Migration: 2016 to 2025
Migrate Websites from Windows Server 2016 to Windows Server 2025
Windows Server 2016 stops getting security updates on 12 January 2027. Its websites typically run on IIS 10, PHP 7.x and MySQL 5.7, close enough to a modern server that the move looks easy, and different enough that it quietly breaks. Here is how to move them to Windows Server 2025 on your own timetable, well before the deadline.
Website migration £49 £24.50 one-off per old server; included in every Agency licence. New server from £99 £49.50 for twelve months. 30-day money-back promise.
The deadline
Why move from Windows Server 2016 now
Extended support for Windows Server 2016 ends on 12 January 2027. After that, every security flaw found in it stays open unless you pay Microsoft for Extended Security Updates. Moving in the last few weeks means doing it under pressure; moving now means testing each site on the new server while the old one carries on serving.
Upgrade in place, or move?
Microsoft supports an in-place upgrade from 2016 to 2025, and on a file server it can make sense. On a web server it carries every old setting, permission and workaround across, takes the sites offline while it runs, and is hard to undo. A fresh 2025 server with the websites migrated onto it is quicker to verify and leaves the 2016 server as your fallback until DNS is switched.
What a Windows Server 2016 website usually looks like
- IIS 10, the same major version as 2025, which is why the move looks simpler than it is: the IIS settings carry over, the old permissions and handler paths do not.
- PHP 7.0 to 7.4, all out of security support, often with a php.ini edited in place over the years.
- MySQL 5.7, whose dumps write
NO_AUTO_CREATE_USERinto every trigger and stored routine, a setting MySQL 8 no longer knows, so a plain import stops halfway. - WordPress, Laravel or custom PHP connecting as a database user that exists only on the old server.
Rebuilt, not cloned
Your websites move. Your old server's baggage does not.
An in-place upgrade or a clone brings every 2016 workaround along. ServerMaid takes only what belongs to each website and rebuilds it on the new server's hardened baseline.
Left behind on purpose
- Old permissions and accounts that no longer exist
- The old web.config and its missing handlers
- Old database accounts and grants
- Logs, temp files and abandoned backups
- The hand-made settings nobody wrote down
Rebuilt on the new baseline
- The site's files, database and host names
- Fresh least-privilege permissions for the site's own identity
- A web.config written for the new server
- A new database account limited to its own database
- Free SSL, proven backups and monitoring from day one
How it works
Windows Server 2016 to 2025 in four steps
1. Build the 2025 server
Rent a Windows Server 2025 VPS and let ServerMaid build it: hardened IIS, a supported PHP 8 line, MySQL 8.4 LTS, backups and a locked-down Remote Desktop.
2. Run Migrate on the 2016 server
ServerMaid Migrate runs on Windows Server 2016 and only reads. Tick the websites; it copies their files and dumps their databases into one package, and reads WordPress and Laravel database settings for you.
3. Check the PHP 8 report
PHP 7 code mostly runs on PHP 8. Migrate lists what does not (each(), create_function(), and other features PHP 8 removed), with the file and line, before you import.
4. Import and switch DNS
Each site is rebuilt with its own folder, pool, permissions and database, its MySQL 5.7 dump cleaned for MySQL 8.4. Test it, point DNS at the new server, and free SSL follows.
A simple timetable
- This month: build the 2025 server and import the websites. The 2016 server keeps serving.
- Test each site on the new server before it goes live, and fix anything in the PHP 8 report.
- A day before each switch, lower the DNS TTL for that domain so the change takes effect quickly.
- Switch DNS site by site. ServerMaid adds the free SSL certificate once the domain points at the new server.
- Keep the 2016 server for a week or two as a fallback, then retire it well before 12 January 2027.
Still on Windows Server 2012? That move is overdue: see Windows Server 2012 to 2025 migration.
Questions about Windows Server 2016 to 2025 migration
When does Windows Server 2016 support end?
Extended support ends on 12 January 2027. Mainstream support ended in January 2022; since then it has had security fixes only.
Can I upgrade Windows Server 2016 in place to 2025?
Microsoft supports it, but for a web server a fresh 2025 build plus a migration is safer and easier to undo: the 2016 server keeps serving until you switch DNS, and none of its old settings come across.
Will my PHP 7 site work on PHP 8?
Usually, with a few changes at most. Migrate's PHP 8 report lists every removed feature the site uses, with file and line, before you import.
What about my MySQL 5.7 databases?
Migrate dumps them and ServerMaid fixes what MySQL 8.4 refuses, such as NO_AUTO_CREATE_USER in triggers and zero dates, without changing your data. Each site gets a new database account of its own.
What does it cost?
£49 £24.50 one-off per old server for the migration, plus a licence for the new 2025 server (Server setup £99 £49.50 and Websites and SSL £79 £39.50 for twelve months). Agency licences include migration. See pricing.
Off Windows Server 2016 before January 2027
The sites rebuilt properly on 2025 while the old server keeps serving, and a plain list of anything that needs a developer.