hyper-v in windows 7

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Hi, Ive just purchased the ms press book for configuring windows 7, in their it suggests setting up hyper-v
so its cheaper than buying three or four pc's and networking.
Im trying to find more info on hyper-v and which one I need and pricing etc?
Can anyone offer any help? much appreciated

Slip

 

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Hyper-V is bundled into Windows Server 2008 and 2008 R2. You need the server OS to take advantage of it, but once installed, it let's you install multiple VM guests (for example, the Enterprise Edition host machine would let you install 4 guests without having to pay an extra license for them).

The server OS is however not that cheap. You're better off getting a TechNet license if you want to give it a go.

There is a third option, but it won't work for you and is only meant for enterprise customers.

You can get something else if you want to run virtual machines inside your Windows 7 OS.

 

Thank you so much for your help. That's very kind of you. How and what technet licence would I need please

 

In all honesty at this stage I would look at something like VMware Player or Microsoft Virtual PC to host your virtual platform for testing purposes, both are free and fairly easy to work with.

 

This should help :- TechNet Subscriptions: TechNet subscribers get TechNet downloads and product keys, support, and more | Subscribe to TechNet Subscriptions

I believe you can get a basic subscription for about £160. It would give you access to most major MS products.

 

Thank you so much for all of your kind help guys, I really appreciate it. I'll definitely look at the technet subscription. Meanwhile, can I set up a virtual network on vm player or Microsoft virtual pc on just one pc?

 

slipned, yes you can do that. As an aside you may also want to look at the full blown VMware Workstation product although you 'may' want to hold off on that because it's rumoured that with VMware Workstation 2011\2012 (or that it will supported nested 64bit OS's which would mean a virtualised (and working) Hyper-V host on a Windows 7 OS isn't far away.

 

Sure you can, but the main limiting factor will be how much RAM you have. Having a fast multicore processor would also help. You can usually get away with running virtual test servers with the minimum or close to minimum ram that is specified for them as they often aren't doing very much. Same goes for the clients that you would join to the servers (eg XP VM's or Windows 7 VM's).

So with 4GB in a system, you could get away with 3 or 4 VM's no problems. Much more than that and everything will get very slow and painful to use.

VirtualBox is a good one to use btw. It's free and quite powerful.

 

Where do you get the OS you want to run within VMware?

 

Either use trial versions (MS do plenty of these) or see earlier posts in regard to TechNet subscriptions. For about £160 you could have pretty much every thing from MS's catalogue.

I personally have access to TechNet and also an MS Software assurance agreement so I use those.

 

SimonD and Modey, thank you soo much for your kind help

 

No worries, good luck getting your virtual setup sorted.