Finally, the long-awaited Windows hypervisor has been released with the Windows Server 2008 RCO, which was earlier code named LongŽhorn. The Hypervisor is still in its inŽfancy, but that does not reflect upon the installation process, which is as simple as adding a new Role to any Windows Server.
Once it is installed, you will love its usability and performance. Before we go ahead, let's first understand in a nutŽshell what exactly is a hypervisor.

Understanding hypervisors A hyper visor is a technique to run virtuŽalization in full-virtualization mode,You will know the difference by comparing it with any traditional virtuŽalization system, where the virtualizaŽtion layer runs on top of the host. The hypervisor runs directly on top of the hardware, and uses the virtualization features of the underlying CPU, ego InŽtel's VT and AMD's Pacifica.

As the virtualization layer sits directly on top of the hardware, it is very thin and lightweight. It is also more reŽsource conscious. Both of these features make its performance much better as compared to traditional virtualization techniques.

The other well known hypervisor is XEN from Citrix. Prereq uisites
To run Windows hyper visor, the list of prerequisites is not small. As we said earlier the hardware should be running processors supporting virtualization natively.
For our tests, we used a machine with an Intel Core2Duo Extreme 3.0 GHz processor, which supports Intel VT. We used 2 GB RAM, as we had to dedicate some of it to the guest machine and some to the host running Windows Server 2008. Currently only the 64-bit version of Windows Server 2008 RCO supports the installation of hypervisor, so we had a copy of this as well.

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For installation of the Microsoft HyperŽvisor or the Windows Server Virtualization role, you have to do some tweaking before you can install it through the Server Management console. This is
because WSV is not present in the Add Role wizard of Server Management conŽsole, by default. To get this role enabled. you have to first install two updates. No. you don't have to download anything. These updates ship along with the WinŽdows Server 2008 RCO but have to be inŽstalled separately.
To do so. first go to <system volume> \ Windows\ WSV. Here. F'U 'Nili ~;ee 1.<',0 MSU files. Install both of them. one by one. Once the installation is done. go back to the Server Management conŽsole's Add role wizard and you will see a pane, then click on it. A wizard will open. Select the penultimate option. which says Windows Server Virtualization and follow the wizard till that gets installed.

start working with
or boot from an existing one made from MS VPS or VS the Windows Server Vir- tualization, go to the Administrative tools again and click on the Windows Vir-tualization Manager. A winŽdow will open. From this window you can create. manage, modify and delete any guest OS on the server.

To create a new guest OS you just have to click on Newon the right hand side pane of the main window. It will open up a drop-down which will ask you whether you want to create a Virtual machine. a Hard disk. or a Floppy disk.

Click on the Virtual machine option and a new wizard will pop up. Follow the wizard as shown in the images and it will create a virtual machine for you . Once you have created virtual maŽchines. it's just a matter of turning them on and using them from the Windows Virtualization Manager interface.

Interesting findings
One great thing about WSV is that it is backward compatible with. vhd files creŽated by VPC or MS Virtual Server. And it's just a matter of creating new virtual machines with pre-existing hard-disk images. to use those old VHD's with WSv. One problem we faced during this was that the graphical interface of Linux is not very compatible with WSV. till now. We tried installing Fedora 7. Gentoo and Mandriva on top of WSV. but none of them were able to start the graphical inŽterface while installing. But. as this is the first public Beta release of WSV. it might be happening due to a bug. which will eventually be rectified.
Right now the technology looks very promising and we expect to see it evolving as a robust hypervisor for Windows platform. in the coming future.