Hyper-V Support in Windows 8

Virtual Machines (VMs) are great for a wide variety of tasks including running different operating systems or software configurations on a single machine. Windows 8 is the first Windows client operating system to include hardware virtualization support without the need for separate downloads or installs. This feature in Windows 8 is called Client Hyper-V. Client Hyper-V is the same technology as used in Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V, so you can move VMs from server to client, and won’t need to re-learn how to use Hyper-V features and tools.

In this article I’ll give a high-level overview of Client Hyper-V in Windows 8 and also guide you through the process of configuring Hyper-V and creating/running VMs.What You’ll Need to Run Hyper-V on Windows 8


In order to run Client Hyper-V on Windows 8 you’ll need the following:
  • Windows 8 Pro or Enterprise 64 bit Operating System
  • 64 bit processor with Second Level Address Translation (SLAT)
  • BIOS-level Hardware Virtualization support
  • At least 4GB system ram

If you are running 64-bit Windows 8 and meet the hardware requirements listed above you’re equipped to give Client Hyper-V a try!Setting Up Hyper-V


The first thing to do when getting ready to run Client Hyper-V is to make sure that hardware virtualization support is turned on in the BIOS settings. For my demonstration in this article I configured my HP Z820 desktop system to run Client Hyper-V. Below is a picture of the BIOS settings I configured on my HP Z820:

HP_2D00_Z820_2D00_Virtualization_2D00_Settings_2D00_BIOS_2D00_600_5F00_6F5A1B46.jpg


Once you have confirmed that hardware virtualization support is available and enabled, it’s time to enable Hyper-V in the “Turn Windows features on or off” dialog which you can launch by typing “turn windows features” at the Start Screen and then selecting “Settings” in the right-hand pane.

Hyper_2D00_V_2D00_Turn_2D00_Windows_2D00_features_2D00_on_2D00_or_2D00_off_5F00_76295C64.jpg


Hyper-V Enabled in Windows Features

If Hyper-V wasn’t enabled previously, you’ll need to reboot after applying this change. After enabling Hyper-V it’s a good idea to configure networking for the Hyper-V environment. In order to support external network connections, you’ll need to make sure that a virtual switch has been created and is functional. To get started with this, open the Virtual Switch Manager which you’ll find on the Actions panel in the Hyper-V Manager (Type Hyper-V at the Start Screen to find the Hyper-V Manager).



After clicking on “Virtual Switch Manager” in the Actions pane ensure that “External” is highlighted, and then click on the “Create Virtual Switch” button.



If you have more than one NIC in your system, ensure that you have selected the NIC to be used for VM external network connections. Here’s the settings that I used on my HP Z820:



While there are many other options and features that you can configure, this is a good starting point and is all I needed to do to start creating and using VMs on Window 8 Pro.Creating VMs


Since Client Hyper-V is fully compatible with Hyper-V on Windows Server you can use VMs and Vitual Hard Drives (VHDs) created on Windows Server Hyper-V machines. Creating a new VM it’s easy. In this section I’ll outline the process to create a VM from scratch using PXE boot from the network. You can also very easily perform OS installs from USB drives or optical media like DVDs.

To create a VM you just click on “New Virtual Machine…” under “Actions” on the right panel in the Hyper-V Manager. When you do this, the “New Virtual Machine Wizard” will launch. The first task is to choose a VM name and optionally specify a path for the VM file:



Next, you’ll decide how much memory to allocate. I chose to use the default of 512 MB to see how my VM would perform with default memory settings. I know that I can always change this later.



After that you’ll need to select a virtual switch if networking is needed. In this case I chose the virtual switch that I created in the earlier steps outlined in this post.



The next step is to setup the VHD for the VM being created. Here you have the option to create a new VHD, use an existing VHD, or to postpone VHD configuration for later:



I chose to have a VHD created using the default settings. Note that you want to think about where the VHD file is stored during this process. I like to keep VM files and VHD files in the same directory for most configurations.

After clicking “Finish” I had one important step that’s required to enable PXE boot from VMs. in This last step was to create a Legacy Network Adapter in VM settings. To do this, you launch the settings dialog for the VM that needs network boot support, and then click “Add Hardware” which is the top item in the left pane.



All you need to do is click the “Add” button and then ensure that the proper virtual switch is used. That’s it! It only takes a couple minutes to perform all of these steps once you know what to do. This VM was now ready for PXE boot and the installation of the OS.

