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Home , Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012

Feature

Comparison

Windows 2008 R2 Hyper-V and 2012 Hyper-V

Contents

Introduction ...... 4

More Secure Multitenancy ...... 5

Flexible Infrastructure ...... 9

Scale, Performance, and Density ...... 13

High Availability ...... 18

Processor and Memory Support ...... 24

Network ...... 24

Storage ...... 25

Manageability ...... 25

Feature Comparison: R2 Hyper-V and Hyper-V 2

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Feature Comparison: Hyper-V and Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V 3

Introduction The following tables compare selected features of Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V and Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V. The tables include comments about each version’s performance, as well as a notation about how well each feature is supported. The legend for this notation is as follows:

Level of Feature Support

Feature is supported

Feature is only partially supported

Feature is not supported

Feature Comparison: Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V and Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V 4

More Secure Multitenancy Helps to ensure that each customer’s data is completely separate and secure from other customers’ information.

Feature Windows Server Windows Server Value Statement 2008 R2 Hyper-V 2012 Hyper-V

Multitenant Provides flexibility to

security and restrict access to a virtual isolation machine on any node Server virtualization Server virtualization while maintaining provides isolation provides a fully isolated isolation of the network between virtual machines. network layer of the and storage traffic. However, the network datacenter through layer of the datacenter is programmatically Provides enhanced not fully isolated, and managed and extensible security and isolation of Layer 2 connectivity is capabilities. This enables customers’ networks from implied between different connection to the one another. workloads that are network of virtual running over the same machines with policy infrastructure. enforcement for security and isolation.

Private virtual Increases virtual machine local area isolation in a multitenant network environment, while not (LAN), or This feature is not PVLANs allow Hyper-V degrading access to PVLAN supported. administrators to isolate public network resources. virtual machines from each other (for example, virtual machines cannot contact other virtual machines over the network), while still maintaining external network connectivity for all virtual machines.

Feature Comparison: Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V and Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V 5

Feature Windows Server Windows Server Value Statement 2008 R2 Hyper-V 2012 Hyper-V

DHCP guard Protects against rogue DHCP servers.

This feature is not DHCP guard drops server supported. messages from unauthorized virtual machines that are acting as DHCP servers. DHCP server traffic from other virtual switch ports is automatically dropped.

Router guard Provides better security and an authorization check for virtual This feature is not Router guard drops machines. supported. router advertisement and redirection messages from unauthorized virtual machines that are acting as routers.

Hyper-V Provides an open Extensible platform for partners’ Switch plug-ins. Unified This feature is not The Hyper-V Extensible management, easier supported. Switch is a Layer 2 virtual support, and core network switch that services for extensions provides are provided without programmatically charge. For example, all managed and extensible extensions have live capabilities to connect migration support by virtual machines to the default, and no special physical network. The coding for services is Hyper-V Extensible required. Switch is an open platform that lets vendors provide extensions written to standard Windows application programming interface (API) frameworks.

Feature Comparison: Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V and Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V 6

Feature Windows Server Windows Server Value Statement 2008 R2 Hyper-V 2012 Hyper-V

Extension Provides traffic visibility monitoring at different layers and enables statistical traffic This feature is not Multiple monitoring and data to be gathered. supported. filtering extensions can be supported at the entrance and outlet portions of the Hyper-V Extensible Switch.

Extension Provides enhanced uniqueness security through a unique extension state. This feature is not Extension supported. state/configuration is unique to each instance of a Hyper-V Extensible Switch on a machine.

Extensions Optimizes the virtual that learn life network for greater cycle of performance. virtual This feature is not These extensions can machines supported. learn the flow of network traffic based on the workload life cycle of virtual machines.

Extensions Provides flexibility to that prohibit improve performance, state changes management, and This feature is not These extensions can diagnostics. supported. better ensure security by identifying harmful state changes. The extensions can stop these state changes from being implemented, while allowing features for monitoring and security to be launched.

Feature Comparison: Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V and Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V 7

Feature Windows Server Windows Server Value Statement 2008 R2 Hyper-V 2012 Hyper-V

Multiple Provides a cost-effective extensions on solution with better same switch manageability and This feature is not Multiple extensions can security. supported. coexist on the same Hyper-V Extensible Switch.

