does anyone run a hyper-v server?

[kleinma]

I currently just have a Windows XP Pro box with Virtual Server 2005 R2 installed for my software testring. It has about 20 virtual machines on it. Mostly consumer operating systems (XP, Vista, 7) used for software testing, although once in a while, there is a need for a Server OS (2003 or 2008) virtual machine.

Does anyone run Hyper-V server, because I would be interested to hear any prons and cons to it.

It looks like at least one pro would be its ability to run x64 guest operating systems, which Virtual Server does not (only x86)

Is there anything else I would look to gain by moving over? I was looking for a break down comparison of the two, but most of what I find is just comparing VMWare to MS offerings.

I also like Virtual Server because it will run older operating systems like Win2000 and Win98 (even though they arent technically supported) which I still need to support my .NET 2.0 applications.

[tr333]

Never used Hyper-V. I run VMWare ESXi for hypervisor virtualization. It runs on "bare metal", so you don't need an OS underneath it; you control it using the included VI Client software from other windows machines. And it's free! I've seen some HP/Dell blade servers that come with ESXi preloaded on a flash chip. No idea if it would run on a standard desktop, since the HCL seems to only list server boxes (towers/blades/rackmounts).

[visualAd]

I agree, in addition, I believe that hyper-v is still in beta. If you are not concerned about the host OS being a fully functional Windows OS, then you can gain performance benefits and your 64bit support.

[kleinma]

Does the VMWare solution support the virtual hard disks from Virtual Server though? I know I can import VS VMs into Hyper-V. I don't expect them to be compatible, but is there a method to convert from one format to the other?

I would not want to have to redo all my virtual machines, they arent just various different operating systems, they are also various different configurations.

[MaximilianMayrhofer]

What about Windows Server 2008 DataCenter edition? That's what i'm currently running.

[kleinma]

I downloaded VMWare ESXi today to test, and got nowhere with it.

The hardware is an nVidia chipset nForce 680i, and a Q6600 intel quad core with virtualization support.

VMWare won't find any hard drives on the chipset (best I can tell 680i isn't a supported chipset, even though searching the web seems to indicate otherwise based on some peoples posts) and it simply won't go past that point.

So I guess back to my original question.

Does anyone run Hyper-V server?