After clicking the green “Start” button for your VM in the right pane of the Hyper-V Manager, you’ll then see the familiar PXE boot menu where you can press F-12 for a network boot:



This works just like network booting from a physical machine. I used network boot to kick off a clean Windows 7 install as you can see here:



Having VMs for different operating systems is great when you need to test software on different operating systems, run machine images that are isolated from the network, test upgrade scenarios, and many more activities. Just remember to save snapshots for key configurations so that you can revert machine state when needed.Connecting to VMs on Windows 8


Once you have your VMs setup there are two great options for interacting with and connecting to your VMs: the Hyper-V Manager, or Remote Desktop Connection using Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP).
Using the Hyper-V manager you’ll be able to control your VM state in the Virtual Machine Connection Window but you’ll have a more limited experience (max screen resolution is 1600x1200, less seamless keyboard/mouse interactions, etc).

Here’s my clean Windows 7 VM running via the Hyper-V Virtual Machine Connection window: (click/tap to enlarge)



For comparison, I connected to this VM via Remote Desktop Connection on a display running WQHD screen resolution (2560x1440) which you can see here: (click/tap to enlarge)



When using Remote Desktop with Hyper-V the keyboard and mouse work seamlessly just like they do in any other Remote Desktop session. The only downside is that you don’t have the VM state management controls in this view. If you’re running RDP on the same Windows 8 machine as your Hyper-V Manager, you can always switch over between the Hyper-V Manger and the Remote Desktop session and have the best of both worlds.

For fun, I found an old Windows 3.51 VHD file that was last modified in 2003 and created a VM in the Hyper-V manager to run it. Remember the “stabbing fingers” animation at the log on screen? Good times…



There are many different ways to create VMs, and in this post I’ve illustrated how easy it is to get started with Hyper-V on Windows 8. There are a lot of powerful tools for managing Hyper-V on Windows 8 including the same PowerShell management capabilities that exist on Windows Server! If you want to know more, please refer to the resources below.Resources


