Long-Term Servicing Channel and Semi-Annual ChannelIn September 2017, we released Windows Server version 1709, the first release in the Semi-Annual Channel. The Semi-Annual Channel has a faster release cadence and addresses feedback from many of you who want faster innovation every few months. This complements the Long-Term Servicing Channel where the release cadence is every 2-3 years.
After the launch of Windows Server version 1709, we learned more from our customers and partners about how they were using the Semi-Annual Channel release. Based on telemetry and feedback that we received from the Windows Insiders program and production deployments, we learned that the Semi-Annual Channel is ideal for modern applications and innovation scenarios such as containers and micro-services while LTSC is the preferred release for core infrastructure scenarios such as software-defined datacenter and hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI). Based on this insight, moving forward, we’re focusing our efforts on specific scenarios for Semi-Annual Channel and LTSC as follows:
| | Long-Term Servicing Channel | Semi-Annual Channel |
| Recommended scenarios | General purpose file servers, first and third-party workloads, traditional apps, infrastructure roles, software-defined Datacenter, and Hyper-converged infrastructure | Containerized applications, container hosts, and application scenarios benefiting from faster innovation |
| New releases | Every 2–3 years | Every 6 months |
| Support | 5 years of Mainstream support
+ 5 years of Extended support | 18 months |
| Editions | All available Windows Server editions | Standard and Datacenter editions |
| Who can use | All customers through all channels | Software Assurance and cloud customers only |
Installation
options | Server Core and Server with Desktop Experience | Server Core for container host and image and Nano Server container image |
LTSC and Semi-Annual Channel carry an equal amount of importance to us. We will continue to listen to our customers and partners and build features and functionality in the two releases that fit the adoption pattern of our customers.
