Hyper-V Server R2 features

Microsoft Hyper-V (formerly codenamed Viridian) is hypervisor-based visualization for Windows Server based x86-64 systems. The beta of Hyper-V shipped some x64 editions of Windows Server 2008, and the finalized version was released via Windows Update in June 2008 and has since been released as a free stand-alone version (Hyper-V Server 2008 R2).Hyper-V currently exists in two distinct versions: a stand-alone product called Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 and as an integral part of Windows Server 2008 R2.
Getting Started
The first requirement is for a machine which can support a 64-bit operating system. You will need a clean installation of Windows Server 2008 Enterprise Edition (64-bit version) , as Hyper-V will not run within a virtual machine due to the need for hardware-assisted virtualization.
Prior to installing Hyper-V you should take some precautions, namely:
Back up all data on the system.
Take an inventory of all virtual machines you will be migrating to the Hyper-V machine, including all of the virtual hardware settings for the virtual machines.
Back up all virtual hard disks (VHDs) which will be migrated.
Enable the hardware-assisted virtualization. This is normally found in the computer’s BIOS, and it may be necessary to refer to the documentation or contact for how to enable this.
Install Windows Server 2008 / or 2008 R2. In this case, we will be using the full installation option (but note that Hyper-V can be also used on a Server Core installation).
Do not install other roles on the target machine – Hyper-V should be the sole role on the machine that will host virtual machines.

Hyper-V Server R2 vs. Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V
One of Hyper-V Server’s advantages is that its footprint is smaller than that of Windows Server 2008 R2 plus Hyper-V R2. Its biggest plus of course is that it is free. However, in considering this, you have to take into account that it doesn’t include any Windows licenses for guests. Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard includes one Windows Server guest license, Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise includes four Windows guest licenses, and the Datacenter edition allows you to install an unlimited number of Windows Server guests.

Hyper-V Server R2’s features
Except for the first, the new features of Hyper-V Server R2 listed here also apply to Hyper-V:
Boot from flash: Useful for OEMs who want to ship servers with Hyper-V Server (not possible with Hyper-V R2)
Live Migration: Move running VMs from one Hyper-V physical host to another without any disruption (works also between Hyper-V and Hyper-V Server: watch the demo video at end of the post).
High Availability: VMs that go down will automatically restart on another node.
Processor Compatibility for Live Migration: Allows you to move a virtual machine up and down multiple processor generations from the same vendor. Does not, however, allow you to move a VM from an Intel host to a AMD machine or vice versa.
Dynamic Storage: Hot add/remove virtual storage while the VM is running, without downtime.
Physical Processor support: Supports up to 8 CPUs (Hyper-V Server V1 supports 4)
Logical Processor support: Supports up to 64 logical processors (Hyper-V Server V1 supports 16)
Virtual Machine Memory support: Supports up to 1TB (Hyper-V Server V1 supports 32GB)
Management options: System Center Virtual Machine Manager R2 (Hyper-V Server supports SCVMM), Hyper-V Manager
10 Gb/E Ready
Improved processor and networking performance

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