Offline installation of OpenSSH Server on Windows Server 2019

Windows Server 2019 has a lot of additional capabilities that can be added. Those features are easily added with the Add-WindowsCapability PowerShell cmdlet. When adding a capability it pulls from either the Internet or a WSUS server. Sometimes the capability needs to be added in an offline environment where there is no Internet and the WSUS server is non-existent or does not have the package. In that case the Windows Server 2019 Features On Demand (FOD) ISO is needed and the -source parameter then can be used to add the capability. The Features On Demand ISO can be downloaded from MSDN or my.visualstudio.com.

While there is a Windows Server 2019 Features On Demand ISO it does not contain all the capabilities, such as OpenSSH server. That capability is on the Windows 10 Features On Demand ISO. However the Windows 10 Features On Demand ISO cannot be used on a Windows Server 2019 OS. There is a little work around though.

For this work around you will need both the Windows Server 2019 Features On Demand disc and the Windows 10 Features On Demand disc. Once you have both discs / ISOs downloaded follow these simple steps.

1. Extract the entire Windows Server 2019 Features On Demand ISO to a local directory on the server (e.g. C:\FOD).
2. Open up the Windows 10 Features On Demand ISO and copy the following cab files to the directory with the extracted Windows Server 2019 Features On Demand files.
   • OpenSSH-Client-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~.cab
   • OpenSSH-Server-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~.cab
3. Run the Add-WindowsCapability -online -name OpenSSH.Server~~~~0.0.1.0 -source C:\FOD

You will then see the following output:
Add-WindowsCapability -Name OpenSSH.Server~~~~0.0.1.0 -Online -Source c:\FOD

Path :
Online : True
RestartNeeded : False

Now OpenSSH Server is installed on the server in an offline environment you will be able to see the OpenSSH SSH Server service.