We are looking at rebuilding/upgrading our TM1 infrastructure in 2022 Q1 (our version of TM1 is eol in April 2022). Currently Windows Server 2019 is listed as Not Supported for Planning Analytics Workspace.  We currently do not use PAW, but it is an initiative for us next year.  The Mainstream End Date of Support (from Microsoft) for Windows Server 2016 is Jan 11,2022.  We are trying not to build a server that will be immediately obsolete.

Any idea on when IBM will Support Windows Server 2019 for PAW?

Thank You,


Sergio Rojas

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Sergio Rojas
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#PlanningAnalyticswithWatson

Hi,

I have had customers ask me this year about support for Windows Server 2022, which was released back in Sep/Oct I believe. It's becoming very difficult to know what to say when IBM have not yet offered support for PAW under Windows Server 2019, let alone 2022.

It's also a problem when you have parts of the product (PA Server and PA Spreadsheet Services) that can run under 2019 but PAW is restricted to 2016. Hopefully IBM can address this problem quickly and announce some time frame for further supported platforms.

Regards
Ian

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Ian Moy
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Sergio,

Windows 2016 will not be obsolete in 2022 as it will be under extended support from Jan 2022 to Jan 2027. Microsoft will still be providing regular security updates, just no new features. For PA, I believe Windows 2012 R2 is still not obsolete as it will still get extended support security updates through Oct 10, 2023, and that is the main VM OS for Planning Analytics on the Cloud; at least for our prod instance. Microsoft Extended support just won't have any free stuff that regular support may have offered.

Regards,

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Walter Coffen
Technology Manager
QueBIT Consulting, LLC
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FYI:

I recently heard that PAW on Windows 2019, which may be an option fairly soon when PAW 2.0.74 or PAW 2.0.75 local are released, will require a paid subscription license from Mirantis Inc. for Docker EE. Mirantis has renamed Docker EE to the Mirantis Container Runtime, MCR. Also, until very recently, I didn't know that Microsoft is ending support this year for Docker on Windows. People who stick with Windows 2016 for a couple more years while the OS is under "extended support" will not have official Docker support from Microsoft covered by their Microsoft fees after September 22, 2022. Support for Docker/MCR will have to be purchased from Mirantis Inc. by those clients who need official support for internal SLAs.

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/containers/updates-to-the-windows-container-runtime-support/ba-p/2788799

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Walter Coffen
Technology Manager
QueBIT Consulting, LLC
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Original Message:
Sent: Tue December 14, 2021 02:17 PM
From: Walter Coffen
Subject: PAW Support for Windows Server 2019

Sergio,

Windows 2016 will not be obsolete in 2022 as it will be under extended support from Jan 2022 to Jan 2027. Microsoft will still be providing regular security updates, just no new features. For PA, I believe Windows 2012 R2 is still not obsolete as it will still get extended support security updates through Oct 10, 2023, and that is the main VM OS for Planning Analytics on the Cloud; at least for our prod instance. Microsoft Extended support just won't have any free stuff that regular support may have offered.

Regards,

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Walter Coffen
Technology Manager
QueBIT Consulting, LLC
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Sergio

Give very serious thought about whether you wish PAW to be running in Windows.

We upgraded in 2020 from TM1 10.2, and since then we have done a number of upgrades across all components (PA, PASS, PAfE and PAW). Currently we are PA 2.0.9.11 and PAW 2.0.73 all running on Win2016. Our experience with PAW is that it is a real handful in Windows.

Most recently I have done several upgrades due to the recent log4j vulnerabilities and have found the anti-virus issues of Windows causing a whole host of issues. You should first investigate whether you will be able to secure a raft of anti-virus folder exclusions, as well as application exclusions from your IT security folks.

If you can't get a number of concessions then move to Linux and avoid Windows if anti-virus concerns are significant.

There has also been a fair amount of custom batchfile and powershell scripting we have put in place to carefully control containers on server shutdown, especially during server patching - where servers are just restarted without any concern to the Docker containers, and also on server startup to bring Docker back up. Most of this unfortunately is not documented and took a significant amount of "head scratching" to achieve.

If I could turn back the clock, I would have avoided Windows for PAW and gone to Linux

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AJAY CHANDHOK
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Hi Sergio

I asked this same question at last month's "Ask Anything" session with the PA product managers. Mike McGeein's response was that we can expect Windows Server 2019 Support "around mid year". He did also flag the possible (still not confirmed) requirement for a Mirantis Licence as flagged in the separate response from Walter Coffen. Mike also indicated that Windows 2022 Server support is not in progress yet so there is no ETA for that.

Regards

Paul Coggan

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Paul Coggan
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Sergio - There is a similar conversation going on here. The answer seems to still be no, but requests for support are building steam!

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Matthew Manuele
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PAW 2.0.74 supports Windows 2019
Have a look here:
https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/planning-analytics/2.0.0?topic=2wnm12-windows-server-2019-support-local-only

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George Tonkin
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Original Message:
Sent: Thu March 24, 2022 06:49 PM
From: Matthew Manuele
Subject: PAW Support for Windows Server 2019

Sergio - There is a similar conversation going on here. The answer seems to still be no, but requests for support are building steam!

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Matthew Manuele
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