining this with Azure Hybrid Benefit and consumption models such as reserved instances or savings plan for compute allows even more savings in Azure for Windows Server and SQL Server.  
3. Purchasing Extended Security Updates to remain protected on premises and in multi cloud environments.

We know that organizations often heavily weigh the best path to modernization, with many factors to consider. In this post, we’ll explore two new options from Azure Migrate and Azure Arc to protect end of support workloads.

Migrate and upgrade Windows Server 2012/R2 with Azure Migrate

If an organization is considering modernizing and migrating to Azure, the first step should be to assess their environment and build a migration business case with Azure Migrate. This free tool provides technical insights into workloads and cost estimates for moving to Azure. 

We’re excited to announce that Azure Migrate now supports in-place upgrades of Windows Server 2012 and later versions, during the move to Azure. Organizations can now elect to move their legacy applications and databases to a fully supported, compatible, and compliant operating system such as Windows Server 2016, 2019, or 2022. Organizations can also avoid downtime by first upgrading to a test environment in Azure and running production workloads in parallel to confirm functionality and compatibility, before fully moving to Azure.

With this new feature, organizations can avoid Windows Server 2012/R2 end of support and accomplish their modernization and migration goals in one motion. Learn more about this feature in Azure Migrate here.  

Stay protected in on-premises and multicloud environments with Extended Security Updates enabled by Azure Arc 

For organizations who aren’t able to modernize or migrate prior to the Windows Server 2012/R2 end of support date this October, Microsoft is announcing Extended Security Updates enabled by Azure Arc. With Azure Arc, organizations will be able to purchase and seamlessly deploy Extended Security Updates in on-premises or multicloud environments, right from the Azure portal. Extended Security Updates enabled by Azure Arc also gives more flexibility with a pay-as-you-go subscription model. 

Here are the key benefits: 

• Flexible billing and savings: Activate and enroll from Azure to pay for security updates on a monthly basis, giving organizations more flexibility to migrate and modernize to Azure on their terms.  

• Centralized cost management: Analyze costs using Azure Cost Management and see all Azure consumption in one place.  

• Greater visibility: Surface enrollment status of Extended Security Updates to highlight gaps and status changes  

• Organize and inventory your assets: Gain visibility and reporting across servers spanning your hybrid, multicloud, and edge infrastructure. 

• Keyless delivery: The enrollment of Extended Security Updates on Azure Arc-enabled machines does not require the acquisition or activation of keys. 

• Security and compliance: Seamlessly extend Azure security and governance from cloud to edge and stay compliant with supported software. 

To get started today, connect your servers to Azure Arc for free by installing Azure Arc using familiar deployment tools like Configuration Manager, Group Policy, Windows Admin Center, or MSI. In September 2023, Extended Security Updates enabled by Azure Arc will be available natively in Azure to point and click to activate your Extended Security Updates. This capability will also be available for SQL Server 2012.

Start modernizing for end of support

With all the new options available, there’s no better time to start modernizing for end of support with Azure. Here are a few key resources to get started: 

• Learn more about your options for Windows Server and SQL Server end of support. 
• Learn more about Extended Security Updates on our Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page and the documentation.
• Protect beyond Extended Security Updates by enhancing security with Microsoft Defender for Cloud – a comprehensive and unified cloud-native security solution to protect hybrid and multicloud environments from code to cloud.   
• Learn more about running Windows Server on Azure.
• Get in-depth resources for every stage of your cloud journey with Azure Migrate and Modernize & Azure Innovate—our new offerings from Azure that provide end-to-end support from migration and modernization to infusing the latest innovation in analytics and AI. 

The post New options for Windows Server 2012/R2 end of support from Azure appeared first on Microsoft Windows Server Blog.

We are excited to announce that Windows Admin Center can now manage your Microsoft Azure Arc-enabled infrastructure from the Azure portal. This new capability enables seamless and granular management of your Arc-enabled Windows servers and virtual machines as well as Azure Stack HCI systems from within the Azure portal. You can securely manage your servers and clusters from the cloud—without needing a VPN, public IP address, or other inbound connectivity to your machine.

Here is a short video highlighting some of the capabilities included with Windows Admin Center: How to use Windows Admin Center in the Azure portal.

Simplicity and convenience

Windows Admin Center in Azure unlocks new capabilities for the Azure portal by providing you with an interface to manage your on-premises Windows Server and Azure Stack HCI systems alongside your Azure Virtual Machines and other Azure resources. You can save time because you won’t need to remote desktop into your servers and clusters for administration, making it easier to deploy and maintain your Arc-enabled infrastructure.

By default, Azure Arc provides you with the essential elements to manage your infrastructure, such as centralized security, governance, monitoring, and policy. With a one-click experience, Windows Admin Center in Azure now provides end-to-end server management.

Secure

Windows Admin Center in Azure enhances security for your servers and clusters. It allows you to manage your infrastructure without requiring any public IP addresses, VPNs, or inbound connectivity to your systems. Traffic is sent over the existing connection between the Azure Arc agent and Azure—no extra configuration is required. Communication between you and your systems is end-to-end encrypted, with Secure Socket Layer (SSL) termination occurring directly on your infrastructure.

Familiar UI

You can now configure, troubleshoot, and perform maintenance tasks with the familiar Windows Admin Center interface that you know and love. Beyond a consistent interface, you can manage files, view expired certificates, monitor performance, view critical events, use PowerShell, use an in-browser RDP session, and much more without leaving the Azure portal.