Feature Comparison: Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V and Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V 8

Flexible Infrastructure Makes it easier and faster to add and move servers.

Feature Windows Server Windows Server Value Statement 2008 R2 Hyper-V 2012 Hyper-V

Network Helps to achieve

virtualization maximum performance with no new hardware Virtual LANs (VLANs) are Hyper-V Network (servers, switches, or used to isolate networks, Virtualization helps to appliances). but they are very complex isolate network traffic on to manage on a large a shared infrastructure scale. without the need to use VLANs. It also allows users to move virtual machines, as needed, within a virtual infrastructure while preserving virtual network assignments. Network Virtualization eliminates hierarchical IP address assignments across virtual machines. A virtual machine can be placed on any node, regardless of IP address, even across the cloud.

IP address Eliminates the need to rewrite upgrade network adapters, switches, or This feature is not Each virtual machine appliances. supported. customer address (CA) is mapped to a unique host provider address (PA). Hyper-V Network Virtualization uses IP address rewrite to map the CA to the PA.

Feature Comparison: Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V and Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V 9

Feature Windows Server Windows Server Value Statement 2008 R2 Hyper-V 2012 Hyper-V

Generic Enables better Routing performance by reducing Encapsulation the burden on the This feature is not Hyper-V Network switches. supported. Virtualization uses Generic Routing Encapsulation (GRE) IP packets to map a virtual network to a physical network. It can use as few as one IP address per host.

Live Provides faster and migration simultaneous migration. Provides dynamic Windows Server 2008 R2 Windows Server 2012 mobility of virtual introduced the Live Hyper-V provides the machines across the Migration feature, which ability to migrate virtual datacenter. permits users to move a machines, with support running virtual machine for simultaneous live from one physical migrations. That is, users computer to another with can move several virtual no downtime—assuming machines at the same that the virtual machine is time. clustered. Live migrations are not limited to a cluster. Virtual machines can be migrated across cluster boundaries, and between stand-alone servers that are not part of a cluster.

Feature Comparison: Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V and Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V 10

Feature Windows Server Windows Server Value Statement 2008 R2 Hyper-V 2012 Hyper-V

Live storage Provides better flexibility migration and control while managing storage in a A virtual machine’s Live storage migration cloud environment. storage can be moved allows users to move only while the virtual virtual hard disks that are Provides flexibility to machine is shut down. attached to a running move virtual hard disks virtual machine. without downtime. Users can transfer virtual hard disks to a new location for upgrading or migrating storage, performing back-end storage maintenance, or redistributing the storage load.

Importing Provides a simpler, more virtual streamlined way to machines import or copy virtual A virtual machine’s files With the Import Wizard, machines. that are to be imported users can quickly and can be duplicated and reliably import virtual imported at another time. machines from one server to another. The Import Wizard detects and fixes problems and does not require a virtual machine to be exported.

Merging Provides flexibility to snapshots manage snapshots while a virtual machine is In Hyper-V 2008 R2, The Hyper-V Live Merge running. merging a snapshot into feature allows users to a parent virtual machine merge snapshots back Minimizes use of space requires the virtual into the virtual machine for virtual machines with machine to be turned off while it continues to run. snapshots. for the entirety of the merge operation.

Feature Comparison: Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V and Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V 11

Feature Windows Server Windows Server Value Statement 2008 R2 Hyper-V 2012 Hyper-V

Automation Eliminates the need for support for development skills to Hyper-V perform automation Writing scripts for Hyper- Automation support support tasks. V with in-box tools consists of more than 150 requires Windows built-in Hyper-V cmdlets Management for Instrumentation (WMI) PowerShell. With these knowledge. That is, cmdlets, users can development skills are perform all available tasks needed. in Hyper-V Manager, as well as several tasks exclusively in Windows PowerShell.

Feature Comparison: Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V and Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V 12

Scale, Performance, and Density Increases the scalability of the datacenter and uses fewer servers to run more virtual machine workloads.

