Upgrade Azure VM Server 2012 r2 to 2019

bratajesak 21 Reputation points
2020-03-17T18:40:26.517+00:00

I have been tasked with upgrading a handful of VMs that live on Azure. With these VMs it will be hard to build new machines and migrate all the files. So I am following the advice found on this article:

performing-an-in-place-system-upgrade-is-not-supported-on-windows-base

But when I download the vhd and load it locally there is no option to upgrade, so the question is: do I need my own copy and license to upgrade this locally?

Azure Virtual Machines
Azure Virtual Machines
An Azure service that is used to provision Windows and Linux virtual machines.
7,072 questions
0 comments No comments
{count} votes

1 additional answer

Sort by: Most helpful
  1. Dave Patrick 426K Reputation points MVP
    2020-03-17T18:47:13.867+00:00

    An in-place upgrade 2012 R2 to 2019 is supported but much cleaner / safer to clean install, patch fully and migrate. To perform an in-place upgrade of windows you can run setup.exe from the root of the installation media.

    https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/upgrade/upgrade-overview

    (please don't forget to mark helpful replies as answer)