So with the Virtualization market heating up and alot of questions about trying it out I thought I would post on how to install and configure the Microsoft Hypervisor. Microsoft has made some real advances in their virtualization technology since Virtual Server, which I was not a big fan of, the technology is very comparable to VMwares ESX server or Citrix Xen Server.

So lets jump into the set up shall we, first you will need to review the hyper-v requirements

Hardware Requirements

Hyper-V requires an x64 processor, hardware-assisted virtualization, and hardware data execution protection. I have included the links to download and review the requirements for hyper-v here

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=98821.
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=102060

Step 1: Install Hyper-V

You can use Server Manager to install Hyper-V.

To install Hyper-V
1. Click Start, and then click Server Manager.

2. In the Roles Summary area of the Server Manager main window, click Add Roles.

3. On the Select Server Roles page, click Hyper-V.

4. On the Create Virtual Networks page, click one or more network adapters
if you want to make their network connection available to virtual machines.

5. On the Confirm Installation Selections page, click Install.

6. The computer must be restarted to complete the installation. Click Close to finish the wizard, and then click Yes to restart the computer.

7. After you restart the computer, log on with the same account you used to
install the role. After the Resume Configuration Wizard completes the installation, click Close to finish the wizard.

Step 2: Create and set up a virtual machine

After you have installed Hyper-V, you can create a virtual machine and set up an operating system on the virtual machine.
Before you create the virtual machine, you may find it helpful to consider the following questions. You can provide answers to the questions when you use the New Virtual Machine Wizard to create the virtual machine.
• Is the installation media available for the operating system you want to install on the virtual machine? You can use physical media, a remote image server, or an .ISO file. The method you want to use determines how you should configure the virtual machine.
• How much memory will you allocate to the virtual machine?
• Where do you want to store the virtual machine and what do you want to name it?

To create and set up a virtual machine

1. Open Hyper-V Manager. Click Start, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Hyper-V Manager.

2. From the Action pane, click New, and then click Virtual Machine.

3. From the New Virtual Machine Wizard, click Next.

4. On the Specify Name and Location page, specify what you want to name the virtual machine and where you want to store it.

5. On the Memory page, specify enough memory to run the guest operating system you want to use on the virtual machine.

6. On the Networking page, connect the network adapter to an existing virtual network if you want to establish network connectivity at this point.

Note
If you want to use a remote image server to install an operating system on your test virtual machine, select the external network.

7. On the Connect Virtual Hard Disk page, specify a name, location, and size to create a virtual hard disk so you can install an operating system on it.

8. On the Installation Options page, choose the method you want to use to install the operating system:

• Install an operating system from a boot CD/DVD-ROM. You can use either physical media or an image file (.iso file).
• Install an operating system from a boot floppy disk.
• Install an operating system from a network-based installation server. To use this option, you must configure the virtual machine with a network adapter connected to the same network as the image server.

9. Click Finish.

After you create the virtual machine, you can start the virtual machine and install the operating system.

Step 3: Install the operating system and integration services

the final step , you connect to the virtual machine to set up the operating system. As part of the setup, you install a software package that improves integration between the virtualization server and the virtual machine.

Note
The instructions in this step assume that you specified the location of the installation media when you created the virtual machine. The instructions also assume that you are installing an operating system for which integration services are available.

To install the operating system and integration services

1. From the Virtual Machines section of the results pane, right-click the name of the virtual machine you created in step 2 and click Connect. The Virtual Machine Connection tool will open.

2. From the Action menu in the Virtual Machine Connection window, click Start.

3. Proceed through the installation.
Notes
• When you are at the point where you need to provide input to complete the process, move the mouse cursor over the image of the setup window. After the mouse pointer changes to a small dot, click anywhere in the virtual machine window. This action “captures” the mouse so that keyboard and mouse input is sent to the virtual machine. To return the input to the physical computer, press Ctrl-Alt-Left arrow and then move the mouse pointer outside of the virtual machine window.
• After the operating system is set up, you are ready to install the integration services. From the Action menu of Virtual Machine Connection, click Insert Integration Services Setup Disk. If Autorun does not start the installation automatically, you can start it manually. From a command prompt, type:
%windir%\support\amd64\setup.exe.
After you have completed the setup and integration services are installed, you can proceed to test the virtual machine by customizing it to suit your testing goals. For example, you can view or modify the virtual hardware that is configured for the virtual machine. From the Virtual Machines pane, right-click the name of the virtual machine you created in step 3 and click Settings. From the Settings window, click the name of the hardware to view or change it.

I have addes some screen shots that will show how to install the Hyper-v role, If you have any questions or need any help setting up you virtual machines please email us at info@irontechsolutions.com

Go to the server manager and navigate to add roles

Next check the box to add the role and press next

The role will be added and a reboot will be required, press ok to reboot and the server will finish the install and reboot again. When you log in again the role install will complete and you will be able to use Hyper-V

Go to administrative tools and open the Hyper-V manager, from there you will be able to setup and manage your Virtual Machines. ave fun and let us know if we can help in any way.