What’s new for Hyper-V in Windows Sever 2012 R2
With the release of Windows Server 2012 R2 end of the year a lot of new features will be introduced, his post covers Hyper-V.
Generation 2 Virtual Machines
· A VM with no “Legacy”
· UEFI based
No emulated devices
Boots off virtual SCSI / network adapters
Supports Secure Boot
· For now only supported guest OS’s are 64-bit Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 and later
· VMs boots seconds faster, OS install much faster
(You will not be able cannot upgrade a Gen1 VM to Gen2 VM because of UFIE (new bootloader) and use of GPT partition and not MBR to boot.)
Enhanced VM interaction
· Full remote desktop capabilities, even when the network is down!
· Integrated into Hyper-V Management experience
· Virtual machines are automatically activates when hosted on Window Server 2012 Datacenter edition
· Zero touch activation of VMs for hosters / enterprises
· Copy and paste rich text and graphics inside hyper-V console!
· Video and audio over Hyper-V console
· Copy/paste feature as PowerShell commandlet for non GUI guest
· USB passthrough can be enabled (GPO) it is tied to “RDP” session of VM remote tool.
2x to 10x Faster Live Migration Zero downtime migration
· Live migration VMs from Window Server 2012 to Win Server 2012 R2
· Compression enables over 2x improvement in live migration time
· SMB Direct support allows for high-speed live migrations over high-end networks (RDMA)
Online VHDX resize, Live VM export / clone
· Increase and decrease the size of VHD while VM is live
· Export VM while it is running
· Export snapshot of a VM, while VM keeps running
Storage QoS
· Can restrict disk throughput for overactive / disruptive VM
· Dynamically configurable while VM is running
Hyper-V Replica
Extended replication, now add a second replica to add extra protection for your VM at offsite location or hoster
Finer grained control of replication, now choose 30 sec interval or 5 minutes (default) For other scenarios choose 15 minutes.
Windows Azure will support orchestration of recovery using Hyper-V DR replica’s and system center VMM on premise.
