Understanding SharePoint Server Subscription Edition

Over the years there have been several releases of SharePoint Server for on-premises installations. In the past, Microsoft released them about every three years (SharePoint Server 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019). This meant customers didn’t see any new features for three years and then we had to go through a lengthy, well-planned, and thought-out upgrade process to deploy the next version. You may be wondering where the next major release of SharePoint Server is since we haven’t seen anything about SharePoint Server 2022.

… Microsoft released SharePoint Server Subscription Edition, which is expected to be the last major release of any on-premises SharePoint Server product.

Microsoft is changing things up with SharePoint Server. Instead of releasing a new SharePoint Server product every three years like they have been, Microsoft released SharePoint Server Subscription Edition, which is expected to be the last major release of any on-premises SharePoint Server product.

SharePoint Server Subscription Edition

SharePoint Server Subscription Edition is the on-premises collaboration software that contains the same collaboration and productivity features as the previous on-premises versions, but it will no longer require costly major version upgrades to get new features. Microsoft will deliver new features through updates that are released biannually, allowing you decide whether to install them, and when you install them.

The biannual feature updates will be offered in Feature release rings:

• Early release: Allows you to use new features sooner, and in a way perform testing on the release.
• Standard release: Access to new features when Microsoft releases them for production.

SharePoint Server Subscription Edition 22H2

Microsoft later released SharePoint Server Subscription Edition version 22H2. The 22H2 indicates the year it was released (2022) and whether it was the first or second half of the year. This means the 22H2 was the second of two biannual releases in the year 2022. Some of the improvements included in the 22H2 release:

• Bulk editing in modern lists
• Button web part support
• Column formatting enhancements
• Default site language in modern self-service site creation

SharePoint Server Subscription Edition Licensing Model

You’re most likely curious about the licensing model associated with the SharePoint Server Subscription Edition so I’ve provided a table below that contains the licensing models that this release uses, along with a legend of the license program acronyms:

EA/EAS: Enterprise Agreement/Enterprise Agreement Subscription

EES: Enrollment for Education Solutions

MPSA: Product and Services Agreement

OV/OVS: Open Value/Open Value Subscription

OVS-ES: Open Value Subscription for Education Solutions

S/S+: Select/Select +

For additional information on these Microsoft licensing models, please visit the Microsoft Volume Licensing Service Center.

SharePoint Server Subscription Edition Upgrade Process

You can upgrade straight to SharePoint Server Subscription Edition from both SharePoint Server 2016 and SharePoint 2019 by using the database-attach method. This upgrade is a four phase upgrade, and the detailed steps to perform the upgrade can be found on the overview of the upgrade process to SharePoint Server Subscription Edition page. Generally speaking, you will use the following four-phase approach, which by the way, is very similar to the database attach upgrades in the previous versions of SharePoint Server:

1. Create the SharePoint Server Subscription Edition farm.
2. Copy the SharePoint Server (2016 or 2019) databases to the new farm.
3. Upgrade the SharePoint Server (2016 or 2019) databases and service applications.
4. Upgrade the SharePoint Server (2016 or 2019) site collections.
   1. My Sites site collections.
   2. Other SharePoint site collections.

Note: I have written another article that contains additional information about performing an upgrade of your SharePoint Server farm, which can be found at this location.

If you are running SharePoint Server 2016 or 2019, there won’t be any service packs, but Microsoft will provide functionality, performance, and stability improvements by way of monthly Public Updates. Similar to SharePoint Server 2013, which is at end-of-support, these two versions will also eventually hit end-of-support. If you are considering a SharePoint Server upgrade, it is highly recommended you upgrade to the Subscription Edition to ensure you have a fully supported SharePoint Server product. 

SharePoint Server Subscription Edition Hardware Requirements and Topology Considerations

While the first step in an upgrade is creating the SharePoint Server Subscription Edition farm, in order to do so we have to be sure we have the required hardware to create the new production farm and understand the topology of the farm, prior to performing the installation. The following list and the website hardware and topology requirements for SharePoint Server Subscription Edition contains these requirements:

• 64-bit processor with 4 cores
• 24 GB of RAM
• 80 GB free space on system drive
• 100 GB free space on additional drives (maintain at least two times free space as you have RAM)
• Appropriate number of servers necessary to provide high availability and fault tolerance
• High-speed network card between farm servers

SharePoint Server Subscription Edition Software Requirements for Database and SharePoint Servers

In addition to meeting the hardware requirements, we also need to meet the software requirements for the database servers and the separate software requirements for the SharePoint servers. These requirements include:

• Database servers
  • Windows 2019 or 2022 Standard or Datacenter
    • Server with Desktop experience
    • Server Core
  • Standard or Enterprise Edition of SQL Server for Windows (must support database compatibility level of 150)
  • If SharePoint Server is hosted in Azure, Microsoft Azure SQL Managed Instance (MI)

Note: Neither the SQL Server Express nor the Azure SQL Database (non-Managed Instance DBaaS service) are supported in the SharePoint Server Subscription Edition.

• SharePoint servers
  • Windows 2019 or 2022 Standard or Datacenter
    • Server with Desktop experience
    • Server Core
  • Run the prerequisiteinstaller.exe on each SharePoint Server, which installs
    • Web Server (IIS) Role
    • Microsoft .NET Framework 4.8
    • Visual C++ Redistributable Package for Visual Studio 2015-2019
  • Manually configure Windows Server Roles and Features
    • Server Manager
    • PowerShell

Most SharePoint production farms are built to provide high availability and fault tolerance, meaning they are installed on multiple servers. However, if you have a small number of users and a small amount of content you can follow the steps on the page; Install SharePoint Server Subscription Edition on one server.

I won’t walk through the details of the installation steps of SharePoint Server, but these are the steps necessary to complete the installation of SharePoint Server Subscription Edition using an account that is part of the Administrators group on the SharePoint server:

1. Run the Microsoft SharePoint Products Preparation Tool (requires Internet access).
2. Run SharePoint Server Setup (installs the SharePoint Server binaries).
3. Run the SharePoint Products Configuration Wizard (Creates SharePoint databases).
4. Configure browser settings (test by connecting to SharePoint Central Admin).
5. Run the Farm Configuration Wizard.
6. Perform any post-installation steps necessary.

After deploying SharePoint Server Subscription Edition, you’ll want to monitor the biannual updates so you are aware of what new and improved features are released, as well as what is being removed or deprecated. Be sure to keep an eye on the following sites to monitor the changes to SharePoint Server Subscription Edition:

• New and improved features in SharePoint Server Subscription Edition
• New and improved features in SharePoint Server Subscription Edition Version 22H2
• What’s deprecated or removed from SharePoint Server Subscription Edition

If you’ve done a database attach upgrade before, updating to SharePoint Server Subscription Edition will be easy for you. If you have not done a database attach upgrade before, this article and the links contained within the article will certainly guide you through the upgrade process.