Windows
Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V
Public
FAQ
Contents
New Functionality
in Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V Release Candidate (RC) Build
Q: What is new in the Windows Server 2008 R2
Hyper-V RC build compared to the R2 Beta?
A:
The Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V Release Candidate build includes the
following improved and new functionality over beta.
·
Support for up to 64 Logical Processors –increasing the logical
processors support from 24 to 64 enables customers to achieve higher consolidation
ratios and more scalable virtualization scenarios on Windows Server than ever before.
·
Processor Compatibility Mode for live migration– allows live migration
across different CPU versions within the same processor family, (e.g.”Intel
Core 2-to-Intel Pentium 4” or “AMD Opteron-to-AMD Athlon”) enabling migration
across a broader range of Hyper-V host hardware.
·
VM Chimney (TCP Offload) and VMQ support are disabled by default
The following are new Windows Server
2008 R2 Hyper-V features that were also in the R2 beta.
·
Live Migration
·
Jumbo Frame Support
·
Hot Add/Remove of storage (VHDs and Pass Through Disks)
·
Second Level Address Translation (SLAT) processor support for both Intel
(EPT) and AMD (RVI)
·
Core Parking
·
Improved network performance via support for TCP Chimney and VMQ
(specific hardware NICs required)
·
Improved VHD performance for dynamic and difference disks
Q: When will the Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V RC
build be released?
Windows
Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V RC Production Support
Q: Are production
deployments of Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V RC supported?
A: Windows Server
2008 R2 Hyper-V is still in the pre-release phase and production deployments
are not recommended / supported.
Windows
Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V Questions
Q: What
does WS08 R2 Hyper-V contain?
A: With WS08
R2 Hyper-V, customers will get a compelling solution for core virtualization scenarios
– Production server consolidation, dynamic datacenter, test & development
and business continuity. With the initial version of Hyper-V, we have seen
massive customer interest and adoption for Hyper-V with over 300K downloads of
the RTM and the latest IDC report showing that Microsoft has 23% market share
in virtualization. Windows Server 2008 R2 provides customers better flexibility
with features like live migration and cluster shared volumes for storage
flexibility; greater scalability with support for up to 64 logical processors
and improved performance with support for enhanced networking support (TCP
offload support for virtual machines) and support for hardware page tables.
Q: What’s new in R2?
A: The major
technology investment areas for WS08R2 are Virtualization, Web, and Management
these along with several features that improve Scalability & Reliability
and deliver a strong value proposition along with WIN7 Clients. These features include:
·
Live Migration - Allows customers to move virtual machines from one host
to another in seconds with no loss of performance. This facilitates hardware
maintenance and upgrades, manual failover, and the consolidation of workloads
on fewer servers. Automation in the datacenter also helps trim IT spending on labor
and maintenance.
·
DirectAccess– Allows remote workers to securely connect to their work
environment as if they were on the corporate network and it also lets IT
administrators manage those PCs as if they were on premise, without the use of
a VPN. Resulting in greater flexibility for remote workers and reduced office
costs.
·
Branch Cache – Customers can greatly reduce Wide Area Network (WAN)
bandwidth consumption between the datacenter and branch offices. The result is
a significant reduction in networking costs because most organizations pay for
bandwidth by the byte.
Q: What is the number of logical processors that will be
supported by Hyper-V in Windows Server 2008 R2?
A: Hyper-V in Windows Server 2008 R2 will support up to
64 logical processors in the physical machine.
Q: Why is there a difference between the number of logical
processors supported in Windows Server 2008 R2 and the number of logical
processors supported by Hyper-V?
A: The Windows Server OS is designed to run on the widest
range of HW from single processor servers to the largest scale-up
servers. Hyper-V is designed for the most common hardware configurations
that customers will deploy for virtualization. The vast majority of
servers that will be deployed for virtualization will be 2 and 4 socket
servers. Hyper-V will support up to 64 logical processors in Windows
Server 2008 R2 and we will continue to work with our partners to provide
solutions to help customers take advantage of future hardware innovations to
meet their current and future business needs.
Q: When will Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V RTM?
A: Server 2008 R2 will RTM in the
second half of 2009.
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. Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V will
support upto 64 logical processors and 1 TB of memory for the host system. We
will announce the maximum number of guest instances than can run on Microsoft Windows
Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V closer to RTM.
Additionally, each guest OS must have a valid license.
Clustering
and Live Migration
Q: Up to how many nodes on a cluster does Live Migration support?
A: Live
Migration is supported on up to 16 node failover clusters.
