2021 ISO also worked for me, disabled online updates, didnt change anything else. Worked the first time no drama. Everything was perfect after the upgrade. Saved me hours of work. Thanks to everyone who commented.
Problem with in-place upgrade from Windows Server 2019 to 2022
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TomaszW-0873
156
Reputation points
I have an issue when I try to do an in-place upgrade from Windows Server 2019 to Windows Server 2022. Installation itself starts, run okay but after restarting, system reverts to older version of Windows and I got the following errors:
0x800F081E-0x2003
The installation failed in the SAFE_OS phase with an error during INSTALL_UPDATES operation
Windows for business | Windows Server | User experience | Other
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Brian Hoyt 111 Reputation points2023-03-16T16:10:12.6666667+00:00 The final answer for me was an updated ISO. I was told by a MSFT person that this was a bug fixed in November update. I got the latest ISO (Feb 2023 at the time) and was able to do in place upgrade on all my remaining servers.
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Robert Sandri (rsandri) 5 Reputation points2023-03-20T01:39:34.63+00:00 The Feb 2023 ISO will not work if you have applied VMware Tools 12.2.0 first. A Windows Server 2019 running VMware Tools 12.1.5 (and never previously upgraded to VMware Tools 12.2.0) will upgrade using the Feb 2023 ISO. If the Windows Server 2019 guest has been upgraded to the 12.2.0 VMware Tools, you will not be able to upgrade 2019 to 2022 for the time being.
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DavidYorkshire 91 Reputation points2023-03-20T08:27:43.78+00:00 Presumably you could uninstall the VMWare tools, do the upgrade then reinstall the tools?
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Robert Sandri (rsandri) 5 Reputation points
2023-03-20T12:53:57.1166667+00:00 Removing or downgrading the VMware Tools has no effect. I did have success by using the Windows Server 2022 initial ISO released from Microsoft. Others have reported the same but using an ISO from 2021. I have not tested the latter.
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Robert Sandri (rsandri) 5 Reputation points
2023-03-22T12:47:27.6833333+00:00 Solution: If you have already installed VMware Tools 12.2.0, you must use an older Windows 2022 ISO to perform an upgrade. I can confirm that the initial Windows Server 2022 release ISO works for the upgrade. Others have reported success with year 2021 ISO releases.
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Chris Findley 0 Reputation points2023-04-17T19:59:24.87+00:00 Experience date: April 2023, running VMware Tools version 12.1.0, Server 2019 with 23-04 Windows updates.
Using SW_DVD9_Win_Server_STD_CORE_2022_2108.11_64Bit_English_DC_STD_MLF_X23-17134.ISO failed with and without disabled update check.
Using SW_DVD9_Win_Server_STD_CORE_2022_2108.19_64Bit_English_DC_STD_MLF_X23-40586.ISO succeeded but only with disabled update check.
The subsequent check for Windows updates found 23-04 Cumulative and 22-08 Security for 21H2.
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Robert Sandri (rsandri) 5 Reputation points
2023-06-13T13:12:29.76+00:00 I can confirm that the May 2023 version of the Windows Server 2022 ISO works for upgrades regardless of the situations outlined above,
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Anonymous2023-12-05T01:34:09.34+00:00 Hi Robert Sandri, Can you please post the May 2023 version of the Windows Server 2022 ISO full file name with prefix number part of it? e.g. SW_DVD9_Win_Server_STD_CORE_2022_2108.23_64BitEnglish_DC_STD_MLFX23-50413.ISO
As i am facing the issue with "The installation failed in the SAFE_OS phase" but it does not say : "INSTALL_UPDATES operation" for me but fails with: The installation failed in the SAFE_OS phase
I am trying to upgrade from Windows Server 2016 Standard(Desktop) to Windows Server 2022 (Desktop)
My VM is running on VMware Tools version is on: version:12384 as my ESXi hosts are running on ESXi version 8 -
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Massimo Cracchiolo 0 Reputation points2025-05-01T21:00:44.8233333+00:00 I was having the same problem with the Feb 2023 ISO. I happened to check and saw that there is a March 2025 ISO. I used the March 2025 ISO and was able to upgrade successfully without issue.
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23 answers
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![](data:image/svg+xml, %3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' height='64' class='font-weight-bold' style='font: 600 30.11764705882353px "SegoeUI", Arial' width='64'%3E%3Ccircle fill='hsl(80, 46%, 17%)' cx='32' cy='32' r='32' /%3E%3Ctext x='50%25' y='55%25' dominant-baseline='middle' text-anchor='middle' fill='%23FFF' %3ED%3C/text%3E%3C/svg%3E)
DS 31 Reputation points2022-12-08T14:57:03.91+00:00 -
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Sal Urbina 5 Reputation points2023-03-10T05:00:26.8033333+00:00 can you provide a link to where i can obtain the 2021 august iso?
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DavidYorkshire 91 Reputation points
2023-01-10T16:39:50.43+00:00 I've had this issue a couple of times - first a few months back on a fileserver, but as the configuration was fairly simple I just clean installed it,leaving the data drive intact, then set up the share permissions again afterwards. Since then I've upgraded several servers with no issues but had the same problem today, with a management VM which has a lot of stuff installed and I didn't want to have to clean install it. The suggestion above to turn off updates at the beginning of the installer worked - thanks!
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Brian Hoyt 111 Reputation points
2023-03-16T16:09:46.02+00:00 The final answer for me was an updated ISO. I was told by a MSFT person that this was a bug fixed in November update. I got the latest ISO (Feb 2023 at the time) and was able to do in place upgrade on all my remaining servers.
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![](data:image/svg+xml, %3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' height='64' class='font-weight-bold' style='font: 600 30.11764705882353px "SegoeUI", Arial' width='64'%3E%3Ccircle fill='hsl(243.2, 7.000000000000001%, 33%)' cx='32' cy='32' r='32' /%3E%3Ctext x='50%25' y='55%25' dominant-baseline='middle' text-anchor='middle' fill='%23FFF' %3EAG%3C/text%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Alec Garcia 46 Reputation points2023-03-16T16:16:21.4566667+00:00 About time they make an update that actaully fixes something!!!.....
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Anonymous
2024-03-07T12:06:14.67+00:00 I used the SW_DVD9_Win_Server_STD_CORE_2022_2108.30_64Bit_English_DC_STD_MLF_X23-69130.iso on a VMware Tools v12.0 virtual machine and still fails. May have to look at a migration approach to new servers.
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![](data:image/svg+xml, %3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' height='64' class='font-weight-bold' style='font: 600 30.11764705882353px "SegoeUI", Arial' width='64'%3E%3Ccircle fill='hsl(32, 82%, 13%)' cx='32' cy='32' r='32' /%3E%3Ctext x='50%25' y='55%25' dominant-baseline='middle' text-anchor='middle' fill='%23FFF' %3ER%3C/text%3E%3C/svg%3E)
RedVision81 31 Reputation points2023-03-22T08:15:47.8033333+00:00 Inplace Update with current Server2022 Iso (SW_DVD9_Win_Server_STD_CORE_2022_2108.18_64Bit_English_DC_STD_MLF_X23-37922) and Vmware Tools 12.1.5 worked without any issues.
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Anonymous
2023-06-13T13:05:59.2433333+00:00 Here we are in June and still having this problem. Where are you guys downloading the older ISOs?