In a recent article, MNP’s Kerry Mann, National Leader – Enterprise Resource Planning, discussed the costs, risks and challenges of...
Windows 8 Virtualization – Hyper-V
Hyper-V configured and running from within Windows 8 has been named Client Hyper-V to distinguish it from the Hyper-V offering in Windows 2012 Server. Yet it can be used to remotely create and manage guests on other Hyper-V servers (Windows 8 and Windows 2012 only).
Windows 8 Client Hyper-V also allows 64-Bit operating system guests. Prior desktop versions of Microsoft Virtualization tools; Virtual PC and Windows Virtual PC had only allowed 32-bit guest operating systems.
Guest operating systems get native access to hardware; e.g. a Windows 8 guest OS can utilize all the full touch and gesture controls just as the host Windows 8 operating system can; additionally guests get support for 3D, audio and multi-touch. This overall translates to virtual operating systems running with no slow-down.
A newer Virtual Hard Disk format, VHDX, allows for virtual disks sized up to 64 TB, protects against data corruption during power failures, and ensures quality performance on large-sector disks. and supports multiple forms of storage, namely: IDE, iSCSI, SMB File Shares, and USB flash drives.
Hyper-V allows the movement of virtual machine storage, while the virtual machine is still operational; this feature known as live/storage migration allows for zero-downtime as storage is added or as virtual machine is moved to a faster physical storage.
Dynamic Memory is more improved for hyper-v but comes to the desktop system for the first time. Basically it allows for allocating a minimum amount of memory to Guest OSes which increases the virtual machine consolidation numbers.
Requirements :
- 64 bit Windows 8 Pro
- SLAT (CPU Feature). **
- Hardware Virtualization
- Min 4GB of Memory
Hyper-V is not enabled by default, but can be done so by :
- First enabling Virtualization Technology from within BIOS.
- And then enabling Hyper-V (Platform, or Management Tools, or both) via the “Turn Windows features on or off” or using PowerShell:
- Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature-Online-FeatureName Microsoft-Hyper-V
Additional Information:
