Elastic Compute Service:Windows Server EOL guidance

EOL options for Windows Server

We recommend that you migrate from Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012, or Windows Server 2012 R2 to a different operating system to receive software updates and security patches for the new operating system.

Before the migration, assess the following items:

1. The operating systems to which you can migrate from the operating systems that reached EOL.

   You can select an alternative operating system based on your requirements on security, stability, operating system compatibility, budget, and long-term operating system strategy.

2. The methods that you can use to migrate from the operating systems that reached EOL to other operating systems:

   • (Recommended) New deployment: allows you to create a new instance that runs a different operating system to replace an existing Windows Server instance or replace the operating system of an existing Windows Server instance with a different operating system. For more information, see Create an instance on the Custom Launch tab and Replace the operating system (system disk) of an instance.

     Important

     Before you replace the operating system of an existing Windows Server instance, make sure that you create snapshots for the system disk of the instance to back up disk data. After the operating system replacement, the original system disk is released and all data stored on the disk is deleted. For more information, see Create a snapshot for a disk.

     • Advantages and disadvantages: This migration method allows you to take advantage of the latest operating systems, hardware, technologies, and security updates to achieve better performance. This migration method also resolves all legacy issues to ensure long-term system health and maintainability. However, when you redeploy business, you may need to interrupt services, which affects service continuity.

     • Supported scenarios: If you want to redeploy your business environment due to the EOL of Windows Server, you can use this migration method to migrate from the original Windows Server operating system to a different operating system.

     • Supported alternative operating systems: You can select any other operating system as an alternative to migrate away from the Windows Server versions that reached EOL.

     • For more information, see the Method 1: New deployment section of this topic.

   • In-place migration: allows you to perform an in-place upgrade or conversion by using specific tools to migrate from a Windows Server operating system that reached EOL to a different operating system. When you perform an in-place migration or conversion, all applications, user data, and system configurations are retained, which eliminates the need to redeploy environments or migrate data.

     • Advantages and disadvantages: This migration method can reduce initial configuration efforts and may inherit issues that the original CentOS operating systems encountered, such as security vulnerabilities and configuration errors. In-place upgrades are suitable for environments that have constrained resources, do not encounter major security or performance issues, and require quick upgrades.

     • Supported scenarios: If you want to retain the data of the instances whose Windows Server operating systems reached EOL and the alternative operating systems support in-place upgrades, you can use this migration method to migrate from the original operating systems to the alternative operating systems.

     • Supported alternative operating systems: The following operating systems that are binary compatible with Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012, and Windows Server 2012 R2 support in-place migration.

       Note

       Binary compatibility is the ability of an operating system to run applications and software that were compiled for another operating system without the need to recompile code. When you redeploy environments after you migrate between operating systems that are binary compatible with each other, you do not need to recompile applications or software to adapt to the changed interfaces. This allows you to save time and resources. However, bug incompatibility may occur.

       • Windows Server 2022

       • Windows Server 2019

       • Windows Server 2016

       • Windows Server 2012 (reached EOL and can be used to replace Windows Server 2008)

     • For more information, see the Method 2: In-place migration section of this topic.

Migrate operating systems and workloads

You can use one of the following methods to migrate away from Windows Server versions that reached EOL based on the alternative operating system that you selected and your business requirements. For information about the advantages, disadvantages, and usage scenarios of the migration methods, see the EOL options for Windows Server section of this topic.

• Method 1: New deployment

  1. Create an instance that runs a different operating system to replace an existing CentOS instance, or replace the operating system of an existing CentOS instance with a different operating system. For more information, see Create an instance on the Custom Launch tab and Replace the operating system (system disk) of an instance.

  2. After you create a replacement instance or replace the operating system, you must redeploy the business-related runtime environments that are deployed on the original CentOS instance on the replacement instance or the replacement operating system. For example, you must re-install software and repositories, such as Advanced Package Tool (APT) and Yellowdog Updater Modified (YUM) repositories, configure environment variables, and redeploy applications. You can perform the following steps:

     1. Collect the application and software information of the original CentOS instance and export critical application configurations and data files.

     2. Prepare the new instance (the replacement instance or the CentOS instance whose operating system you replaced). Re-install specific applications and software on the new instance based on the collected application and software information, import the exported application configurations and data files to the new instance, and then check whether the applications run as expected on the new instance.

     3. Stop application services on the original CentOS instance, synchronize application data to the new instance, verify that the services run on the new instance as expected, and then bring applications that are redeployed on the new instance online.

• Method 2: In-place migration

  The following tables describe the migration paths that you can use when you perform in-place migration.

  • Migration paths for automatic in-place migration by using Server Migration Center (SMC)

    Source operating system	Destination operating system	References
    Windows Server 2008 R2	Windows Server 2012	Migrate and upgrade the operating system of an ECS instance
    Windows Server 2012 R2	Windows Server 2016
    	Windows Server 2019

  • Migration paths for manual in-place migration

    Source operating system	Destination operating system	References
    Windows Server 2012	Windows Server 2012 R2	Perform a Feature Update of Windows Server Overview of Windows Server upgrades
    	Windows Server 2016
    Windows Server 2012 R2	Windows Server 2016
    	Windows Server 2019

References

• For information about the lifecycle plans of other operating systems that are released on the official websites of the operating systems, see Maintenance support for operating systems.

• Operating system features, performance optimizations, basic software package updates, and security updates may vary based on the operating system version. For more information, see Release notes of images and Release notes of Alibaba Cloud Linux.