[Hyper-V] Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 正式发布，is Free！

Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 Releases
WOW！期待已久的 Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 终于正式发布。WOW！并且它还是一款免费产品。在阅读此篇日志的同时可以先访问 Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 从官方获取到简体中文版的 Hyper-V Server 。

Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008（以下简称：Hyper-V Server） 可以简单的看作是一款虚拟化服务器，它是基于 Windows Server 2008 核心的，当你安装上之后，会发现它看起来更像是运行在 Server Core 上的 Hyper-V。当然这只是一种表面上的认识和第一印象！在未来的一段时间里，我会与大家一同深入地去了解和学习 Hyper-V Server。

下面的数据是 Hyper-V Server 2008 的系统需求：

To use Microsoft Hyper-V Server, you need 64-bit enabled hardware which supports hardware-assisted virtualization (Intel VT or AMD-V) technology:*

Processor
Minimum: An x64 processor with Hardware-assisted virtualization. This is available in processors that include a virtualization option; specifically, Intel VT or AMD Virtualization.
Hardware Data Execution Protection (DEP) must be available and be enabled. Specifically, you must enable Intel XD bit (execute disable bit) or AMD NX bit (no execute bit).
Recommended: 2 GHz or faster

Memory
Minimum: 1 GB RAM; Recommended: 2+ GB RAM
Maximum (64-bit systems): 32 GB

Available Disk Space
Minimum: 10 GB; Recommended: 40 GB or greater

Note: Computers with more than 16 GB of RAM will require more disk space for paging, hibernation, and dump files

Network Adapters
Minimum: 1; Recommended: 2 or more

Drive
DVD-ROM drive

Display
Super-VGA (800 × 600) or higher-resolution monitor

Other
Keyboard and Microsoft Mouse or compatible pointing device
Internet access (fees may apply)
Active Directory highly recommended

Remote Management
Hyper-V Server requires a second system for remote management running:
Windows Server 2008 with the Hyper-V Manager MMC
Windows Vista SP1 with the Hyper-V Manager MMC
Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager

Actual requirements will vary based on your system configuration and the number of virtual machines you choose to run. Processor performance is dependent upon not only the clock frequency of the processor, but also on the number of cores and the size of the processor cache. Disk space requirements for the system partition are approximate.

从系统需求来看 Hyper-V Server 在硬件需求方面并无大的变化，依然需要 CPU 支持 64位扩展（x64），并且要求支持硬件虚拟化技术（Intel VT or AMD-V），还需要支持硬件数据执行保护（HDEP）。

Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 Features and Benefits

Microsoft Hyper-V Server uses the same virtual machine model as Windows Server 2008 w/ Hyper-V enabled so there is no need to re-tool your management infrastructure.

    
• VHD format: To move a virtual machine from Hyper-V Server to a Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V environment (or vice versa), simply export the virtual machine and import it on the other host using the standard management tools.    
• BitLocker support: Hyper-V Server can take advantage of BitLocker technology to encrypt a Hyper-V Server so that even if it is stolen and the hard disks are removed, the data is still safe because it’s encrypted. This is particularly useful for branch offices or environments where physical security is a concern.    
• Live Backup support: Hyper-V Server includes native support for Volume Shadow Services so that it can provide Live Backup of running virtual machines without downtime.    
• Flexible hardware support: Microsoft Hyper-V Server leverages the Windows Server driver model and is compatible with a wide variety of server hardware and driver support for newer peripherals such as 10 Gb/E.    
• Flexible Storage: Hyper-V Server offers flexible storage support, such as:    
          
  • Direct Attach Storage (DAS): SATA, eSATA, PATA, SAS, SCSI, USB, Firewire        
  • Storage Area Networks (SANs): iSCSI, Fiber Channel, SAS        
  • Network Attached Storage (NAS)    
          
• Virtual Machine Snapshots: Hyper-V Server fully supports virtual machine snapshots.    
• VSP/VSC/VMBUS: Both products fully leverage the driver enlightened architecture (VSP/VPC/VMBus) for high performance I/O. There is no conversion when moving virtual machines between Microsoft Hyper-V and Windows Server 2008 w/ Hyper-V.

