Hyper-V: features in Windows Client & Server

This article is about:

In this wiki post, we will be using the Hyper-V manager in Windows 10. I may also reference new features that exist on Insider preview editions for Windows 10 Fall creators update. 

What is Hyper-V?

A revolutionary Hypervisor built into both Windows client and server OS. It is a feature loaded hypervisor that can host virtual machines at a previously unheard-of performance level.

In this article, we will be discussing the newest features of Hyper-V specifically in Windows 10 and Server 2016:

What is New?

New Hyper-V host features in Windows Server 2016

New features for Hyper-V hosts include:

• Host resource protection / Prevents a virtual machine from monopolizing all of the resources on a Hyper-V host. This ensures that the Hyper-V host and other virtual machines have sufficient resources to function. This feature is not enabled by default.
• - Hyper-V Manager improvements / Improves manageability of Hyper-V hosts by allowing for alternate credentials when connecting to a Hyper-V host. Allows you to manage some previous versions of Hyper-V. Hyper-V Manager has been updated to use HTTP-based Web Services- Management (WS-MAN) for management instead of remote procedure calls (RPC) to simplify connectivity.
• - Nested virtualization / Allows you to enable the Hyper-V server role in a virtual machine running Windows Server 2016. This can be useful for test and education environments.
• - Rolling Hyper-V cluster upgrades / Allows you to upgrade a Windows Server 2012 R2
• Hyper-V cluster to Windows Server 2016 by adding nodes to an existing cluster. Virtual machines can be moved between nodes running Windows Server 2013 R2 and Windows Server 2016 during coexistence.
• - Shielded virtual machines / Secures virtual machines from Hyper-V host administrators. The entire virtual machine is encrypted and is accessible only to the administrators of that virtual machine.
• - Start order priority / Improves Hyper-V host and virtual machine performance after restarts by identifying a specific startup order for virtual machines. This reduces resource contention and allows you to start the most important virtual machines first.
• - Storage QoS / Improves storage performance by allowing you to assign storage QoS policies on a Scale-Out File Server. Virtual hard disks stored on the Scale-Out File Server can be limited or can be guaranteed an amount of storage throughput.
• - PowerShell Direct / Allows you to run Windows PowerShell cmdlets on a virtual machine from the Hyper-V host. You do not need to configure any network connectivity to the virtual machine from the host.

New Hyper-V virtual machine features in Windows Server 2016

New features for virtual machines include:

• Discrete device assignment / Allows virtual machines to directly access peripheral component interconnect express (PCIe) devices in the Hyper-V host. For some devices like a solid-state drive (SSD), this can provide increased performance.
•  Hot add or remove for network adapters and memory / Provides increased management flexibility to allocate resources as required to virtual machines. Network adapters and virtual memory can be added to a running virtual machine.
•  Integration services delivered through Windows Update / Simplify management of virtual machines by delivering the most recent version of integration services through a standardized mechanism. Previously, integration services were distributed as an ISO image with Hyper-V and the software needed to be deployed to update it.
•  Key storage drive / Allows Generation 1 virtual machines to store BitLocker Drive Encryption keys. This is an alternative to the virtual Trusted Platform Module (TPM) available in Generation 2 virtual machines.
•  Linux Secure Boot / Increases security for Linux virtual machines. Secure Boot verifies digital signatures on files during the boot process to prevent malware. This feature was already available for Windows-based virtual machines.
•  Memory and processor capacity improvements / Allows for higher performing virtual machines. A single virtual machine now supports up to 12 terabytes (TB) of memory and 240 virtual processors.
•  Production checkpoints / Improves the functionality of checkpoints by ensuring that applications are in a consistent state when the checkpoint is created.
• Virtual machine configuration file format / Increases efficiency of read and write operations to the virtual machine configuration file with a binary format instead of the previous XML format. This also prevents administrators from making manual changes to the configuration file.
• Virtual machine configuration version / Provides virtual machine compatibility with Windows Server 2012 R2. Any virtual machines migrated from Windows Server 2012 R2 (such as during a rolling cluster upgrade) are not automatically updated from configuration version 5 to 8 to retain backward compatibility. After you update a virtual machine to version 8, it can only be hosted on Windows Server 2016.