Typically use Vmware, Brand new to Hyper-V, Help!

[drnick5]

Hey Folks,

I've been looking to mess around with Hyper-V on a test server I have here. i'm typically a VMware guy and have never used Hyper-V before. Mainly looking to see how the "other half" lives. We deal with mainly small business so the few servers we have in play typically run on ESXi free and run 1 or 2 VM's, so thats all I really have experience with.

I'm looking to install Hyper-V to an internal flash drive (similar to how ESXi would get installed) however i'm finding that to be much more difficult than VMware's install. (in which you can burn a CD or make a bootable USB for the ESXi installer, boot off it and install ESXi to the internal flash drive with a few clicks in about 10-15 minutes).

Any tips, suggestions or How-To's you could pass my way?

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

I've installed ESX on SDCards...easy enough. Just did one last week.
But I have no desire to do Windows Server on one (or USB)....I'd fear for space. Especially after a year or so after a few windows updates.

I know there are some constraints for support from Microsoft,...and I'd not want a clients production server not able to get support. I have not looked...but I think the Tier-1 server makers even don't do it anymore. I stick it on a pair of drives RAID 1..and use some of that for storage and the system volumes of guests. (with the data volumes going on another RAID 1 or 10 volume).

 

[drnick5]

Thanks for the reply. You mention not wanting to do it as you fear for space. How much space does the free Hyper-V use? From what I'm reading its saying a 16GB flash drive is enough. So even if I use a 32GB, shouldn't that leave plenty of space?

From how I understand it, the free Hyper-V is just a hypervisor, not a full Windows install, correct? (Although I believe one option is to do a full Windows install and then add the Hyper-V role to it?)

I know its comparing apples and bananas, but VMware only needs a 1GB flash drive, so it seems odd to waste 2 x 300GB hard drives just to run the hypervisor.

Lastly, as far as administration, I'm seeing that a Windows 8 or Windows 2012 computer is required to administer it? All of my computers are windows 7 Pro.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

My experience with Hyper-V is for the installs at smaller clients, in those cases where there's a local staff that typically does basic admin duties on the servers. So I always install the full server with Hyper-V role. This gives them the usual desktop GUI, and Hyper-V manager....

I do VMWare for larger installs due to stability and number of guests and little need for rebooting the host. And no need for local console/GUI access...since we do it all remotely.

I don't see it as a waste of HDD's....as I prefer to split volumes/spindles anyways..as mentioned above. I do not like single volumes for servers..poor performance.

My colleague has done some of the command line only installs....yes you can manage from a workstation joined to the domain, I think also locally via command line, and I recall seeing some 3rd party tools which allowed GUI management from a non domain member. I prefer not joining the hyper-v host to a domain, I always do them in workgroup mode only.

 

[drnick5]

Thanks again for the information!

When I said a waste of drives, I was talking strictly for the hypervisor as i'm used to running that off a single USB stick in VMware. For the actual data stores I always use RAID 1 or RAID 10.

I'll give the full install a shot on some local drives and play around with it. Thanks again!

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

TFor the actual data stores I always use RAID 1 or RAID 10.

I share that RAID 1....have the local hyper-V host installed on it..and with the remaining space, I'll plop the VHDs for the system volume of the guests there.

 

[drnick5]

Good to know! How many VHD's have you run on a single RAID 1? I'd be worried about it being starved for IOPS. Since I'm setting mine up just for testing it should be fine, just curious.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

For Hyper-V....2
Once the Hyper-V host is up and running...(booted up)..it's not really hitting it much.
Once each guest boots up...it's mostly don't hitting it.
So really gets little load. I use this only for small setups...and I still only use SAS drives, never SATA (SATA is for desktops).

For clients where I have 4 or 6 guests on a host...I have ESX and much fancier RAID setups....like the one I'm building on my table now...huge pair of 6x disk each RAID 10 volumes connected via 8 gig fiber.