• Article

Creating and Modifying Hyper-V Host Clusters in VMM

 

Updated: May 13, 2016

Applies To: System Center 2012 SP1 - Virtual Machine Manager, System Center 2012 R2 Virtual Machine Manager, System Center 2012 - Virtual Machine Manager

This section explains how to create, add, or remove nodes, and how to uncluster Hyper-V host clusters in Virtual Machine Manager (VMM). If you manage clustered Hyper-V hosts through VMM, you can support highly available virtual machines, along with features such as dynamic optimization and power optimization.

As of System Center 2012, VMM provides several new improvements that simplify the creation and management of Hyper-V host clusters. These improvements include the following:

  • A new Create Cluster Wizard that you can use to cluster managed Hyper-V hosts that are in a trusted domain by using the VMM console.

    Note

    In VMM 2008 R2, you had to create the cluster outside VMM, and then bring it under VMM management. Be aware that this functionality is still supported. For more information, see the topics How to Add Trusted Hyper-V Hosts and Host Clusters in VMM and How to Add Untrusted Hyper-V Hosts and Host Clusters in VMM.

  • The ability to add nodes to, or remove nodes from, a Hyper-V host cluster through the VMM console.

  • The ability to uncluster a Hyper-V host cluster into stand-alone hosts from the VMM console.

Note

If you want to use VMM to create Hyper-V host clusters running Windows Server 2012 R2, the VMM server must run System Center 2012 R2 with the Windows Server 2012 R2 operating system.

However, you can create clusters running Windows Server 2012 R2 outside of VMM and then add them to VMM, even if the VMM management server runs the Windows Server 2012 operating system.

In this section

Use the information in the following topics to create or modify a Hyper-V host cluster through VMM.

Topic Description
Creating a Hyper-V Host Cluster in VMM Overview Provides an overview of the cluster creation process in VMM. Links to prerequisites and a procedure that shows how to create a Hyper-V host cluster.
Modifying a Hyper-V Host Cluster in VMM Links to procedures that show how to add a node to a Hyper-V host cluster, how to remove a node, and how to uncluster a Hyper-V host cluster.
Configuring Hyper-V Host Cluster Properties in VMM Describes the properties of Hyper-V host clusters. Links to more detailed information about how to configure storage for a Hyper-V host cluster.