Hyper-V Server 2008 is a free virtual server offering basic of virtualization features, making it ideal for, test, development and basic Server consolidation.

I have been giving Hyper-V Server 2008 a quick run through.

Installation

The installation is built on the PE model just like Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 so working with the disks is very easy.

After the installation things will still look familiar.

User Interface

The User Interface at the on the physical machine is made of of 2 simple command Windows. One for managing the Server and the other, an ordinary command Window.

All basic operations such as joining the Domain, setting the Computer Name and an update schedule can be called from this menu. At this point you can also enable Remote Desktop.

Creating a Virtual Machine.

Fortunately you do not do this using the Hyper-V Server ‘Interface.’ You need to use the Hyper-V Manager Microsoft Management Console (MMC) snap-in. Once connected you can create the First Virtual machine.

First Impressions

Hyper-V Server 2008 seems like a simple and efficient way to run Virtual machines. The footprint of the Hypervisor is tiny in terms of RAM and Hard Disk usage and the amount of patching compared to Server 2008 should be greatly reduced which means more uptime.

The downside is that unlike other versions of Server 2008 each Windows guest VM requires it’s own license. You see a feature matrix of the different versions of Hyper-V here.

In summary, this product would be a good choice for departments working with test servers and an good way to get the most out of your older server hardware while making Migration to new hardware easier when the time comes (i.e. put the guest machine on another Hypervisor).