Optimal workflows with Hyper-V servers

Virtualization with Hyper-V Windows Server

Companies often have many physical servers with low utilization, which leads to high costs for hardware, energy and cooling. Fluctuating computing resource requirements also make it difficult to make optimum use of hardware. Hyper-V Server provides a remedy. Hyper-V Server, already included in the Windows operating system, is a virtualization software that enables you to make optimum use of your hardware resources. With Hyper-V, you can exploit the full potential of your server environment and reduce your company's costs at the same time. We explain what makes Hyper-V special and why you should configure your optimal server hardware together with Thomas-Krenn now.

This is the Hyper-V Windows Server

Microsoft Hyper-V is a hypervisor-based virtualization software that makes it possible to create and operate multiple virtual computers (virtual machines or VMs) on a single physical computer. Each of these "virtual computers" can be used for different tasks, for example for testing, development, training or running different applications, without the need for multiple physical computers. Hyper-V is included as standard in Windows 10 Pro versions and in Windows Server operating systems from Microsoft. The server solves a variety of challenges in IT environments by enabling the consolidation of physical servers, flexible resource management, efficient test and development environments, reliable disaster recovery, the operation of outdated systems, increased security and isolation as well as simple administration and automation. This contributes significantly to improving the efficiency, flexibility and scalability of IT infrastructures.

How Hyper-V works

Hyper-V Windows Server significantly expands support for host processors and memory, thereby enabling better utilization of hardware resources. A central component of this is the VHDX format for virtual hard disks. This format supports a larger hard disk storage capacity of up to 64 terabytes and offers greater resistance to errors such as data corruption, which increases the reliability and stability of virtual machines (VMs).

These features are included in Hyper-V:

"Shared-Nothing" - live migration
Hyper-V Extensible Switch
Dynamic memory
Hyper-V replication
Docker Container

You can look forward to these Hyper-V benefits

Windows Hyper-V is already fully integrated into the operating system, so you don't need any additional drivers or services. This seamless integration simplifies the installation and management of Hyper-V and ensures optimized performance and compatibility.

In Hyper-V, each virtual environment runs completely isolated. This means that each VM operates in its own self-contained environment. A crash or problem in one of the virtual environments therefore has no impact on the other VMs or the host system. This isolation increases the security and stability of the entire virtualization infrastructure, as errors and attacks are limited to a single VM.

By using a hypervisor that runs directly on the hardware of the host computer, Hyper-V efficiently manages the allocation of resources such as CPU, memory, disk space and network adapters to the VMs. These resources can be flexibly adapted to meet the individual requirements of each VM.

Management tools such as Hyper-V Manager and integration with System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) enable easy management, monitoring and automation of VMs. Features such as Live Migration, Hyper-V Replica and Failover Clustering ensure high availability and disaster recovery by moving VMs between hosts without downtime, replicating VMs and ensuring automatic takeover in the event of failures.

In addition, Hyper-V provides network virtualization features that enable the creation and management of virtual networks. These features improve the flexibility and scalability of network resources, which increases the adaptability of the entire IT infrastructure.

The right hardware for Microsoft Hyper-V

The ideal hardware for Hyper-V should be powerful and reliable. A central component is the processor, whereby multi-core processors such as Intel Xeon or AMD EPYC, which offer a high number of cores and threads, are preferred. The processor should also support virtualization technologies such as Intel VT-x or AMD-V.

The RAM should be sufficiently dimensioned, as each VM uses part of the RAM. At least 64 GB of RAM is recommended, with larger implementations often requiring 128 GB or more. Fast DDR4 RAM ensures better performance.

Fast and reliable hard disks are essential for storage. SSDs offer faster read and write speeds than HDDs and are ideal for running VMs. RAID configurations such as RAID 10 increase data availability and security. NVMe SSDs can be used for even higher performance.

The network infrastructure should have at least one Gigabit Ethernet port, with multiple network adapters and/or 10 Gigabit Ethernet for larger deployments. Network cards with SR-IOV support provide better network performance for VMs.

The motherboard should support the required capacity and speed for processors and memory and provide sufficient expansion slots. A reliable power supply and sufficient cooling options, such as additional housing fans or liquid cooling, are necessary.

Our expert opinion: Always use a Windows computer for Hyper-V. Benefit from hardware virtualization and use your existing servers at the same time. This allows you to virtualize today and be ideally prepared for the future. Thomas-Krenn offers Hyper-V server systems that are ideal for using Microsoft Hyper-V. If you have any questions or would like advice, please contact our team.

Learn more about Microsoft in the webinar: Storage Spaces Direct (S2D)

Software Defined Storage with S2D is one of the core features of Hyper-V. In our webinar with Thomas-Krenn expert Maximilian Fruth, you will learn what is important with Storage Spaces Direct and what needs to be considered when sizing the hardware. Licensing of an Azure Stack HCI cluster is also discussed. The webinar lasts around 40 minutes and has the following agenda:

Agenda:

1. S2D sizing

2. minimum requirements & limits

3. S2D design

4. licensing

Play video