Hyper-V Deployment Options Best Practices

Posted by Erv Walter on Server Fault See other posts from Server Fault or by Erv Walter
Published on 2009-05-18T21:54:38Z Indexed on 2011/01/14 22:55 UTC
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In what circumstances would you choose each of the following deployment options:

  1. Hyper-V installed as the bare bones Windows Hyper-V Server 2008 R2
  2. Hyper-V role installed on a Windows Server 2008 R2 Server Core installation
  3. Hyper-V role installed on a Windows Server 2008 R2 Full Installation

For example, I know there are licensing considerations for each option:

  • With Hyper-V on top of a full installation of Enterprise or Data Center edition, you can use Windows Server as a guest OS without needing additional licenses (4 for Enterprise, unlimited for Data Center)
  • With "Windows Hyper-V Server" you have to obtain licenses for each guest OS.

But my real question is, are there technical considerations as well?

I understand that the Full Installation doesn't perform as well as the other two options, but is there a significant difference between Server Core and "Windows Hyper-V Server"? What are the pros and cons of Hyper-V on Server Core vs "Windows Hyper-V Server" and when would you choose each?

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