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Hyper-V Server Now Available!

The free Hyper-V Server is now available here: http://www.microsoft.com/servers/hyper-v-server/how-to-get.mspx

If you have not been paying attention as to what Hyper-V Server is - let me steal some content from the official web page:

Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 provides a simplified, reliable, and optimized virtualization solution, enabling improved server utilization and reduced costs. Since Hyper-V Server is a dedicated stand-alone product, which contains only the Windows Hypervisor, Windows Server driver model and virtualization components, it provides a small footprint and minimal overhead. It easily plugs into customers’ existing IT environments, leveraging their existing patching, provisioning, management, support tools, processes, and skills.

And here is the official comparison table:

The following table outlines which Hyper-V–enabled product would suit your needs:

Virtualization Needs

Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008

Windows Server 2008 Standard

Windows Server 2008 Enterprise

Windows Server 2008 Datacenter

Server Consolidation

 Available Available Available Available

Test and Development

 Available Available Available Available

Mixed OS Virtualization (Linux and Windows)

 Available Available Available Available

Local Graphical User Interface

   Available Available Available

High Availability—Clustering

     Available Available

Quick Migration

     Available Available

Large Memory Support (Host OS) > 32 GB RAM

     Available Available

Support for > 4 Processors (Host OS)

     Available Available

Ability to Add Additional Server Roles

   Available Available Available

Virtualization Rights per Server License

Each VM Guest requires a server license

1 Physical + 1 VM

1 Physical + 4 VMs

1 Physical + Unlimited VMs

So go grab a copy and check it out!

Cheers,
Ben

Published Wednesday, October 01, 2008 11:59 PM by Virtual PC Guy
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Comments

Thursday, October 02, 2008 7:09 AM by Jim

# re: Hyper-V Server Now Available!

I've been Johnny Appleseed, sprinking this question around here and there on different MS blogs, but they've borne no fruit.

Can a body boostrap a VM under Hyp-V such that, once the server's up and running, it can be maintained from within a VM on the server, as opposed to the three remote options mentioned in the documentation?

Seems to me this would be a common request. Thanks for any info,

Thursday, October 02, 2008 9:41 AM by Sean Kearney

# re: Hyper-V Server Now Available!

Ahhhh! That's a good one!  If one did want to do that, what does Hyper-V need to see the VHD,VMC files to start it up?  A few registry entries and then reboot the box?

Thursday, October 02, 2008 3:50 PM by David

# re: Hyper-V Server Now Available!

Other than licensing and supported roles, what else is different between Hyper-V server and Server 2008 Core?

Saturday, October 04, 2008 8:11 AM by Adam

# Why no x86 version

I assume it's little more than a marketing push [to x64] but any reason why there is no x86 version for Hyper-V? I had hoped that since it was being detached from Windows 2008 that x86 may be supported.

Sunday, October 05, 2008 11:04 AM by mark

# re: Hyper-V Server Now Available!

Jim/Johnny-Appleseed... any fruit yet on the issue of managing from within?  I'd like to do that as well...

Monday, October 06, 2008 12:56 PM by Jim

# re: Hyper-V Server Now Available!

Mark, sadly, no (useful) response, and I haven't been able to track down a definitive answer through other avenues, either.

Seems this technical blog is meant to be one-way only.

Tuesday, October 07, 2008 3:45 AM by Virtual PC Guy

# re: Hyper-V Server Now Available!

Jim -

No, this is not possible.  In order to do this you would need to have a program to connect to the virtual machine directly from the parent partition, as our in-box UI needs .NET to run this will not work on server core.  I do agree that it would be a neat idea

David -

There are some other differences - but they are essentially the same.

Adam -

Hyper-V has been designed as 64-bit only from the ground up.  Adding support for 32-bit platforms would involve years of work - and pretty much all hardware coming out today is 64-bit capable.

Cheers,

Ben

Tuesday, October 07, 2008 2:49 PM by Mark

# re: Hyper-V Server Now Available!

Virtual PC Guy-- "in-box UI needs .NET to run"... just to be clear, and I'm about the furthest from expert, but I was (and I think others were) envisioning when Hyper-V starts, have it boot a VM/OS (from the Hyper-V command line?  or maybe a default VM on startup?  even possible??) which would then have a full .NET/GUI/etc. and manage Hyper-V from there.  If I could do that, I'd install tonight.  Without that, I can't see managing my box remotely every time I wanted to start/configure something...

Monday, October 13, 2008 10:03 AM by Brett Baggott

# re: Hyper-V Server Now Available!

@Mark - I'm coming in at the tail end of this and I don't profess to be an expert but what I don't think you're taking into consideration is that the _HOST_ in this case does not have "a full .NET/GUI/etc." running.

Your console accesses the _HOST_ which has no way to show you the full GUI.

This same scenario exists with ESX from VMware, there is no way to show one of the VM's GUI's from the HOST console.

Please excuse me if I misunderstand something, just trying to help.

Monday, October 13, 2008 12:53 PM by Mark

# re: Hyper-V Server Now Available!

Brett: thanks... yeah I got that the _HOST_ doesn't have a GUI... what I'm asking is, can I have the _HOST_ start a VM (either via the console or automatically on start-up) that DOES have a GUI so that I can manage the _HOST_ and other VMs from there?

Tuesday, October 21, 2008 2:35 PM by Exotic Hadron

# re: Hyper-V Server Now Available!

I believe the question Mark is asking is if he can access child partition via RDP or the same <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=6F69D661-5B91-4E5E-A6C0-210E629E1C42&displaylang=en">Hyper-V MMC</a> or <a href="http://blogs.msdn.com/virtual_pc_guy/archive/2008/03/25/hyper-v-management-tools-available-for-vista-sp1.aspx">remote management from Vista</a> you can use to manage a primary partition.

1. Can you just directly access your VM once Hyper-V server is configured and has its VMs running? (I believe, you can. What's the best practice?)

2. Can you configure your primary parition from your child partition the way you would do it if the primary partition had a GUI and .NET framework. (I believe you can't)

Thank you.

Friday, October 24, 2008 1:04 PM by WBF3

# re: Hyper-V Server Now Available!

If I have a Hyper-V server with no VM's on it can I create one using the Hyper-V manager from a different machine and then export/import to replicate the VM's?

Thanx!

WBF3

Friday, October 24, 2008 4:26 PM by Scott

# re: Hyper-V Server Now Available!

What version of Hyper-V could I run on Vista to run a Virtual XP machine to support legacy apps?

We know that this works with Virtual PC 2007 however there is no USB support in VPC and there is in Hyper-V.

One of the issues we are seeing is with Office 2007 and legacy Access DB.  I know, I know, however these are critical apps that must be run.

Monday, October 27, 2008 12:23 AM by Ken Hansen

# re: Hyper-V Server Now Available!

Hyper-V Server is free, Server Core is not (Server Core is an install option on the licensed product).

Hyper-V Server can host non-MS O/S, but a Vista/Server 2008 instance is needed to manage it.

The real value of Hyper-V Server is in consolidation of existing servers onto one new box - you can do so without purchasing any additional server licenses.

Tuesday, October 28, 2008 4:02 PM by Hyper-V newbi

# re: Hyper-V Server Now Available!

I'm still split over Windows 2008 core server with Hyper-V role and Hyper-V server 2008...  Is there any difference on performance?  I already have Win2k8 datacenter licenses and wonder if I need to install and activate in order to have unlimited licenses of guest.  Clustering (high availability) and memory (>32GB) would be 2 factors for datacenter.... But unless that... ?

As some may said... Food for thought !

Anyone ?

Thanks

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