Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 review
Microsoft is determined to keep the pressure on the established virtualisation players and with Hyper-V R2 has added some crucial features. We see how it fares in this review.

Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 works well at a price that can't be beaten. Strong new features in Hyper-V Server R2 are spoilt only by lack of attention to management issues, both from the command line and with remote tools but it’s still a great deal for Windows users.
The R2 release of Hyper-V removes some of the limitations of the earlier release and introduces several important features. The biggest is host clustering and live migration. You can set up a cluster of up to 16 nodes, and have automatic failover of a VM (Virtual Machine) from one node to another in the event of a hardware failure. Another key feature is that virtual SCSI hard drives can now be added and removed without shutting down the VM.
Hyper-V supports two types of virtual hard drive. A dynamically expanding hard drive reports a large capacity to the guest operating system, but only occupies the space on the host that is actually used, whereas a fixed virtual drive occupies the same space as its capacity. Dynamic drives are more convenient, but in the first Hyper-V release performed more slowly than fixed drives. This has changed in R2 so that performance is nearly the same.
The Hyper-V Manager snap-in running remotely is the normal way to manage virtual machines.
We installed Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 on several machines, ranging from a server with two quad-core processors to a low-end server with a single Xeon. Installation of Server Core tends to be a little more complex than the full version of Windows Server, partly because it is a minority choice and most support resources presume that you have access to the full GUI. Simple tasks like checking device manager become challenging. Microsoft has provided a command-line menu with scripts for some common tasks, such as joining the computer to a domain, configuring remote management - though see below - and setting up networking; but unless you already know Server Core you will still need to work out new techniques for familiar tasks.
Sign up today and you will receive a free copy of our Future Focus 2025 report - the leading guidance on AI, cybersecurity and other IT challenges as per 700+ senior executives
-
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei's prediction about AI in software development is nowhere nearly to becoming a reality
News In March, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei claimed up to 90% of code would be written by AI within six months – his prediction hasn't quite come to fruition.
By Ross Kelly Published
-
Veracode bolsters leadership team for next growth chapter
News The application security vendor has named Anthony Barkley as chief strategy officer and Diana Bushard as general counsel
By Daniel Todd Published
-
UK government programmers trialed AI coding assistants from Microsoft, GitHub, and Google – here's what they found
News Developers participating in a trial of AI coding tools from Google, Microsoft, and GitHub reported big time savings, with 58% saying they now couldn't work without them.
By Emma Woollacott Published