Introduction

Microsoft Hyper-V is a hardware virtualization platform by Microsoft that allows a single physical machine to host multiple virtual operating systems. Hyper-V allows for more efficient utilization of physical resources by sharing disk, network, memory, and CPU among multiple virtual computers. Microsoft released Hyper-V 2012 in two versions: as a feature of the standard OS, and as a free standalone Hyper-V Server. The commands in this chapter can be performed in both environments.

In addition to basic management of Hyper-V, this chapter also covers how to automate the deployment and management of guest virtual machines (VMs), manage VM snapshots, migrate VMs between hosts and preparing a host for maintenance, and how to utilize clustering to make highly available VMs. This chapter should cover everything necessary to set up and manage an enterprise Hyper-V farm; including reporting, performing maintenance, and monitoring performance.