Hyper-V Server (Parent Partition) provides:

    
• Support for systems with up to 4 processors with 1, 2, or 4 cores    
• Support for systems with up to 32 GB of physical memory    
• Support for up to 128 virtual machines or as many will fit within 32 GB of memory (whichever comes first)

Hyper-V Server virtual machines provide:

    
• 32-bit (x86) and 64-bit (x64) virtual machines    
• Up to 4 virtual processors per virtual machine    
• Up to 31 GB memory for all running virtual machines (1GB reserved for Hyper-V Server Parent Partition)

下面的截图便是 Hyper-V Server 启动后的初始控制台。

FAQ
Find answers to frequently asked questions about Microsoft Hyper-V Server.

Q. What is Hyper-V Server?
A: Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 is a stand-alone hypervisor-based server virtualization product that allows customers to virtualize workloads onto a single physical server. It provides a simplified, reliable and optimized virtualization solution that easily plugs into customers’ existing IT infrastructure enabling them to improve server utilization and reduce costs.

Q: What are the key benefits of Microsoft Hyper-V Server?
A: Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 is a simplified and optimized stand-alone server virtualization product. It contains just the Windows hypervisor and other kernel components to support virtualization. Since Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 is built on the Windows hypervisor, it has an inherently more secure architecture with no third-party device drivers in it. It easily plugs into customers’ IT existing environments leveraging their existing patching, provisioning, management and support tools and processes. ITPros can easily to leverage their existing knowledge and skills with Microsoft virtualization products, as well as the collective knowledge of the community, minimizing any learning curve.

Q: Will System Center Virtual Machine Manager Microsoft Hyper-V Server? When will it be available?
A: Yes, System Center Virtual Machine Manager will manage Microsoft Hyper-V Server. It will be available within the next 30 days.

Q: How do I install Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008? Is it an application?
A: Microsoft Hyper-V Server is a stand-alone hypervisor-based server virtualization product that allows customers to virtualize multiple operating systems onto a single physical server. It provides a simplified, reliable and optimized virtualization solution that easily plugs into customers’ existing IT infrastructure enabling them to improve server utilization and reduce costs.

Q: What processor architectures do you support?
A: Microsoft Hyper-V Server supports single and multi-core x64 processors. Microsoft Hyper-V Server requires 64-bit machines with AMD-V or Intel Virtualization Technology enabled processors. Hyper-V server does not support Itanium systems.

Q: How many guest OSes can I run?
A: The actual number of guest OSes will depend on the physical hardware and the characteristics of the different virtualized workloads. The maximum number of guest instances that can run on Microsoft Hyper-V Server is 192. Additionally, each guest OS must have a valid license.

Q: Which guest OSes will it support?
A: Microsoft Hyper-V Server will support all guest operating systems supported on Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V.
For a complete list of supported guest operating systems please see: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/954958.

Q: What sorts of upgrades are permitted? Can I go from Microsoft Hyper-V Server to a full installation of Windows Server 2008? Will I be able to upgrade to a future version of Microsoft Hyper-V Server?
A: Microsoft Hyper-V Server is a separate stand-alone product. Customers cannot upgrade from a previous version of Windows Server to Microsoft Hyper-V Server. Customers cannot upgrade from Microsoft Hyper-V Server to Windows Server 2008 as they are different products. To migrate from a Microsoft Hyper-V Server environment to a Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V environment, export the virtual machines from Hyper-V Server, install Windows Server 2008 Enterprise Edition, enable the Hyper-V role and import the virtual machines.

Q: What is the price of Microsoft Hyper-V Server? Will it require CALs? Will it be available in all channels?
A: Microsoft Hyper-V Server will be available as a free download. CALs are only required for Windows Server and all Windows Server images that are virtualized, regardless of virtualization platform. No CALs are required for Microsoft Hyper-V Server.

