Azure Stack HCI 22H2 to 23H2 Upgrade

Question

Hi,

Good day. I just wan to ask if it is ok to upgrade a recent Azure Stack HCI version 22H2 to 23H2 if there is a plan to use stretched clusters in the future? I've seen documentations from Microsoft that 23H2 doesn't support stretched clusters at the moment, but there is already a notification that 22H2 will be phased out by 2025.

Reference Links:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure-stack/hci/concepts/stretched-clusters

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure-stack/hci/update/about-updates-23h2

Thanks and appreciate your responses.

Answer 1

Hi Bernard Paul Mable,

Welcome to the Microsoft Q&A Platform! Thank you for asking your question here.

Upgrading from Azure Stack HCI version 22H2 to 23H2 is not recommended if you plan to use stretched clusters in the future. As of now, Azure Stack HCI version 23H2 does not support stretched clusters.

However, it’s important to note that Azure Stack HCI version 22H2 will reach end of service by May 2025. This means you will no longer receive monthly security and quality updates after this date, which could leave your system vulnerable to security threats.

You can either:

Continue using version 22H2 until stretched cluster support is available in a future update of Azure Stack HCI.

If stretched clusters are not an immediate requirement, you can upgrade to version 23H2 to benefit from the latest features and security updates.

For more information, you can refer to the following Microsoft documentation:
Supported workloads and configurations
About Azure Stack HCI upgrades
Upgrade Azure Stack HCI, version 22H2 operating system to Azure Stack HCI, version 23H2 via Windows Admin Center

If you have any further queries, do let us know. If the comment is helpful, please click "Upvote".