Designed for the cloud

While Windows Admin Center you see in the Azure portal is familiar and has most of the same functionality, it is tailored to provide a cloud-first experience. We are continuously innovating to deliver new capabilities and experiences. In the Azure portal, Windows Admin Center is more performant and always kept up to date, seamlessly giving you the latest and greatest features. In addition, Windows Admin Center is backed by the support infrastructure that provides reliability for all your other Azure services. You now have a great way to manage your on-premises servers and clusters from Azure.

Getting started

Windows Admin Center in the Azure portal is available to all Azure Stack HCI customers and Azure Arc-enabled Windows Server customers running Windows Server 2022, Windows Server 2019, or Windows Server 2016 in the Azure public cloud.

You can begin managing your infrastructure in Azure using Windows Admin Center by navigating to the “Windows Admin Center (preview)” blade under “Settings” in the Arc for Servers or Azure Stack HCI Azure portal UI.

Learn more

New to Azure Arc-enabled servers? Learn more about Azure Arc-enabled servers.

New to Windows Admin Center? Check out this Introduction to Windows Admin Center video.

Interested in on-premises Windows Admin Center? Read our Windows Admin Center documentation.

The post Preview of Windows Admin Center for Azure Arc-enabled infrastructure appeared first on Microsoft Windows Server Blog.

Today, we are announcing new updates to Azure Automanage machine best practices and Azure Automanage for Windows Server that allow IT admins and DevOps professionals to simplify and optimize IT management with automated operations.

Azure Automanage machine best practices

Azure Automanage machine best practices is a unique capability on Azure that allows you to optimize IT management with automated operations. It simplifies the steps to discover, onboard, and configure certain services in Azure that would benefit your virtual machines.

• Custom configuration profiles: Custom configuration profiles in both Windows Server and Linux virtual machines is now available in preview. This new capability allows you to select the Azure services, including Azure Backup, Azure Security Center, and Azure Monitor to name a few—that fit your unique needs.
• Support for Azure Arc-enabled servers: The integration with Azure Arc allows you to automate frequent, time-consuming management tasks for Azure and on-premises workloads by applying the Automanage service to your on-premises Windows Server and Linux virtual machines. With Azure Arc, you can see your Azure and non-Azure servers side-by-side in the Azure portal with Azure Arc—now available in preview.

Azure Automanage for Windows Server

Along with helping automate tasks, Automanage for Windows Server can also enable differentiated innovation for your virtual machines on Azure.

• Hotpatch: With many organizations moving to a zero-trust security model, you can now deploy security updates without having to reboot your Windows Server virtual machine. Hotpatching reduces the need to schedule security updates because you can deploy updates as soon as they become available.
• Securely access file servers: Another challenge has been securely accessing file servers remotely over an untrusted network and without a VPN when you’re on a mobile device or working remotely. Now, generally available—SMB over QUIC. SMB over QUIC introduces an alternative to the TCP network transport, providing secure, reliable connectivity to edge file servers over untrusted networks like the internet.
• Preserve on-premises IP addresses: Lastly, when you migrate to Azure, there are some virtual machines that cannot change their IP address. Now generally available is an extended network for Azure, which allows you to migrate Windows Server workloads to Azure while preserving the original IP address.

For customers who have moved Windows Server to Azure, you can take advantage of Azure Hybrid Benefit and free Extended Security Updates only on Azure. To get started with planning Windows Server 2012 and 2012 end of support, please read our end-of-support blog for additional guidance, you can also refer to our Extended Security Updates frequently asked questions.

Follow along at Microsoft Ignite

Watch our sessions on Azure Automanage and Windows Admin Center:

• Microsoft Into Focus: Infrastructure
• Simplify IT server management through Azure Automanage
• What’s new in Windows Admin Center

Get started with Azure Automanage and Windows Server 2022

Azure Automanage has some new capabilities:

• Read our deep-dive about these features on the Tech Community blog.
• Get started with Automanage best practices.
• Learn more about Azure Automanage for Windows Server.

Windows Server 2022 includes a broad set of capabilities—here are top ways to get started:

• Windows Server Evaluation Center offers options to try Windows Server in Azure or to download.
• Windows Server on Azure Marketplace for running Virtual Machines on Azure.
• Learn about the latest capabilities in Windows Admin Center.

The post 5 new capabilities to automate Windows Server management with Azure Automanage appeared first on Microsoft Windows Server Blog.

As we introduce many innovations for Windows Server, support for older versions along with security updates released while the version is supported will come to an end. Windows Server 2012, and 2012 R2 End of Extended support is approaching per the Lifecycle Policy: Windows Server 2012 and 2012 R2 Extended Support will end on October 10, 2023.

Customers are upgrading to the latest release of Windows Server and applying the latest innovation to modernize their IT environment. However, we understand that Windows Server run many business-critical applications and it may take more time for customers to modernize. We are glad to share that we have great options and benefits for our customers to protect their workloads while they transform with Azure and the latest release of Windows Server.

Today, we are announcing Windows Server 2012 and 2012 R2 Extended Security Updates.

Customers can migrate their workloads to Azure and get free Extended Security Updates for three more years, only in Azure. Customers running these releases of Windows Server on-premises will have the option to purchase Extended Security Updates.

Furthermore, we are also announcing, one additional year of extended security update for Windows Server 2008 and 2008 R2 only on Azure.

To get started with planning Windows Server 2012 and 2012 end of support, please read our end-of-support blog for additional guidance, refer to Extended Security Updates Frequently Asked Questions, and learn about the latest in Azure Migration and Modernization Program.

The post Plan your Windows Server 2012 and 2012 R2 End of Support appeared first on Microsoft Windows Server Blog.