Q: What is the difference between Hyper-V and Microsoft Hyper-V Server?
A: Hyper-V is the hypervisor-based virtualization feature of Windows Server 2008. Microsoft Hyper-V Server is the hypervisor-based server virtualization product that allows customers to consolidate workloads onto a single physical server.

Q: What is the feature set of Microsoft Hyper-V Server?
A: Microsoft Hyper-V Server is a stand-alone hypervisor-based server virtualization product that allows customers to virtualize workloads onto a single physical server. It provides a simplified, reliable and optimized virtualization solution that easily plugs into customers’ existing IT infrastructure enabling them to improve server utilization and reduce costs. We will provide the complete feature set as we get closer to RTM.

System Requirements

Q: What are the system requirements for Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008?
A: Read the system requirements for Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008

Hyper-V Server: Architecture, Memory and CPU

Q: Can you describe the capabilities of Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 virtual machines?
A: Hyper-V Server virtual machines provide:
32-bit (x86) and 64-bit (x64) virtual machines
Up to 4 virtual processors per virtual machine
Total memory of all running virtual machines supported up to 31 GB.

Q: Are there any limitations to the number of processors and/or cores that Microsoft Hyper-V Server can utilize?
A: Hyper-V Server supports systems with up to 4 processors with 1, 2 or 4 cores.

Q: Are there any physical memory limitations to Microsoft Hyper-V Server?
A: Hyper-V Server supports up to 32 GB of physical memory.

Q: Does Microsoft Hyper-V Server require any special hardware drivers?
A: No. Microsoft Hyper-V Server uses standard Windows drivers. Microsoft Hyper-V Server shares some things in common with Windows Server 2008 with the Hyper-V role enabled including a common kernel and drivers.

Q: Are there any limits to the number of virtual machines Microsoft Hyper-V Server can run?
A: Microsoft Hyper-V Server can run up to 128 virtual machines or as many will fit within 32 GB of memory whichever comes first.

Q: Does Microsoft Hyper-V Server use the new driver enlightened architecture (VSP/VSC/VMbus) for high performance I/O?
A: Yes.

Q: Does Microsoft Hyper-V Server use a parent partition like Windows Server 2008 with the Hyper-V role enabled?
A: Yes. Microsoft Hyper-V Server shares some things in common with Windows Server 2008 with the Hyper-V role enabled including a common kernel and drivers.

Q: What guest operating systems does Microsoft Hyper-V Server support?
A: Microsoft Hyper-V Server and Windows Server 2008 with Hyper-V both support the same guest operating systems.

Microsoft Hyper-V Server Storage

Q: Why types of physical storage do Microsoft Hyper-V Server support?
A: Hyper-V offers flexible storage support such as:
Direct Attach Storage (DAS): SATA, eSATA, PATA, SAS, SCSI, USB, FIrewire
Storage Area Networks (SANs): iSCSI, Fiber Channel, SAS
Network Attached Storage (NAS)

Q: Are virtual machines created with Microsoft Hyper-V Server compatible with virtual machines created with Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V?
A: Yes.

Q: Does Microsoft Hyper-V Server include Live Backup support through Volume Shadow Services?
A: Yes, Hyper-V Server includes support for Live Backup when used with a suitable backup solution such as System Center Data Protection Manager.

Q: Does Microsoft Hyper-V Server include virtual machine snapshots?
A: Yes.

Microsoft Hyper-V Server Management

Q: Does Microsoft Hyper-V Server include any local UI?
A: Hyper-V Server includes a minimal, easy to use command-line based UI for system configuration. This allows a user to easily configure system settings such as:
Changing the computer name
Joining the server to a domain
Configuring DHCP/Static IP Address Settings
Enabling Remote Desktop
…and have a Hyper-V Server setup in minutes.

Q: Can you create virtual machines and manage them locally?
A: Virtual machine creation, configuration and management are accomplished remotely.