Q: What is the maximum number of supported VMs per node?
A: For
production deployment, up to 32 VMs per node for server workloads and up to 64 VMs
per node for VDI workloads are supported. Customers must plan for
adequate capacity when a failover occurs and VMs from the failed host are
brought online on different nodes of the cluster.
Q: Will Live Migration work on with a cluster of mixed AMD and
Intel host nodes?
A: For
Live Migration or Quick Migration to work, all cluster nodes must have processors
from the same processor vendor, for example Intel or AMD.
Q: Assuming host nodes have a
virtualization capable processor from the same manufacturer, can I migrate a VM
from a host using an older processor to a host with a newer processor?
A: It is highly recommended to use identical
processors on all nodes of a cluster using Quick or Live Migration.
A new
functionality introduced in RC is the “Processor Compatibility Mode” option.
This functionality can be enabled for VMs to allow both Live Migration and
Quick Migration from newer to older processors from the same manufacturer.
The setting
is under VM settings > Processor > “Migrate to a physical computer with a
different processor version”.
You can live
migrate or quick migrate a running VM from an older processor to new processor
and back without the “Processor Compatibility Mode” option as long as the VM is
running all the time.
Q: Are there any new tools
included with Windows Server R2 Server Core to help manage the Hyper-V?
A: A new server configuration script is available
in the Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V RC.
Type sconfig at the command
line to start the server configuration utility.
Supported
Guests
Q: What operating systems are supported as guests
on Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V RC?
A: The following
operating systems are supported as guests with integration services with Windows
Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V RC:
·
Windows Server 2000 Server and Advanced Server with SP4 (uniprocessor)
·
Windows XP SP3 32 bit (uniprocessor)
·
Windows Vista SP1 32 & 64 bit (uniprocessor)
·
Windows 7 client 32 & 64 bit (uniprocessor)
·
Windows 7 client 32 & 64 bit (multiprocessor, two virtual processors)
·
Windows Server 2003 SP2 32 & 64 bit (uniprocessor)
·
Windows Server 2003 SP2 32 & 64 bit (multiprocessor, two virtual
processors)
·
Windows Server 2003 R2 SP2 32 & 64 bit (uniprocessor)
·
Windows Server 2003 R2 SP2 32 & 64 bit (multiprocessor, two virtual
processors)
·
Windows Server 2008 32 & 64 bit (uniprocessor)
·
Windows Server 2008 32 & 64 bit (multiprocessor, four virtual
processors)
·
Windows Server 2008 R2 32 & 64 bit (uniprocessor)
·
Windows Server 2008 R2 32 & 64 bit (multiprocessor, four virtual
processors)
·
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 (x86/x64) (uniprocessor, no integration
components)
A: Windows
Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V is still in the pre-release phase and production
deployments are not recommended / supported. Single processor VMs of SUSE Linux
Enterprise Server 10 without integration components are currently the only recommended
Linux distribution during RC.
Hyper-V
Upgrade Guidance
Windows
Server 2008 Hyper-V à Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V (RC)
Q: Can I upgrade my existing Windows Server 2008
Hyper-V host to Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V RC?
A: Yes.
Upgrade of Hyper-V installations from WS2008 Hyper-V to WS2008 R2
Hyper-V RC is supported. You can perform an in-place upgrade of your machine
from Windows Server 2008 to Windows Server 2008 R2 and still have the Hyper-V
role enabled on the system.
Q: I have a number of virtual machines that I
created using Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V. Can I move these virtual
machines to Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V RC?
A: The
following methods of moving a VM from WS2008 Hyper-V to WS2008 R2 Hyper-V RC will
be supported:
1. In-place upgrade of the host from WS2008 Hyper-V to
WS2008 R2 Hyper-V RC.
2. Exporting a VM from a machine running WS2008 Hyper-V
and importing to a machine running WS2008 R2 Hyper-V RC.
3. Backing up a VM from WS2008 Hyper-V and restoring it on
WS2008 R2 Hyper-V RC
At
the end of each operation above, the VM configurations that were created in
WS2008 Hyper-V will still be registered in WS2008 R2 Hyper-V RC.
Although all guest synthetic devices with continue to
function with the older drivers on RC, updating the guest integration services
to the latest R2 version is highly recommended to access the optimal
performance of the R2 drivers and integration services of RC.
Windows
Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V (Beta) à Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V (RC)
Q: Will I be able to
upgrade my Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V (Beta) host to the R2 RC?
A: Yes. Upgrade of installations from Windows
Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V Beta to Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V RC is supported.
