Configuring virtual Machines in Windows Server 2008 R2

In a Windows environment, there are often several ways to deploy, manage, and configure Hyper-V-based virtual machines, either locally or remotely, and you can use the Hyper-V management console, or you can use the Windows PowerShell cmdlet, in addition , when the Hyper-V server is in a Windows failure cluster, you can manage the failed cluster directly, and finally, you can also use the System Center Virtual Machine Management Tool (SCVMM) 2008 R2, as shown in Figure 1.

▲ Figure 1:system Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2

Hyper-V Management Console

The Hyper-V Management Console manages nonclustered hyper-V nodes by default and can be integrated into the Server Manager console or stand-alone operation, as shown in Figure 2.

▲ Figure 2:hyper-v Console

With the Hyper-V console, you can manage all aspects of a virtual machine, add or remove virtual machines, add networks, change the configuration of virtual machines, export snapshots, and so on, which will demonstrate the key steps in creating and managing virtual Machines in Windows Server 2008 R2.

When you add a new Hyper-V role in an environment running Windows Server 2008 R2, the Add Hyper-V Role Wizard includes basic network settings, and the key requirement is to reserve a full network interface card (NIC) dedicated to server management. If you also use an iSCSI port to support failover, you should prepare an additional NIC for iSCSI traffic. In addition, in a real-world application environment, you should also have at least one NIC for each virtual machine on the server, and the virtualization implementation will require more NICs for the server.

To create a new virtual machine

When you want to create a new virtual machine, right-click the Hyper-V Management Server in the tree pane and choose New-virtual machines, as shown in Figure 3.

▲ Figure 3: Create a new virtual machine