Feature Windows Server Windows Server Value Statement 2008 R2 Hyper-V 2012 Hyper-V

Hyper-V host Improves performance

and workload and maximizes the use of support processors and memory. Users can configure up to Users can configure up to 64 logical processors on 320 logical processors on hardware, 1 TB of hardware, 4 TB of physical memory, 4 physical memory, 64 virtual processors, and up virtual processors, and up to 64 GB of memory on a to 1 TB of memory on a virtual machine. Up to 16 virtual machine. Up to 64 nodes and 1,000 virtual nodes and 8,000 virtual machines in a cluster also machines in a cluster also can be supported. can be supported.

Non-Uniform Provides enhanced Memory performance on large Access virtual machines by (NUMA) This feature is not A NUMA topology can be enabling the guest support supported. projected onto a virtual operation system and inside virtual machine, and guest applications to access machines operating systems and local memory faster than applications can make remote memory. intelligent NUMA decisions.

Feature Comparison: Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V and Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V 13

Feature Windows Server Windows Server Value Statement 2008 R2 Hyper-V 2012 Hyper-V

Support for Reduces network latency Single Root and host CPU overhead I/O (for processing network Virtualization This feature is not Windows Server 2012 traffic); increases network (SR-IOV) supported. Hyper-V enables support throughput. networking for SR-IOV-capable devices network devices and allows the SR-IOV virtual function of a physical network adapter to be assigned directly to a virtual machine.

Dynamic Enables the consolidation Memory, of more virtual machines, startup especially in Virtual memory, and Virtual machines are Windows Server 2012 Desktop Infrastructure minimum assigned extra memory Hyper-V can reclaim the (VDI) environments. memory because Hyper-V cannot unused memory from reclaim the memory from virtual machines with a them after startup. minimum memory value lower than their startup value.

Hyper-V Provides a reliable way to smart paging keep virtual machines running when there is not This feature is not If a virtual machine is enough physical memory supported. configured with a lower available. minimum memory than its startup memory and Hyper-V needs additional memory to restart it, Hyper-V smart paging is used to bridge the gap between minimum and startup memory.

Feature Comparison: Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V and Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V 14

Feature Windows Server Windows Server Value Statement 2008 R2 Hyper-V 2012 Hyper-V

Runtime Provides flexibility to use memory Dynamic Memory as configuration needed, without affecting This feature is not Users can make other virtual machines. supported. configuration changes to Dynamic Memory (increase maximum memory or decrease minimum memory) when a virtual machine is running.

Resource Enables users to track the Metering in use of virtual machines. Hyper-V Resource Metering allows This feature is not supported. users to track how many CPU, memory, storage, and network resources are consumed by a virtual machine over time. This information is gathered automatically (without the need to constantly collect data from the virtual machine) and persists with the virtual machine through live migration/other mobility operations.

Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V can track and report the amount of data transferred per IP address or virtual machine.

Feature Comparison: Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V and Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V 15

Feature Windows Server Windows Server Value Statement 2008 R2 Hyper-V 2012 Hyper-V

Virtual hard Helps to ensure high- disk format quality performance on (VHDX) large-sector disks. This feature is not VHDX supports up to 64 supported. TB of storage. It helps to provide protection from corruption due to power failures by logging updates to the VHDX metadata structures. It also helps to prevent performance degradation on large-sector physical disks by optimizing structure alignment.

Offloaded Allows the CPU to data transfer concentrate on the support processing needs of an This feature is not Windows Server 2012 application. supported. Hyper-V uses SAN copy offload to copy large Provides rapid amounts of data from provisioning and one location to another. migration of virtual machines.

Data Center Helps to reduce the cost Bridging and complexity of (DCB) maintaining separate This feature is not Windows Server 2012 traffic for network, supported. Hyper-V uses DCB- management, live capable hardware to migration, and storage. converge multiple types of network traffic onto a Makes it easy to change single network adapter, allocations to different with a maximum level of traffic flows. service to each.

Feature Comparison: Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V and Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V 16

Feature Windows Server Windows Server Value Statement 2008 R2 Hyper-V 2012 Hyper-V

Virtual Fibre Enables Fibre Channel to Channel in connect directly from Hyper-V within virtual machines. This feature is not Virtual Fibre Channel in supported. Hyper-V provides Fibre Channel ports within the guest .

