Server Downgrade Rights

swain90

swain90

swain90

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Joined
7 Aug 2012
Posts
949
Morning All,

Please don't hate on the Server OS versions, things move very slow in the industry I work in and our products are validated against certain Windows operating systems making it difficult to upgrade.

We have some servers at work which have Server 2003 installed and have an OEM 2003 key attached to the case.

There's nothing physically wrong with the servers, however out latest product has been validated using Server 2008R2 which now requires us to have more Server 2008R2 machines.

I'm wanting to repurpose the old hardware and install Server 2008R2 on there, however I'm unsure which of the many different variants of Server 2019 Standard I need to purchase to allow me to downgrade.

For reference, the hardware requires Server 2008R2 Standard installed.

Thanks

Swain90
 
Last edited:
I think there's some info missing here?

Where have the 2019 servers come from? Is that new hardware? Either way, Keep Datacenter and Standard versions aligned and you should be fine
 
@Django x2 Added some further clarification to my post.

I'm presuming here that I'll need to purchase a copy of Server 2019 Standard which will then allow me to downgrade to Server 2008R2 Standard, however I'm not variant of Server 2019 Standard will allow me to downgrade.

I have the Server 2008R2 media and have a valid license to activate, but what I'm wanting to know is whether I can buy a retail copy of Server 2019 and that provide me with what I need to allow me to downgrade to Server 2008R2, or whether I need to a volume license copy of Server 2019 Standard etc...
 
If this is just a single server then Server 2019 Standard would allow you to downgrade to Server 2008 R2 Enterprise (or lower). You need to license it according to the current Server 2019 terms (so per core).

Make sure to buy ESU so that you can at least continue to install security updates for this server while they are available.
 
Am I right in thinking I can buy this and as long each specific license is tagged to a specific machine I can buy this and install Server 2008R2 under downgrade?

P73-07788

Windows Server Standard 2019 64bit Eng Dvd 16 Core OEM

The servers we have are single CPU with 4 cores.
 
I may not be 100% here, but would it not be cheaper to buy a server (or 2 for backup!) from ebay with a 2008r2 coe attached (or even 2012)and use that than buy a 2019 licenses. You'll likely get a nice upgrade as well.

Hopefully this is an airgapped network as well with 08 being out of support :)
 
andshrew said:
If this is just a single server then Server 2019 Standard would allow you to downgrade to Server 2008 R2 Enterprise (or lower). You need to license it according to the current Server 2019 terms (so per core).

Make sure to buy ESU so that you can at least continue to install security updates for this server while they are available.
Click to expand...

I think you would be better off buying a box copy of 2008r2 standard at that point. If you run ovs it's cheaper to just license 2008r2 as it was priced per socket and r2 allowed for 4 sockets. If I needed r2 on a server and didn't have an OVS or Data Center Licensing per host plus in transit that box copy would be the way. You can buy a new box copy of standard for around £100. If you virtualise and run more than one host, drs or other vmware technology then that wouldn't cut it but installed directly on the metal it is fine.
 
We're unable to procure items via ebay, amazon etc... we have to procure through an IT supplier which I doubt would be able to obtain 2K8R2 anymore, hence having to go for 2019.
 
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