What is Hyper-V and What Operating Systems are Supported?

Hyper-V is a hypervisor for computers with x64 processor-based virtualization technology from Microsoft . Hyper-V is an integral part of the Windows Server operating system (such as Windows Server 2008 and 2012 Datacenter and Standard) as well as in the form of a standalone version (such as Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2012). In addition, the 64-bit Pro and Enterprise Editions of the Windows 8 client operating system include Hyper-V technology.  In all these products Hyper-V is active by default or may be optionally installed. The standalone version of Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2012 is available free of charge and has the many features as the paid operating system, with the exception of a graphical user interface.

Features

• Complete isolation of individual virtual machines
• Hardware level safety features can be used, for example Data Execution Prevention (DEP)
• Hyper-V supports network address translation (NAT) and network access protection (NAP)
• Administration using the Microsoft Management Console (MMC)
• Live migration of Hyper-V virtual machines is possible in cluster mode. This allows admins to move virtual machines on the fly to another host server.
• Supported host operating systems: Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2012 and Windows Server 2012 R2
• Up to 64 processors and 1TB-RAM can be assigned to a VM

Availability

The hypervisor is supplied in two versions: as a server role or feature of operating system (such as in Windows 8 or Windows Server 2012) and as a standalone product (such as Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2012). The latter version is free of charge. Also, this version may be managed only using PowerShell  or other command line applications, RSAT, and some third-party management tools.

Areas of Application

Hyper-V is effective in many scenarios. From the virtualization of entire data centers, as well as in smaller business environments. Administrators can now edit VM network configurations without using 3rd party tools (E.g. NIC teaming and VLAN configuration). In addition, Hyper-V offers the virtualization of entire network switches (vSwitch). One way to manage a Hyper-V host network is to use System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM), provides a range of advanced functions beyond simple management functions.

Hyper-V is also available in Windows 8. However, it should be noted that after you enable Hyper-V on Windows 8, the host’s operating system runs itself inside a privileged machine and there may be latency issues in time-critical, real-time applications

 

Guest Operating System Support

Apart from some versions of Windows, Microsoft also officially supports the Linux distributions SUSE and OpenSUSE.

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.2 / 5.3 / 5.4 / 5.5 / 5.6
• SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 SP4
• SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP1
• OpenSUSE 12.3

XP and older versions are no longer supported in virtual mode as VM guests in Windows 8. Hyper-V Integration Services are now working with Linux kernel v2.6.32 and CentOS 6.4 drivers for Hyper-V are already included in HIS distribution packages.

Sources

Wikipedia

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc794868(WS.10).aspx