Multipath I/O Helps to ensure highly (MPIO) available connectivity. functionality for Fibre This feature is not Windows Server 2012 Channel supported. Hyper-V uses MPIO storage functionality for proper within a connectivity to Fibre virtual Channel storage within a machine virtual machine.

Support for Uses emerging 4 KB disk innovation in storage sectors in hardware to increase Hyper-V This feature is not Windows Server 2012 capacity and reliability. virtual hard supported. Hyper-V supports 4 KB disks disk sectors. This reduces the impact of 512e disks on the virtual hard disk stack.

Quality of Enables hosting providers Service (QoS) and enterprises to deliver minimum services with predictable bandwidth This feature is not Windows Server 2012 network performance to supported. Hyper-V uses minimum virtual machines on bandwidth to assign servers running Hyper-V. specific bandwidth for each type of traffic and to Reduces the need for ensure fair sharing during expensive network congestion. adapters.

Feature Comparison: Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V and Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V 17

High Availability Increases customers’ resilience to failures in the datacenter.

Feature Windows Server Windows Server Value Statement 2008 R2 Hyper-V 2012 Hyper-V

Backup Reduces backup size and

capability cost.

Data can be preserved by Windows Server 2012 Saves network bandwidth performing full-file Hyper-V supports and disk space. backups. There are two incremental backup of methods for this: virtual hard disks while the virtual machine is  Back up the virtual running: machine and snapshots as flat files  During each when offline. incremental backup, only the differences  Use Windows Server are backed up. or third-party tools to back up the virtual machine itself, with a normal backup of the operating system and data.

Feature Comparison: Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V and Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V 18

Feature Windows Server Windows Server Value Statement 2008 R2 Hyper-V 2012 Hyper-V

Disaster Offers an affordable, in- recovery box business continuity and disaster recovery Support is provided for Asynchronous replication solution. disaster recovery within IT of virtual machines occurs environments and across over a network link from Provides the ability to datacenters, using one Hyper-V host at a quickly recover business geographically dispersed primary site to another functions during clustering capabilities. Hyper-V host at a replica downtime, with minimal site. It also can restore or no data loss. Failover clustering is used the system from an with hardware-based Delivers failure recovery unplanned shutdown. SAN replication across in minutes. datacenters. This In the event of failure approach is used to (power outage, fire, or prevent the outage of an natural disaster) at the entire datacenter, but it is primary site, typically expensive. administrators can manually fail over production virtual machines to the Hyper-V server at the recovery site. During failover, virtual machines are brought back to a consistent point in time, and they can be accessed by the rest of the network within minutes. This version of Hyper-V is an affordable, reliable business continuity solution that can help to restore data at a remote site.

Feature Comparison: Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V and Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V 19

Feature Windows Server Windows Server Value Statement 2008 R2 Hyper-V 2012 Hyper-V

Network Provides higher reliability Interface Card against network failure. (NIC) Teaming Hyper-V 2008 R2 uses Windows Server 2012 for load network adapter teaming, Hyper-V provides built-in balancing a third-party technology support for NIC Teaming: and failover that provides fault A virtual machine can (LBFO) tolerance for multiple have virtual network network adapters. adapters that are connected to more than one virtual switch. If a network adapter under that virtual switch is disconnected, it still has connectivity. NIC Teaming supports up to 32 network adapters in a team.

Hyper-V Increases availability and clustering enables access to server- based applications during Hyper-V 2008 R2 has Windows Server 2012 planned and unplanned specific features, like Hyper-V provides downtime. failover clustering and protection against clustered live migration, application and service that are related to Hyper- failure, and system and V clustering. These hardware failure. features are described later in this table.

Guest Provides the ability to clustering connect Fibre Channel directly from within Guest clustering is Workloads can be virtual machines. supported by using iSCSI. virtualized by directly accessing cluster guest operating systems and storage over Fibre Channel or through iSCSI.

Feature Comparison: Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V and Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V 20

Feature Windows Server Windows Server Value Statement 2008 R2 Hyper-V 2012 Hyper-V

live Provides quicker migration migration by using higher network bandwidth. The Live Migration Live migrations in a feature requires the clustered environment Failover Clustering can use higher network feature to be added and bandwidths (up to 10 configured on servers GB). Administrators can running Hyper-V. Hyper- perform multiple V and failover clustering simultaneous live can be used together to migrations. make a virtual machine highly available.

