Overview of Hyper-V
Applies To: Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2
Note
For information about Hyper-V in Windows Server® 2012, see https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkId=234785.
Hyper-V in Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2 enables you to create a virtualized server computing environment. You can use a virtualized computing environment to improve the efficiency of your computing resources by utilizing more of your hardware resources. This is possible because you use Hyper-V to create and manage virtual machines and their resources. Each virtual machine is a virtualized computer system that operates in an isolated execution environment. This allows you to run multiple operating systems simultaneously on one physical computer.
Note
Hyper-V is a hypervisor-based virtualization technology that requires specific hardware. For more information about the requirements and other considerations, see the following:
- For Windows Server 2008, see Hardware Considerations for Hyper-V in Windows Server 2008.
- For Windows Server 2008 R2, see Requirements and Limits for Virtual Machines and Hyper-V in Windows Server 2008 R2.
What does Hyper-V do?
Hyper-V provides software infrastructure and basic management tools that you can use to create and manage a virtualized server computing environment. This virtualized environment can be used to address a variety of business goals aimed at improving efficiency and reducing costs. For example, a virtualized server environment can help you:
Reduce the costs of operating and maintaining physical servers by increasing your hardware utilization. You can reduce the amount of hardware needed to run your server workloads.
Increase development and test efficiency by reducing the amount of time it takes to set up hardware and software and reproduce test environments.
Improve server availability without using as many physical computers as you would need in a failover configuration that uses only physical computers.
Who will be interested in this role?
Hyper-V can be useful to you if you are:
An IT administrator, planner, or designer.
An IT architect responsible for computer management and security throughout your organization.
An IT operations manager who is looking for ways to reduce the total cost of ownership of their server infrastructure, in terms of both power costs and management costs.
A software developer or tester who is looking for ways to increase productivity by reducing the time it takes to build and configure a server for development or test use.
What are the key features of Hyper-V?
The key features of Hyper-V are as follows:
64-bit native hypervisor-based virtualization.
Ability to run 32-bit and 64-bit virtual machines concurrently.
Uniprocessor and multiprocessor virtual machines.
Virtual machine snapshots, which capture the state, data, and hardware configuration of a running virtual machine. Because snapshots record system states, you can revert the virtual machine to a previous state.
Large virtual machine memory support.
Virtual local area network (VLAN) support.
Microsoft Management Console (MMC) management snap-in.
Documented Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) interfaces for scripting and management.
Hyper-V in Windows Server 2008 R2 adds the following features:
Live migration
Dynamic virtual machine storage
Enhanced processor support
Enhanced networking support
For more information about the new Hyper-V features included in Windows Server 2008 R2, see What's New in Hyper-V in Windows Server 2008 R2. For more information about the WMI interfaces, see Virtualization WMI Provider (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=108564).