Virtualization with Hyper-V: Features

Getting Started
Program Details
Customer Perspectives
Technical Resources
Community Resources

Introducing Hyper-V

With Hyper-V, it's easier than ever to take advantage of the cost savings of
virtualization through Windows Server 2008. Optimize your server hardware investments by consolidating multiple server roles as separate virtual machines running on a single physical machine, efficiently run multiple different operating systems in parallel, on a single server, and fully leverage the power of x64 computing.

Overview	FAQ	Hyper-V in R2
Overview	FAQ	Hyper-V in R2

Product Details

Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V, the next-generation hypervisor-based server virtualization technology, is available as an integral feature of Windows Server 2008 and enables you to implement server virtualization with ease. Hyper-V allows you to make the best use of your server hardware investments by consolidating multiple server roles as separate virtual machines (VMs) running on a single physical machine.

Program Overview	Partners
Application Support	Supported Guest OS

Customer Perspectives
and Case Studies

How can Microsoft products and services help your business succeed? Case studies provide the proof points you need to plan and deploy effective virtualization solutions. Learn from similar organizations in your industry, and see why they are choosing Hyper-V to achieve highly effective virtual environments.

Technical Resources

Consolidating servers and enabling a high-performance virtual environment is the key to many high availability to mission-critical applications. Businesses are under pressure to ease management and reduce costs while retaining and enhancing competitive advantages, such as flexibility, reliability, scalability, and security. Discover the many benefits of the virtualization capabilities in Windows Server 2008 and access the technical resources and links to get your team started.

Community Resources

Whether you're considering which product and technologies to use, or need support for solutions you’ve implemented, find the right venue to learn from others like you. Community resources provide powerful options to learn from other IT professionals and developers who have implemented a wide range of
Hyper-V solutions. Learn and participate with your peers, as well as the Virtualization development team.

Hyper-V provides a reliable virtualization platform that enables customers to virtualize their infrastructure and reduce costs. It has thin microkernelized hypervisor architecture with minimal attack surface and is available as a Server Core role. With System Center integrated management tools, customers can use a single set of tools to manage both their physical and virtual resources. It easily plugs into customers’ IT infrastructure, as they can leverage their existing patching, provisioning, management and support tools, and processes. It provides great value, as it is available as a feature of Windows Server 2008, and customers can leverage the breadth of solutions from Microsoft partners, existing IT Pro skill sets, and comprehensive support from Microsoft.

Key Features of Hyper-V

Hyper-V as a part of x64 editions of Windows Server 2008 RTM (Standard, Enterprise, and Datacenter) includes the following capabilities:

Quick migration

Enables movement of running virtual machines from one host to other host servers with minimal downtime.

High Availability

Hyper-V includes support for host-to-host connectivity and enables you to cluster all virtual machines running on a host.

Server Core role

Hyper-V is now available as a role in a Server Core installation of Windows Server 2008.

Integrated into Server Manager

Hyper-V is integrated into Server Manager by default and customers can now enable the role within Server Manager.

Live Backups with VSS

Hyper-V includes support for Volume Shadow Copy Services (VSS) to enable you to take Live Backups of running virtual machines in terms of snapshots.

VHD tools

Hyper-V also includes support for VHD tools to enable compaction, expansion and inspection of VHDs created with Hyper-V.

Linux integration components

Linux integration components are available for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 x86 and x64 Editions. These integration components enable Xen-enabled Linux to take advantage of the VSP/VSC architecture and provide improved performance. Linux integration components are available for immediate download here.

VM Manageability

Enables customers to easily import or export virtual machine settings to take backups of configurations and to be able to clone the virtual machine characteristics across different hosts.

Improved performance

Hyper-V includes several fixes to improve performance. All new Windows Server 2008 virtual machines will now automatically include the integration components.

Improved access control with AzMan

Hyper-V now includes support for Authorization Manager (AzMan) to enable Role-Based Access Control models for better administration of the Hyper-V environment with increased security.

Remote Management

Hyper-V supports remote management and also provides a Hyper-V MMC only installation option for a separate management node.

Increased Virtual SCSI support

Hyper-V now includes support for up to four virtual SCSI controllers per virtual machine enabling broader disk support.

Increased Memory Support

Hyper-V supports up to 64GB of memory per virtual machine.

Quick Reset

Hyper-V provides administrators the option to quickly Reset Checkboxes and Delete saved credentials that are used to connect to virtual machines.

Technologies

Active Directory
Branch Office
Core Infrastructure
Failover Clustering
High Availability
High Performance
Identity and Access
Internet Information Services 7.0
Network Access Protection
Remote Desktop Services(formerly Terminal Services)
Security and Policy Enforcement
Server Management
Storage and Print Solutions
Virtualization with Hyper-V

Related Resources

Hyper-V RTM Update (KB950050)
Hyper-V Downloads
Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit for Hyper-V
Microsoft Virtualization website
Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008
Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008

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