You can perform an in-place upgrade of your machine from Windows Server 2008 R2
Hyper-V Beta to Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V RC and still have all the
virtual machines available.
Q: Will I be able to reuse my virtual machines
that were created with the R2 beta release with Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V RC?
A: The following methods of moving a
VM from R2 Beta to R2 RC will be supported:
1. In-place upgrade of the host from Windows
Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V Beta to Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V RC.
2. Exporting a VM from a machine running
HVS2008 R2 Beta and importing to a machine running Windows Server 2008 R2
Hyper-V RC.
3. Backing up a VM from Windows Server
2008 R2 Hyper-V Beta and restoring it on Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V RC
Save states and snapshots will
upgrade normally with beta to RC upgrades.
Although all guest synthetic devices
with continue to function with the beta drivers on RC, updating the guest
integration services to the latest R2 version is highly recommended to access
the optimal performance of the R2 drivers and integration services for RC.
Future
release upgrade path: Windows Server
2008 R2 Hyper-V (RC) à Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V (RTM)
Q:
Will I be able to do an in-place
upgrade of my Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V RC host to the RTM release of R2?
A: Upgrade of
Hyper-V installations from RC versions to RTM of R2 will be supported. You can
perform an upgrade of Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V from RC to RTM.
Q: Will I be able to reuse my virtual machines
that were created with the R2 RC release with Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V RTM?
A: Yes. VM’s that were running with
the RC version of Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V will automatically be upgraded
to run on RTM version. Note this upgrade will not update the integration
services inside the virtual machine.
Users will need to install the latest integration services for optimal
stability and performance.
Networking
Guidance
Q: What are the VMQ and TCP Chimney offload features?
A: Windows Server 2008 R2 is being delivered with new optional
optimizations to enhance the networking performance of virtual machines. The networking optimization features are
Chimney for Virtual Machines (VM-Chimney) and Virtual Machine Queues
(VMQ). Depending on the NICs available
to you and the traffic types you encounter, one or both of these technologies
may produce substantial improvements in your networking performance, either
through greater bandwidth utilization or, in slower NICs, lower CPU utilization
to process the same load.
Both VM-Chimney and VMQ
require hardware support. These features are only available when using specific
hardware NICs (please refer to the section below for supported NICs).
NICs:
For Windows Server 2008 R2 RC,
·
VM-Chimney
capable drivers are available on the RC media for the following NICs:
o
Broadcom
Net-Xtreme II 1 Gb/s NICs (Models 5706, 5708, and 5709)
o
Broadcom
10Gb/s NICs (Models 57710, 57711)
·
VMQ
capable drivers are available on the RC media:
o
Intel Kawela (E1Q) 1 Gb/s NICs (also known as
Pro/1000 ET NICs)
o
Intel
Oplin NICs (IXE) 10Gb/s NICs (also known as 82598)
To determine which NIC(s) your system has, go to the Windows
Device Manager and expand the Network Adapters entry. If one of the above mentioned Network
Adapters is listed, then your host should be capable of using the associated
networking optimization feature.
Drivers for additional NICs that support these features are
expected to be available in the RTM timeframe.
Some vendors may produce VMQ-capable or Chimney-capable drivers for
their NICs and release them through other channels such as their own support
web sites.
Feature
interactions:
·
A connection will
not be offloaded if it is part of an IPSec rule.
·
Connections
may not be available if the Windows Firewall or any other filter driver that
requires packet inspection for that particular connection.
·
Currently
available NIC teaming drivers do not support the use of either of these
features.
·
There
are known issues with the in-box 10Gb/s Broadcom NICs with Chimney turned on.
·
VMQ
and Chimney may be independently available on separate NICs in the same host
machine.
·
If both Chimney
and VMQ are available on the same NIC at the same time, Windows Server 2008 R2
will use VMQ (for Windows Server 2008 R2 RC there are no NICs we are aware of
that support both).
System
Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) Support
Q:
Can I manage Windows Server 2008 R2
Hyper-V hosts with SCVMM?
A: The SCVMM 2008 R2
release will enable management of Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V hosts from
SCVMM. A beta version of SCVMM 2008 R2 is
currently available for customers from www.microsoft.com/scvmm.
Q:
Can I manage Windows Server 2008 R2
Hyper-V RC hosts with SCVMM R2 Beta?
A: No, The current
beta of System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2 will not support managing
Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V RC. The RC for SCVMM 2008 R2 will be available
by June 2009. A beta version of SCVMM 2008 R2 is currently available for
customers from www.microsoft.com/scvmm.