Encrypted Enhances physical cluster security for deployment volumes outside the secure This feature is not Microsoft BitLocker- datacenter. supported. encrypted cluster disks provide security for deployment outside the secure datacenter. They also provide a safeguard for the cloud.

Cluster Simplifies the Shared configuration and Volume (CSV) operation of virtual 2.0 This feature is not Windows Server 2012 machines. supported. Hyper-V can integrate with storage arrays for Provides greater security replication and hardware and enhanced snapshots out of the box. performance.

Feature Comparison: Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V and Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V 21

Feature Windows Server Windows Server Value Statement 2008 R2 Hyper-V 2012 Hyper-V

Application Provides monitoring for monitoring services and event logs inside virtual machines. This feature is not The health of key services supported. provided by virtual Reduces the risk and machines can be impact of various issues. monitored. If an issue is detected, automatic corrective action can be initiated. Such action includes restarting a virtual machine or moving it to a different Hyper-V server. This provides higher availability to workloads that do not support clustering.

In-box live For administrators, helps migration to save time and improve queuing efficiency. This feature is not Administrators can supported. perform large, multiselect actions to queue live migrations of multiple virtual machines.

Virtual Ensures the availability of machine critical virtual machines. failover Provides optimum prioritization Administrators can Administrators can configure the preference configure priorities to resource use by ensuring for node order on control the order of resource availability for failover. virtual machine failover. high-priority virtual Lower priority virtual machines. machines automatically release resources if they are needed for higher priority virtual machines.

Feature Comparison: Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V and Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V 22

Feature Windows Server Windows Server Value Statement 2008 R2 Hyper-V 2012 Hyper-V

Affinity Migrates partnered virtual virtual machines at machine rules failover. Administrators can Administrators can configure a preference configure partnered that attempts to keep a virtual machines to designated virtual migrate simultaneously at machine off the same failover. node as similar virtual machines.

Anti-affinity Ensures selected virtual migrated virtual machines machine rules do not reside on the This feature is not Administrators can same node in a failover. supported. specify that two virtual machines cannot coexist on the same node in a failover scenario.

Feature Comparison: Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V and Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V 23

Processor and Memory Support Processor/Memory Feature Windows Server 2008 R2 Windows Server 2012 Logical processors on hardware 64 320

Physical memory 1 TB 4 TB

Virtual processors per host 512 2,048

Virtual processors per virtual 4 64 machine

Memory per virtual machine 64 GB 1 TB

Active virtual machines 384 1,024

Maximum cluster nodes 16 64

Maximum cluster virtual 1,000 8,000 machines

Network Network Feature Windows Server 2008 R2 Windows Server 2012 NIC Teaming Yes, through partners Yes, Windows NIC Teaming in box

VLAN Tagging Yes Yes

MAC spoofing protection Yes, with R2 SP1 Yes

ARP spoofing protection Yes, with R2 SP1 Yes

SR-IOV networking No Yes

Network QoS No Yes

Network metering No Yes

Network monitor modes No Yes

IPsec task offload No Yes

VM Trunk Mode No Yes

Feature Comparison: Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V and Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V 24

Storage Storage Feature Windows Server 2008 R2 Windows Server 2012 Live storage migration No, quick storage migration Yes, with no limits (as many as through System Center Virtual the hardware will allow) Machine Manager

Virtual machines on file storage No Yes, 3.0 (SMB3)

Guest Fibre Channel No Yes

Virtual disk format VHD up to 2 TB VHD up to 2 TB VHDX up to 64 TB

Virtual machine guest clustering Yes, through iSCSI Yes, through iSCSI, Fibre Channel, or Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE)

Native 4 KB disk support No Yes

Live virtual hard disk merge No, offline Yes

Live new parent No Yes

Secure offloaded data transfer No Yes

Manageability Manageability Feature Windows Server 2008 R2 Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V PowerShell No Yes

Network PowerShell No Yes

Storage PowerShell No Yes

REST APIs No Yes

SCONFIG Yes Yes

Enable/Disable No, at operating Yes system setup

VMConnect support for RemoteFX No Yes

Feature Comparison: Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V and Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V 25