Microsoft Virtualization Secrets

Client Hyper-V in Windows 8

Certain features in Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V such as a synthetic fibre channel and live VM migration are not included in Client Hyper-V, as they don’t make sense on a client. More on this later in the chapter.

“Put Hyper-V from the server into the client” was the chant from IT professionals and developers after Windows 7 was released; their wish has been granted with Windows 8. Microsoft has taken the latest Hyper-V from Windows Server 2012, with nearly all its great new features, and put it straight into Windows 8 without sacrificing desktop capabilities like suspend and resume, and utilizing unique client requirements such as the use of wireless networks.

The Goals and Features of Client Hyper-V

As explained earlier, Client Hyper-V is targeted squarely at IT professionals and developers, enabling all the requirements those types of users require. Because Client Hyper-V is not designed for solving application compatibility issues, it does not currently work with MED-V. Client Hyper-V provides a virtualization platform that other vendors can build on to enable many scenarios, so although Microsoft targeted Client Hyper-V for IT professionals and developers, other usages may be offered in the future that extend the Client Hyper-V platform. In fact, some parts of Hyper-V have been built to be extended. The network switch, for example, is fully extensible, allowing third-party add-ins to be placed into the Hyper-V network stack. From a developer’s ...