7 Awesome Things You Can Do With Hyper-V
Virtualization has transformed the way companies utilize their IT resources. And although you may be familiar with it you might not be sure about all the things virtualization technology, such as Hyper-V, is capable of.
Today I’d like to talk about a few cool things that you can do with Hyper-V.
1. Consolidate Servers — Decrease Your Hardware Footprint
Have you ever seen a typical data center? No? Check out the image below.
Overwhelming, isn’t it? All you see are racks with servers and then some more racks with servers. There are hundreds and sometimes thousands of servers in a single data center.
Imagine buying all these machines and then getting a big enough room with special a cooling system and security to store them in. And that’s just the basics.
With Hyper-V you can consolidate all these machines and reduce the space required to store them. By investing in one or a few mega machines (depending on your situation) you can move 5, 10 or maybe even 50 servers onto a single machine. If you purchase the Datacenter edition of Server 2008 you can have unlimited number of virtual machines.
Don’t you think this is a great idea?
2. Save Energy, Save Money!
Once you move from hundreds of servers to let’s say a dozen you will start seeing the real benefits — savings in energy and money.
Since you’re not using as much energy to power up and cool your data center you are helping the environment and saving your company money. Lowering energy consumption should be a goal for every company, and Hyper-V makes this possible.
3. Run Linux/Unix OS on Microsoft Servers
Hyper-V also allows you more flexibility. Having different operating systems on your servers is no longer an issue. Using Hyper-V you can install any type of operating system on your virtual machine, so that you can have a Unix based system inside a Microsoft environment and vice versa.
Hyper-V helps you increase flexibility while minimizing limitations.
4. Create Multiple Testing Environments
One of my absolute favorite things about Hyper-V is that it makes testing so much easier.
Say your company is thinking about getting new software, or a new program for all of the employees and you want to test it to make sure it will work properly. The old way was to find a few machines to install the software or program on and then test it by trying to recreate the production environment as much as possible. Then when something breaks and your computer crashes you have to start over. This is a time consuming process and not an easy one.
Hyper-V allows you to create testing environments within minutes. And before installing the new software or program that you need to test you simply take a snapshot of your machine so that if something goes wrong and it crashes you can go back and try again. Easily and in no time.
Hyper-V makes testing more thorough and more detailed because you can concentrate on the actual testing.
5. Deploy Server in 10 Minutes or Less!
So I know you’re thinking that everyone knows that it takes more than 10 minutes to install ANY operating system. And you’re right; the initial install will take longer — but with Hyper-V you may only have to do that once. Let me explain.
Let’s say you install Server 2008 on your first virtual machine. Before making any changes to that server, simply save it as a base installation and make it a read-only server. Once you have your base install all you have to do is copy it (which takes about 10 seconds) and make changes to it, such as your IP address, computer name, role installs, etc.
Any install you do after that is a copy of your initial install so it takes no time at all.
This must be the favorite of any Server admin.
6. Access Multiple Servers with Minimal Movement
No more running around the data center from one corner to another trying to access different servers. With Hyper-V you won’t have to move a muscle, well … maybe a muscle or two, but definitely not your legs. You still need your fingers, sorry.
You will be able to login to your Hyper-V machine and start, reboot, update, modify all of them from one central location.
7. Improve Business Continuity
With Hyper-V you are able to create and/or improve your disaster recovery solutions as well as high availability of your servers.
Hyper-V provides both Network Load Balancing as well as Clustering to improve your business continuity. It’s already included — all you have to do is set it up and watch it work. It will save your company in case of a disaster for no additional cost on your end.
See What Hyper-V Can Do For You
Hyper-V can be extremely beneficial to you, the administrator, as well as your company. It can help you lower energy consumption and cost, increase the value of your hardware, increase the flexibility of your IT environment, save you time and so much more. Hyper-V gives you the benefits of both Server 2008 and virtualization in a single solution.
Now that you’re aware of the basics, here’s where you can get more information on Hyper-V:
And stay tuned for our awesome Hyper-V Training — coming soon!
