TechEd: What’s new in Hyper-V 2012 R2 (MDC-B330)

This is the first session of the week focused entirely on the new features in Hyper-V 2012 R2, due out later this year. Hyper-V in Windows Server 2012 saw monumental changes from prior versions, which were needed to keep up with the competition. Hyper-V in WS 2012 R2 builds on the prior functionality with some big enhancements, just a year later.

Windows Azure uses the stock Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V
Complete virtual machine compatibility between on prem Hyper-V and Azure IaaS

Hyper-V 2012 R2

Generation 2 VMs

Legacy free (no BIOS) but uses UEFI
Many emulated devices removed
Boots from virtual SCSI or synthetic network adapters
Enables UEFI secure boot standard
Supported Guest OS: 64-bit Windows 8, Windows Server 2012, 64-bit Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2012 R2
You can run Gen1 and Gen2 VMs side by side
Gen1 VMs are not going anywhere anytime soon
No performance improvements on Gen2 VMs, except booting is 20% faster and OS install is about 50% faster.
Big advantage is booting off a virtual SCSI or network controller instead of IDE device

Automatic Activation

Zero touch activation of VMs
Automatically activated according to the hosting environment
Gets its activation information from the Hyper-V host
Not tied to type of activation method (OEM, VL, etc.)
The VM does not have the product key in it
Only supported for Windows Server 2012 R2 VMs (no prior versions)

Demos:

Difference between generation 1 and generation 2 VMs: No ISA, no com ports, no PS/2 ports, no floppy, etc. Simplifies VM hardware configuration.
Showed the ability to enable secure boot for VMs
Enhanced virtual machine connection – Supports rich text copy and paste in and out of VMs. Cut and paste files in and out of VMs.
VM console now supports audio redirection as well
VM connect now uses remote desktop services, so you can do smart cards, folder redirection, plus USB support.
Full support for these features on Windows 8.1 Hyper-V, and are enabled by default. Disabled by default on server for security, but can easily enable per-host.

Zero-downtime upgrade

Live migrate virtual machine from Windows Server 2012 to Windows Server 2012 R2
Includes shared nothing live migration

More new Features

Online VHDX resize (expand, shrink, compact)
Increase or decrease the size of virtual disks while the VM is running
Live machine export (clone a running VM)
VMs with snapshots and other settings can be migrated without intervention to 2012 R2 (no more draconian procedures)
Live migration with compression – default option (1/3 faster than w/o in his demo)
Live migration using RDMA (SMB Direct) – Uses less CPU than a standard Live Migration
Faster live migration – 10Gb or less then use compression. Over 10Gb, use SMB/SMB Direct

Enhanced Linux Guest Support

Full dynamic memory support
Online backup with filesystem consistency (VSS-like functionality on Linux)
Online VHDX resize
New video driver
Linux has and will continue to run very well on Hyper-V
You can use any enterprise solution that backups up Hyper-V and get full Linux support automatically
Microsoft claims they offer the most Linux support of any hypervisor, since the competition can’t do VSS-like Linux backups
Microsoft releases the hypervisor integration pack with a GPL license to the open source community

Additional Features

Storage QoS
Ability to configure min/max IOPS on a per-VM basis
Guest Clustering with shared virtual disks. No need for ISCSI, fibre channel SAN, or block storage. Can be done with SMB, or cluster in a box.