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In this article, I will give a brief overview of Hyper-V Server 2012 R2 and why you would consider using this free version of the Hyper-V virtualization platform.
Hyper-V Server is the free version of Hyper-V that anyone can download and use for enterprise-class virtualization. For every version of Hyper-V on Windows Server, there has been an equal version of Hyper-V Server. In the case of Windows Server 2012 R2 (WS2012 R2), there is a matching release of Hyper-V Server 2012 R2. Hyper-V Server 2012 R2, as usual, has all the same features and scalability of the Datacenter edition of Windows Server Hyper-V, but with three exceptions:
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Other than that, you get all the Hyper-V and Failover Clustering features that are essential to Microsoft virtualization, including VMs with 1 TB RAM and 64 virtual processors, Hyper-V Replica, Storage Spaces, and Network Virtualization. Note that Hyper-V Server has a limited set of roles/features, relevant only to the functionality of a Hyper-V management OS. This stripped-down media makes the install of Hyper-V Server very quick.
The Hyper-V Server user interface.
The correct way to license Windows Server VMs is to license the host. For example, a host licensed (an accounting operation only) with two copies of Windows Server Standard is entitled to run four VMs with Windows Server installed as guest operating systems (in addition to the optional host installation for Hyper-V). With the Datacenter edition you get unlimited installations of Windows Server as the guest OS. So what place could Hyper-V Server have if you have to license the host for Windows Server anyway? There are a few scenarios, including but not limited to:
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You can download Hyper-V Server for free – simply complete a quick registration form and you can download the ISO containing the installation media.
Note: At the time of writing this post, Hyper-V Server 2012 R2 was not publicly available, but it was available on MSDN and TechNet.
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