Hyper-V is designed as a role of Windows Server 2008 that provides the technology to build and manage an advanced virtualized server system. Hyper-V allows virtual machines to utilize large amounts of memory, high-powered multi-core processors, dynamic storage systems, and the latest high-speed network connectivity. With integrated tools for managing physical and virtual resources, Hyper-V cuts the time required to configure hardware and software, replicate computing environments, and restore downed systems. Hyper-V offers advantages over Microsoft's Virtual Server 2005 by allowing the management of 32-bit and 64-bit virtual machines at the same time.

The version of Hyper-V introduced with Windows Server 2008 R2 includes important enhancements including live migration capability, the ability to handle 64 logical processors, improved performance with newer CPUs through Second Level Address Translation, management support from System Center Virtual Machine Manager for Hyper-V, and advanced support for failover clusters.

Decision Consultants’ Microsoft Gold-certified consultants can provide cost-effective remote consulting services to help you quantify the potential business benefits of Hyper-V-powered virtualization and design a deployment of Hyper-V that consolidates your server and storage hardware while improving security, reliability, performance, manageability, and recoverability. Decision Consultants can provide installation and configuration services that follow industry best practices for setting up a first-time virtual server environment or for migrating smoothly from an earlier version of Hyper-V or from a different virtualization platform. Decision Consultants can provide Windows Server 2008 R2 consulting, assistance with System Center Virtual Machine Manager for Hyper-V, comprehensive IT management services, online emergency troubleshooting, and custom webinar training to help you maintain your Hyper-V solution.

Architecture of Hyper-V

Hyper-V's microkernelized hypervisor-based architecture provides a secure, robust platform for managing virtual machines. The small-footprint hypervisor contains no drivers, which are instead hosted in the parent partition. Combined with an advanced IO sharing model, the Hyper-V architecture offers better protection than Microsoft's previous virtualization solutions.

Hyper-V's rich feature set includes support for symmetric multiprocessing (SMP), dynamic storage, live migration, host clustering, and expanded memory. An entry-level edition with a single-role version of Windows, called Hyper-V Server 2008 R2, is available as a free download.

Hyper-V provides consolidation of a variety of services which can be demanding on processing resources, such as Microsoft SQL Server. Hyper-V also supports third-party applications designed for previous versions of Windows or for Linux. As with all mainstream virtualization solutions, Hyper-V saves money by reducing the cost of server hardware and the costs of utility bills, datacenter space, and maintenance. Hyper-V also improves network availability, expandability, security, and versatility.

Hyper-V supports common virtualization applications including consolidating production servers, speeding up disaster recovery procedures, isolating systems used for developing and validating software, and creating more versatile datacenters that allow existing resources to be repurposed quickly and easily.

Features of the Windows Server 2008 R2 Version of Hyper-V 

The Windows Server 2008 R2 Version of Hyper-V incorporates a variety of features designed to provide world-class reliability, scalability, security, and flexibility. These features include:

• 64-bit native hypervisor-based virtualization
• Ability to run 32-bit and 64-bit virtual machines concurrently
• Microkernelized hypervisor architecture
• Support for a variety of guest operating systems
• Minimal Server Core installation with small attack surface for improved security
• Support for up to 32 processors cores, 64 logical processors, and 384 virtual machines
• Support for 64 GB of RAM per virtual machine and 1 TB of RAM per physical host
• Support for uniprocessor and multiprocessor virtual machines
• Live Migration with failure clustering and shared storage
• Virtual machine snapshots for fast reversion to a previous state.
• Integration of Virtual machine snapshot with Volume Shadow Copy Service
• Hot plug-in and removal of virtual machine storage
• Clustered Shared Volumes (CSV) for increased reliability
• System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2 can manage Live Migration and dynamic storage
• Windows Management Instrumentation interfaces for scripting
• Support for Network Load Balancing
• Granular virtual machine management permissions
• Role-based security through Active Directory integration
• Second Level Address Translation (SLAT) for improved performance
• Core parking for reduced power consumption
• Support for jumbo frames for greater network throughput
• Processor compatibility mode for transparent migration to new physical hosts

Hyper-V's Support for Live Migration

Windows Server 2008 R2's introduction of live migration lifts Hyper-V to enterprise-class status as a virtualization platform. In a failover cluster with shared storage, Hyper-V live migration allows you to move a running virtual machine between nodes in the same cluster. When the virtual machine is being moved, users do not lose their network connection or experience any perceptible downtime. Live migration is most reliable when implemented with Windows Server 2008 R2’s new Cluster Shared Volumes (CSV) feature, which also brings the advantage of a single, consistent file name space so all servers see the same storage. Live migration improves productivity and simplifies management by eliminating the downtime associated with scheduled maintenance and makes it easy for IT administrators to repurpose servers to align with seasonal business demands.

How Decision Consultants Can Help You Benefit from Hyper-V Virtualization

Decision Consultants’ Microsoft-certified Windows Server 2008 R2 consultants can help you assess the potential benefits of Hyper-V-powered virtualization for your business, perform pilot installations to test Hyper-V's operation with your production applications, evaluate your network and server infrastructure for optimal performance with virtualization technology, assist you in migrating to Windows Server 2008 and configuring Hyper-V, train your IT staff to monitor and manage Hyper-V, provide expert consulting support for enhancing the security of your virtual servers, establish and document business continuity plans that maximize network availability, and provide ongoing consulting and technical support including low-cost remote troubleshooting and comprehensive Help Desk services.

Decision Consultants can also show you economical ways to deploy failover clustering so you can benefit from live migration and can help you take advantage of low-cost colocation centers for implementing a multi-site virtual server architecture with a high level of fault tolerance and the ability to recover quickly from disasters. In addition, Decision Consultants can provide comprehensive hosting and support services for virtual environments located at world-class data centers.

Decision Consultants’ 64-bit migration experts can help you assess the advantages and costs of migrating to Windows Server 2008 R2, which is available only as a 64-bit platform, and can assist you to plan, test, and execute a 64-bit migration that is minimally disruptive to your operations. Decision Consultants can also help you with 64-bit upgrades of other Microsoft servers such as Exchange Server, SQL Server, and System Center Operations Manager. For your desktops, Decision Consultants’ Microsoft-certified Windows 7 consultants can help you implement efficient and affordable upgrades to the 64-bit version of Windows 7.

To find out more about how Decision Consultants’ virtual server consulting professionals can help you with Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V technology, call Decision Consultants at (866) 666-7731or email to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it