Part 4. Creating a Virtual Machine on Windows Server 2012

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Rob Waggoner

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I built the video How to Setup a Virtual Machine in Windows Server 2008 a few years ago. It has served us well, but I decided now was the time to update the video for Windows Server 2012 R2. Windows Server 2012 and Windows Server 2012 R2 add some new capabilities for your VMs and I wanted to highlight them here. 

 

 

One of the new capabilities in Hyper-V that stands out to me is the concept of the Generation 1 and Generation 2 Virtual Machines. I love that we maintain backward compatibility and provide support for the new generation of hardware and Virtual Machine capabilities. Here is a quick rundown of the Generation 2 capabilities:

Hyper-V in Windows Server 2012 R2 Preview includes two supported virtual machine generations.

  • Generation 1 Provides the same virtual hardware to the virtual machine as in previous versions of Hyper-V.

  • Generation 2 Provides the following new functionality on a virtual machine:

    • Secure Boot (enabled by default)
    • Boot from a SCSI virtual hard disk
    • Boot from a SCSI virtual DVD
    • PXE boot by using a standard network adapter
    • UEFI firmware support

IDE drives and legacy network adapter support is not available in Generation 2 VMs. If you need IDE or legacy NIC support, you must stay with Generation 1 VMs.

Also note that Generation 2 VMs are only supported on the following Operating Systems:

  • Windows Server 2012
  • Windows Server 2012 R2 Preview
  • 64-bit versions of Windows 8
  • 64-bit versions of Windows 8.1 Preview

There is a very good Generation 2 overview here:  https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn282285.aspx

 

I hope this information has helped, if you have any more questions, please let me know.

This session is one part of a whole series of screen casts around Hyper-V in Windows Server 2012, you can go this link to access the whole series.

So you want to get started with (Windows Server 2012) Hyper-V? Start here! – In Summary

Until next time!

Rob

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