Microsoft reminded customers that extended support for all editions of Windows Server 2012 and Windows Server 2012 R2 will end on October 10. While Windows Server 2012 came to the end of basic support more than four years ago, in October 2018 Microsoft delayed the end of extended support for five years to allow customers to upgrade to newer, unsupported versions of Windows Server.

After extended support ends, Redmond will stop providing technical support and bug fixes for newly discovered issues that may affect the stability or availability of servers running both versions of the operating system.

“After this date, these products will no longer receive security updates, non-security updates, bug fixes, technical support, or online technical content updates,” Microsoft said on Tuesday.

Today’s reminder comes after two other warnings since July 2021 that the release date for this version of Windows will expire this year. Microsoft recommends that administrators who want to keep their on-premises Windows Server 2012 servers running and receive bug fixes and security updates upgrade to Windows Server 2022 or purchase Advanced Security Updates (ESU).

ESUs will provide them with three years of security updates, renewable annually until October 13, 2026.

Another option is to migrate your databases and applications to Azure VMs, which will give them free ESUs for three years after support ends.

“For on-premises servers, customers can use Azure Arc to get automatic/scheduled updates and ESU setup, as well as security and management features in Azure,” Microsoft said.

Windows Server 2008/R2 (ESU) Extended Security Updates will also end support on January 10, 2023.

“As cyber attacks become more sophisticated and frequent, running applications and data in unsupported versions can pose significant security and compliance risks,” Microsoft said in July 2021.

“Customers are highly recommended to upgrade to the latest versions for better performance, efficiency and regular security updates.”