Hyper-V and Windows 8/WDP - More Choice in desktop virtualization

[PGHammer]

I'm in the last legs of an upcoming hardware upgrade (moving from LGA775 to LGA1155) and I have some questions regarding using Hyper-V in the Developer Preview (and in the future, in Windows 8 itself).

1. I'm quite aware that no LGA775 chipset (for the desktop) supports Hyper-V - which LGA1155 chipsets support it? (My own motherboard choice uses the Intel Z68 chipset.)

2. Other than 4 GB of RAM (at minimum) on a host running Hyper-V and support for second-level address translation (with or without VT-d support) what are the other requirements?

3. What guest (client) requirements are there for Hyper-V support?

[farmeunit]

1. It's not the motherboard that needs support for Hyper-V, it's the processor. Lots of LGA processors can, actually.

Processor : x64 compatible processor with Intel VT or AMD-V technology enabled.

Hardware Data Execution Prevention (DEP), specifically Intel XD bit (execute disable bit) or AMD NX bit (no execute bit), must be available and enabled.

http://ark.intel.com/VTList.aspx

3. Supported Guest OSes:

http://technet.micro...28WS.10%29.aspx

2. I can't answer

[PGHammer]

1. It's not the motherboard that needs support for Hyper-V, it's the processor. Lots of LGA processors can, actually.

Processor : x64 compatible processor with Intel VT or AMD-V technology enabled.

Hardware Data Execution Prevention (DEP), specifically Intel XD bit (execute disable bit) or AMD NX bit (no execute bit), must be available and enabled.

http://ark.intel.com/VTList.aspx

3. Supported Guest OSes:

http://technet.micro...28WS.10%29.aspx

2. I can't answer

That is VT-x/AMD-V - Hyper-V also requires support for second-level address translation (SLAT), which is unique to (currently) LGA1155/2011, and the XEON branch of LGA1366; however, it's a CPU issue (like VT-X/AMD-V), and not a motherboard chipset issue. The SLAT requirement is, in fact, unique to Windows 8 (client and server, including the Developer Preview) and Windows Server 2008 R2 with Service Pack 1 - the original release of Hyper-V (in Server 2008) lacks that requirement.

Ideally, if you wish to try Hyper-V (but lack SLAT support), the evaluation version of Windows Server 2008 R2 (without SP1 applied) should be suitable.

[PGHammer]

That is VT-x/AMD-V - Hyper-V also requires support for second-level address translation (SLAT), which is unique to (currently) LGA1155/2011, and the XEON branch of LGA1366; however, it's a CPU issue (like VT-X/AMD-V), and not a motherboard chipset issue. The SLAT requirement is, in fact, unique to Windows 8 (client and server, including the Developer Preview) and Windows Server 2008 R2 with Service Pack 1 - the original release of Hyper-V (in Server 2008) lacks that requirement.

Ideally, if you wish to try Hyper-V (but lack SLAT support), the evaluation version of Windows Server 2008 R2 (without SP1 applied) should be suitable.

UPDATE/CORRECTION - Hyper-V in Server 2008R2 does *not* require either SLAT or 4 GB of RAM, even with Service Pack 1 applied. Apparently, neither does Windows 8 Server (per a post in the Windows Server forum) - the SLAT requirement is unique to the client version of Windows 8. (I added 2008R1 (complete with SP1) as a third bare-metal-installed OS, turning the dual-boot into a true triple, installing the Full version of the server OS, and adding the Hyper-V role as the only defined role for the server - basically, treating it as I would Windows 8 Server. My current CPU is a Q6600 (therefore no SLAT/EPT); however, I had no issues adding the Hyper-V role for the new server and adding my first Hyper-V client - a virtual install of Windows 8 (the WDP of course). I hope that Windows 8 Server becomes available along with the other public beta versions.

[Leddy]

SLAT is only a requirement for RemoteFX (the 3D thin client feature on 2008 R2 Hyper-V hosts).

[PGHammer]

SLAT is only a requirement for RemoteFX (the 3D thin client feature on 2008 R2 Hyper-V hosts).

That would explain why the Windows 8 *client* requires it currently - RemoteFX is actually installed by default in the client, but is not installed in either 2008R2 or Windows 8 Server (which I just used to replace 2008 R2), even with Hyper-V installed, as in most cases RemoteFX is not needed for local VMs.