You can also stay up to date by following me on twitter here: @GavinGear

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I remember when this all came out, it was called "Vanderpool" on the original Intel Chipshites, er, chipsets. Is it the same Tech? Basically what it did was to take 1 whole Gig of Ram and assign it to the Virtualization, so I was never able to try it, as I only had 2 GB of Ram and it required at least 3.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 Pro with Media Center/Windows 7
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Asus M2N-MX SE Plus § DualCore AMD Athlon 64 X2, 2300 MHz (11.5 x 200) 4400+ § Corsair Value Select
    CPU
    AMD 4400+/4200+
    Motherboard
    Asus M2N-MX SE Plus/Asus A8M2N-LA (NodusM)
    Memory
    2 GB/3GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    GeForce 8400 GS/GeForce 210
    Sound Card
    nVIDIA GT218 - High Definition Audio Controller
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Hitachi 40" LCD HDTV
    Screen Resolution
    "1842 x 1036"
    Hard Drives
    WDC WD50 00AAKS-007AA SCSI Disk Device
    ST1000DL 002-9TT153 SCSI Disk Device
    WDC WD3200AAJB-00J3A0 ATA Device
    WDC WD32 WD-WCAPZ2942630 USB Device
    WD My Book 1140 USB Device
    PSU
    Works 550w
    Case
    MSI "M-Box"
    Cooling
    Water Cooled
    Keyboard
    Dell Keyboard
    Mouse
    Microsoft Intellimouse
    Internet Speed
    Cable Medium Speed
    Browser
    Chrome/IE 10
    Antivirus
    Eset NOD32 6.x/Win Defend
    Other Info
    Recently lost my Windows 8 on my main PC, had to go back to Windows 7.
This is IMHO, THE best feature of Windows 8!
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8, 2012, 7, 2008R2, 2008, 2003, XP,SUSE
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    ASUS
    CPU
    I7
    Memory
    16 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA 640M 2 GB
    Screen Resolution
    1600X900
    Hard Drives
    Pair of 750 GB
After going through all that; it would appear that VMWare is still my best way to go. . .to much for my stroke infested brain to bite into. . .:what:
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win 8, (VM win7, XP, Vista)
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    HP Pavilion p1423w
    CPU
    Intel Core i5 3330 Ivy Bridge
    Motherboard
    Foxconn - 2ADA Ivy Brige
    Memory
    16 GB 1066MHz DDR3
    Graphics Card(s)
    ATI Radeon HD 5450
    Sound Card
    HD Realteck (Onboard)
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Mitsubishi LED TV/Montior HD, Dell 23 HD, Hanspree 25" HD
    Screen Resolution
    Mit. 1980-1080, Dell 2048-115, Hanspree 1920-10802
    Hard Drives
    1 SanDisk 240Gig SSD, 2 Samsung 512Gig SSDs
    Case
    Tower
    Cooling
    Original (Fans)
    Keyboard
    Microsoft Keyboard 2000
    Mouse
    Microsoft Optical Mouse 5000
    Internet Speed
    1.3 (350 to 1024 if lucky)
    Browser
    Firefox 19.1
    Antivirus
    MSE-Defender
I use VMware at work with over 50 servers living in that virtual world but still prefer Hyper-V.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8, 2012, 7, 2008R2, 2008, 2003, XP,SUSE
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    ASUS
    CPU
    I7
    Memory
    16 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA 640M 2 GB
    Screen Resolution
    1600X900
    Hard Drives
    Pair of 750 GB
No SLAT, no go : ( , so it's VMware for me.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    win 7, 8.1, Ubuntu
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    HP tx2z
    CPU
    AMD Turion x2 Ultra 2.4
    Motherboard
    Quanta
    Memory
    8 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    ATI Radeon 3200
    Hard Drives
    Crucial M4 256gb ssd
Yeah, I guess you would need the correct hardware first. One of the things I like about windows 8 vs VMworkstation is it is just plain faster mostly due to the fact that it is a closer to the hardware giving much faster disk I/O
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8, 2012, 7, 2008R2, 2008, 2003, XP,SUSE
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    ASUS
    CPU
    I7
    Memory
    16 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA 640M 2 GB
    Screen Resolution
    1600X900
    Hard Drives
    Pair of 750 GB
The difference in performance between a VM in HyperV and VMware workstation or Player is night and day. One thing to also remember with HyperV is that you cannot NAT your VMs network to your machine like you do with VMware. As an example if you have Cisco Any Connect installed on your physical machine and use a VMware VM you can NAT that connection to your VM and both your VM and physical machine will be connected. In HyperV you need to install Cisco Any Connect on your VM and make the connection directly.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 7, Windows 8 RP
Wrong, you can indeed use your NAT connection or you can create an internal connection. You don't have to install anything else to get your cisco connection to work
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8, 2012, 7, 2008R2, 2008, 2003, XP,SUSE
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    ASUS
    CPU
    I7
    Memory
    16 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA 640M 2 GB
    Screen Resolution
    1600X900
    Hard Drives
    Pair of 750 GB
There is no NAT option in HyperV, in VMware you have the option to enable NAT on an interface. I'm not talking about a work around by installing RRAS on another VM or the host itself.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 7, Windows 8 RP
Yeah, I guess you would need the correct hardware first. One of the things I like about windows 8 vs VMworkstation is it is just plain faster mostly due to the fact that it is a closer to the hardware giving much faster disk I/O

VMWare + SSD = great performance for a VM. . .:D
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win 8, (VM win7, XP, Vista)
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    HP Pavilion p1423w
    CPU
    Intel Core i5 3330 Ivy Bridge
    Motherboard
    Foxconn - 2ADA Ivy Brige
    Memory
    16 GB 1066MHz DDR3
    Graphics Card(s)
    ATI Radeon HD 5450
    Sound Card
    HD Realteck (Onboard)
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Mitsubishi LED TV/Montior HD, Dell 23 HD, Hanspree 25" HD
    Screen Resolution
    Mit. 1980-1080, Dell 2048-115, Hanspree 1920-10802
    Hard Drives
    1 SanDisk 240Gig SSD, 2 Samsung 512Gig SSDs
    Case
    Tower
    Cooling
    Original (Fans)
    Keyboard
    Microsoft Keyboard 2000
    Mouse
    Microsoft Optical Mouse 5000
    Internet Speed
    1.3 (350 to 1024 if lucky)
    Browser
    Firefox 19.1
    Antivirus
    MSE-Defender
Hyper-V + SSD =better performance than VMware. vSphere is a different story but we aren't looking at servers here. The biggest difference is VMware workstation is a type 2 hypervisor, Hyper-V in windows 8 is a type 1. Wikipedia.org/wiki/hypervisor
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8, 2012, 7, 2008R2, 2008, 2003, XP,SUSE
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    ASUS
    CPU
    I7
    Memory
    16 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA 640M 2 GB
    Screen Resolution
    1600X900
    Hard Drives
    Pair of 750 GB
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