Related Posts:
- Hyper-V and VMware — Part 1: Usability
- Hyper-V Certification – MCTS: Windows Server Virtualization, Configuration (Exam 70-652)
- Hyper-V and VMware — Part 3: Cost
- Hyper-V and VMware — Part 2: Features
- Installing Hyper-V Server Role in 7 Easy Steps
11 Responses to “7 Awesome Things You Can Do With Hyper-V”
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Vickie Lehay Says:
June 26th, 2009 at 1:36 pm
Your list specifies any os can be installed on Hyper-V. The FAQ states that SUSE is supported. What about RedHat Enter prize or Fedora Core?
Vaseem Says:
June 27th, 2009 at 3:52 am
Hi Gosia,
Great Extraction and Understanding of the Topic. perfectly outlined and presented in simplest words anyone would expect. great lines, even a dummie can understand the concept very well.
Amazing..Remarkable..
Good Job
expecting some more on different technologies
Vaseem Ali
Chris Slee Says:
June 28th, 2009 at 5:55 pm
From the title of the post, I expected to see aan article about special features of Hyper-V. There is nothing here that one can’t do with ANY virtualisation product.
Bibo Says:
June 29th, 2009 at 1:58 am
I understand if you run virtual win servers on nix platforms, or win on win is still ok, but to run nix on win… that’s pron…
Bibo Says:
June 29th, 2009 at 2:00 am
+ somehow I missed point – what I’m getting from Hyper-V that I can’t accomplish with other virtualization technologies?
Windows Server HQ by Train Signal.com » Installing Hyper-V Server Role in 7 Easy Steps! Says:
July 1st, 2009 at 3:30 pm
[...] Hyper-V & WDS [...]
simon Says:
July 3rd, 2009 at 12:41 pm
Can I use windows 7 rc 32 bit as guest OS for hyper V?
Gosia Grabowska Says:
July 6th, 2009 at 6:57 am
Vickie,
Yes, you can use RedHat or Fedora Core on Hyper-V. Isn’t that awesome!?
Simon,
I haven’t tested it but I would give my right arm saying that you can
I know for sure you can run Vista so since Windows 7 is “better Vista” then it should be even easier.
Good luck and let me know how you like it!
Max Says:
July 21st, 2009 at 10:46 am
Can OpenSolaris run under Microsoft Hyper-V?
7 Awesome Things You Can Do With Hyper-V | Windows Server 2008 and Microsoft virtualization blog Says:
July 27th, 2009 at 11:27 am
[...] Few days ago I found interesting article published on Windows Server Blog by Train Signal, about 7 awesome things you can do with Hyper-V. Here is the short list, for full descriptions visit Windows Server [...]
Sener Akyol Says:
July 29th, 2009 at 5:48 am
Well, some of us left comments asking what is in Hyper-V “Different” that we can’t to with any other virtualization platforms??
- Hyper-V is part of your Server OS from Windows Server 2008 on (64 Bit Host Only – Guest could be 32 or 64)
- It’s not an enterprise only feature. It’s there with standard, enterprise and datacenter editions. (as a server role)
- Could be enabled anytime after the OS installation! You can start your virtualization journey anytime you wish as long as your hardware supports it. (hypervisor level)
- Windows Server Licenses come with additional Virtual Server licenses for you to run on that particular hardware (+1 Lic for Standard +4 Lic for Enterprise Unlimited for Datacenter).
- You can run *nix on it. SuSE is listed as supported but this doesn’t mean that others can’t run. It’s just and agreement in between SuSE (Novell actually is the real player here) and Microsoft. Microsoft and Novell introduced a hand to hand approach to virtualization market some time ago. Most of the *nix OS will run on Hyper-V it’s just when you call a support line in a complex environment you will not be supported. In the Linux market most of the time there is no support line to call to anyway what Microsoft does with Novell is great because they come togetger and say “we will handle your case even if we need to involve the other party”. It’s simply, “If we can’t deliver we partner”!! These two companies recently are trying to be more solution oriented, not product! They accept today’s hybrid environments and work on easing the customer pain points. Way to go guys!!
Cheers!
Sener