Q: How do you manage Microsoft Hyper-V Server?
A: Hyper-V Server can be managed in a number of ways:
Remotely from Windows Server 2008 (x86/x64) using the Hyper-V Manager MMC
Remotely from Windows Vista SP1 (x86 /x64) using the Hyper-V Manager MMC
Remotely from System Center Virtual Machine Manager

Additionally, Hyper-V Server includes a WMI interface for remote management extensibility. The WMI interfaces are detailed here: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc136992(VS.85).aspx.

Q: Can you use PowerShell locally with Microsoft Hyper-V Server?
A: No. PowerShell is not included with Microsoft Hyper-V Server. However, if you use System Center Virtual Machine Manager you can use PowerShell remotely to manage a Microsoft Hyper-V Server.

Microsoft Hyper-V Server & Virtual Machine Migration

Q: Does Microsoft Hyper-V Server include high availability (failover clustering) capabilities for unplanned downtime?
A: No. If high availability is a customer requirement, then we recommend using Windows Server 2008 Enterprise or Datacenter Editions which include integrated failover clustering support.

Q: I deployed Microsoft Hyper-V Server and would like to move to Windows Server 2008 with Hyper-V because I’d like to use Failover Clustering and Quick Migration capabilities. How do I do this?
A: Simply export the virtual machines from Hyper-V Server, install Windows Server 2008 Enterprise Edition, enable the Hyper-V role and import the virtual machines.

Q: How does Microsoft Hyper-V Server compare to VMware 3i? Are there any features that Hyper-V Server has that VMware 3i doesn’t?
A: Microsoft Hyper-V Server and both VMware 3i are both single purpose virtualization solutions. Microsoft Hyper-V Server offers additional capabilities beyond the competition such as:

BitLocker support. Hyper-V Server can take advantage of BitLocker technology to encrypt a Hyper-V Server so that even if a Hyper-V Server is stolen and the hard disks are removed, the data is still safe because it’s encrypted. This is particularly useful for branch offices or environments where physical security is a concern.

Live Backup support. Hyper-V Server includes native support for Volume Shadow Services so that it can provide Live Backup of running virtual machines without downtime.

Extensive Server and flexible hardware support. Microsoft Hyper-V Server is compatible with a wide variety of server hardware and driver support for newer peripherals such as 10 Gb/E.

Microsoft Hyper-V Server Licensing

Q: Does Microsoft Hyper-V Server require Client Access Licenses (CALs)?
A: No.

Q: Can I run applications in the Microsoft Hyper-V Server parent partition?
A: No. The Microsoft Hyper-V Server parent partition is specifically for system management.

Q: What distribution channels will Microsoft Hyper-V Server be available in?
A: Hyper-V Server will be available in Retail, Volume Licensing and OEM channels.

Q: Does Microsoft Hyper-V Server require a special OEM Pre-installation Kit (OPK)?
A: No. Hyper-V Server doesn’t require a special OPK.

Q: Does Microsoft Hyper-V Server require a product key?
A: No.

Q: Will Microsoft Hyper-V Server be available in multiple languages?
A: Yes. Microsoft Hyper-V Server is available in the following languages:
English (EN-US)
German (DE-DE)
Japanese (JA-JP)
French (FR-FR)
Spanish (ES-ES)
Chinese Hong-Kong (ZH-HK)
Chinese Simplified (ZH-CN)
Korean (KO-KR)
Portuguese (Brazil) (PT-BR)
Chinese Traditional (ZH-TW)
Italian (IT-IT)
Russian (RU-RU)

Q: Are you saying that Microsoft Hyper-V Server includes all twelve languages? How does one choose the language?
A: Yes. Microsoft Hyper-V Server includes all twelve languages. The first screen a user is presented with is to choose the language they wish to install Microsoft Hyper-V Server.

Q: Is it possible to “upgrade” a Microsoft Hyper-V Server to Windows Server 2008?
A: No. Microsoft Hyper-V Server and Windows Server 2008 are different products. To migrate from a Microsoft Hyper-V Server environment to a Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V environment, export the virtual machines from Hyper-V Server, install Windows Server 2008 Enterprise Edition, enable the Hyper-V role and import the virtual machines.