Changes

Microsoft Hyper-V is included as a standard feature of the 64-bit version Windows Server 2008 Standard, Enterprise and Datacenter editions. In addition, Hyper-V is available in both the full and core varients variants of these platforms. The Hyper-V role is not, however, installed and activated by default. The objective of this chapter, therefore, is to provide an overview of the steps involved in installing the Hyper-V role on a Windows Server 2008 system.

The remainder of this chapter assumes that a 64-bit edition of Windows Server 2008 is installed and running on a system with appropriate hardware to support hypervisor based virtualization. Detailed information on these requirements within the context of Hyper-V based virtualization are is outlined in the chapter entitled [[Hyper-V System Requirements]].

As previously mentioned, Hyper-V is bundled by default with the 64-bit version of Windows Server 2008 Standard, Enterprise and Datacenter editions. Before it can be used, however, the Hyper-V role must be installed. This process is achieved using either the Server Manager tool, or via the command-prompt. To perform the installation at the command line, open a command prompt window with elevated privileges (right click on the command prompt icon in the Start menu and select ''Run as administrator'' from the resulting menu) and enter the following command:

After the installation is complete Hyper-V should be installed and ready for use. To confirm that Hyper-V is installed, open the ''Hyper-V Manager'' manager (''Start->Administration Tools->Hyper-V Manager'').