Few days back, Microsoft released Windows Server 2022 under Long Term Servicing Channel (LTSC). This new release of Server OS includes advanced multi-layer security, hybrid capabilities with Azure, and a flexible platform to modernize applications with containers. We’ve already shared the guide to show you how to download Windows Server 2022 on your system. Now in this guide, we will compare Windows Server 2022 editions.
Windows Server 2022 has three standard editions. They’re namely Standard, Datacenter, and Datacenter: Azure Edition. You must be already aware of former two editions. But with Windows Server 2022, we’ve a new edition and that is Datacenter: Azure Edition. According to Microsoft, Windows Server Azure Edition is a special version of Windows Server built specifically to run either as an Azure IaaS VM in Azure or as a VM on an Azure Stack HCI cluster. Unlike the traditional Standard or Datacenter editions, you can’t install Azure Edition on bare metal hardware, run it under client or Windows Server Hyper-V, or run it on third party hypervisors or within 3rd party Clouds.
Now let us see how a Windows Server 2022 edition differs from another.
Compare Windows Server 2022 editions
Here’s a quick comparison for the three Windows Server 2022 editions.
| Features available generally | Windows Server 2022 Standard | Windows Server 2022 Datacenter | Windows Server 2022 Datacenter: Azure Edition |
|---|---|---|---|
| Azure Extended Network | No | No | Yes |
| Best Practices Analyzer | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Containers | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Direct Access | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Dynamic Memory (in virtualization) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Hot Add/Replace RAM | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Hotpatching | No | No | Yes |
| Microsoft Management Console | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Minimal Server Interface | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Network Load Balancing | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Windows PowerShell | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Server Core installation option | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Server Manager | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| SMB Direct and SMB over RDMA | Yes | Yes | Yes (not supported in Azure) |
| SMB over QUIC | No | No | Yes |
| Software-defined Networking | No | Yes | Yes |
| Storage Migration Service | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Storage Replica | Yes, (1 partnership and 1 resource group with a single 2TB volume) | Yes, unlimited | Yes, unlimited |
| Storage Spaces | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Storage Spaces Direct | No | Yes | Yes |
| Volume Activation Services | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| VSS (Volume Shadow Copy Service) integration | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Windows Server Update Services | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Windows System Resource Manager | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Server license logging | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Inherited activation | As guest if hosted on Datacenter | Can be a host or a guest | Can be a host or a guest |
| Work Folders | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Above mentioned comparison has been provided by Microsoft. You can checkout this detailed documentation for more information.
That’s it!
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