So I was at this seminar and was introduced to MS Windows 2008 R2 and Windows 7, and sure enough it all looked cool. So I decided that the old P4 I had in a corner would become a new test server for the free HyperV 2008R2 server (note all the betas can be downloaded and used freely)..
And sure enough it supported 64bit, so I fired it up and began installing the HyperV 2008 R2 server (the free one without the GUI).. It took a couple of attempts (the NIC somehow was not very co-operable) but then it was up and running.
As you can see they have even added a nice little “Dos” menu, so you can configure the darn thing..
Well so far so good, after configuring it and installing the HyperV management tools on my Vista Workstation, I went on and configured the HyperV settings on the Win 2008 R2 server and then finally I created a new Virtual PC – a Windows 7 (yeah why not)..
However my feeling of success was short lived, once I clicked on the “Start” button for my newly created Win7 virtual pc I got an error message telling me that the virtual pc could not be started because the HyperV service was not running.. Now there was NO error messages anywhere, so I was reluctant to believe this, but a bit of Googling let to a suspicion, and then to a visit at www.grc.com where I downloaded “securable.exe” a small freeware utility that will test your chipset.
See, just because you have a P4 that support 64bit that does not mean that it will support HyperV, hence time wasted 😐 Everyone know this!? No!?! Well neither did I, or rather I vaguely recall having heard something to that effect, but hey when it would install and run 64bit then I thought everything was dandy.. It’s not though, it’s just not… The same problem is btw true for Windows 7, the new Virtual XP you can install and use on top of it, it only works if your chipset support “Hardware Virtualization” – sigh…)…
So if you want to check out the new servers, be sure to download “securable.exe” and check for support for Vitalization before you start. That said and warned, then the HyperV 2008R2 server looked great and fairly easy to configure, I may once it’s released from beta move my VMWare2 server to this platform instead (my current server DO support “Hardware Virtualization”, thank god for small wonders).
So lesson learned, check the specs before you begin..
BUUUUUT, it would have been nice with a Warning or a Caution from the installer “Your chipset does not support HyperV”, now how hard could that have been? Installing the HyperV 2008 R2 server really makes no sense if you do not plan on running virtual machines (which is impossible without the Hardware vitalization)..