Hyper-V is a hypervisor-based virtualization platform that Microsoft includes with Windows Server 2008. Unlike Virtual Server 2005 R2, which is a hosted technology running on top of the Windows Server 2003 operating system, Hyper-V runs directly on the system hardware. Hyper-V can run on a full Windows Server 2008 installation or it can run on a minimal Server Core installation for maximum performance with minimal overhead and a relatively small attack surface. Hyper-V requires a 64-bit host and provides support for 32-bit and 64-bit guest virtual machines.

For more information about Hyper-V, visit the Hyper-V forum (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=127700) on Microsoft TechNet.

For more information about the guest operating systems supported by Hyper-V, see Supported Operating Systems for Virtual Machines.

In Virtual Machine Manager (VMM), you can create new virtual machines from any of the following sources:

• Existing virtual hard disks (VHDs)
• Blank virtual hard disks
• Templates
• Existing virtual machines
  
  • Hyper-V virtual machines
  • Virtual Server virtual machines
  • VMware virtual machines

For more information, see Sources of New Virtual Machines.

Important Considerations When Creating Hyper-V Virtual Machines

System Center Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) 2008 allows you to convert existing virtual machines to Hyper-V virtual machines. For example, VMM can copy existing VMware virtual machines and create Hyper-V virtual machines. VMM can also migrate existing Virtual Server virtual machines to a Hyper-V host.

Considerations When Converting VMware Virtual Machines

Virtual-to-virtual (V2V) machine conversion is a read-only operation that does not delete or affect the original source virtual machine. In VMM 2008, depending on the location of the VMware virtual machine, you can perform a V2V conversion in the following ways:

Note   The host server cannot be in a perimeter network (also known as a screened subnet) where the firewalls or IPsec settings prohibit communication

For more information, see V2V: Converting Virtual Machines in VMM.

Considerations When Migrating Virtual Server Virtual Machines

System Center Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) allows you to convert existing physical computers into Hyper-V virtual machines through a process known as physical-to-virtual (P2V) conversion. VMM simplifies P2V conversion by providing a task-based wizard to automate much of the conversion process. Because the P2V process is completely scriptable, you can initiate large-scale P2V conversions through the Windows PowerShell command line.

For more information, see P2V: Converting Physical Computers to Virtual Machines in VMM.

P2V Considerations

Instead of using Virtual Machine Remote Control (VMRC) to control virtual machines on a Hyper-V host by remote control, VMM uses the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP). Depending on the operating system that is running on the computer that the VMM Administrator Console is installed on, we connect to a different target for RDP and use a different port number. For all supported versions of Windows Server 2008 and for Windows Vista SP1, VMM connects via RDP to the host with the default port of 2179. For any other operating system, VMM connects via RDP to the guest operating system with the default port of 3389.

For information about changing the global default port, see How to Change Remote Connections to Virtual Machines on a Host (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=123607).

To install the Hyper-V integration components through the VMM Administrator Console, right-click a powered off virtual machine and select Install Virtual Guest Services. The following actions will also automatically install the Hyper-V integration components:

• P2V conversion
• V2V conversion
• Creating a new virtual machine
• Migrating a virtual machine from Virtual Server to Hyper-V

For Hyper-V hosts, VMM 2008 makes use of the virtual networks in Windows Server 2008 virtualization, which are capable of using virtual local area networks (VLANs). A VLAN provides a method for creating independent logical networks within a physical network. This helps ease network administration by separating the logical segments of a LAN that should not exchange data, and this is done by using a LAN that is software-based rather than hardware-based. Because a VLAN configuration is software-based, computers can easily be moved and still maintain their network configurations.

For Hyper-V hosts, VMM uses a port-based approach for tagging VLANs, which means that each port on a virtual network can be configured to be part of different VLANs. You can configure VLANs by assigning a numerical value called a VLAN identifier (VLAN ID) at the port level. Internally, all network traffic originating from that port is tagged with this VLAN ID. Networks, both virtual and physical, that are VLAN-enabled route all tagged network traffic based on the VLAN ID of the tag. This ensures that network traffic for a VLAN is routed only to and from ports on the same VLAN.

For more information, see How to Add or Modify Virtual Networks on a Host (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=163453).

• SCSI and IDE—You must use SCSI if you need to expose more than four virtual disks to your guest. You must use IDE to start from that virtual disk or if there are no Integration Components in the guest operating system. You can use both IDE and SCSI with the same virtual machine.

Ensure that you new hosts have all updates that are available through Microsoft Updates. If a server is not up to date, it might have a status of Needs Attention. In this situation, right-click the host, choose Properties, and then click the Status tab. If the Virtualization service version status is not Up-to-date, you need to upgrade Hyper-V or apply the BITS QFE.

Additional Resources