MS VDI: How Microsoft Delivers VDI Solutions

Hyper-V is Microsoft’s hardware virtualization product to deliver virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) solutions. You can deploy Hyper-V and Remote Desktop Virtualization Host (RD Virtualization Host) on the same server to improve security, simplify regulatory compliance, increase business agility, and make virtual desktop pools and virtual desktops available to users.

What Is Hyper-V, and How Does It Work?

Hyper-V allows you to create and run virtual machines (VMs) in their own isolated space. In other words, Hyper-V is an efficient way to run more than one VM on the same hardware simultaneously, save time and money, and give different services to different people or groups with ease.

Available in Windows Server and Windows as a server role, Hyper-V replaces Microsoft Virtual PC and Windows Virtual PC. It runs each virtual machine in its own isolated space, meaning that more than one VM can run on the same hardware at the same time. Hyper-V can:

Establish or expand your use of shared resources and deal with demand changes by adjusting utilization.
Help you use your hardware effectively by consolidating servers and workloads into more powerful and fewer computers.
Establish or expand a virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) by using a centralized desktop strategy to create virtual desktop pools and virtual desktops and make them available to users.
Minimize the impacts of scheduled and unscheduled downtime.
Reproduce computing environments without the need to maintain hardware.
Create virtual machine copies stored in another location and use them to restore the VM from previous copies for efficient backup recovery.
Customize services and drivers in all supported guest operating systems, thus making it easier to use the operating system in Hyper-V virtual machines.
Make portability possible by offering features like storage migration and live migration.
Ensure security by protecting VMs against unauthorized access and malware.

What Are the Different Versions of Hyper-V?

The different available Hyper-V versions are:

Microsoft Hyper-V Server

This version:

Is a standalone server containing the Windows Hypervisor (Hyper-V).
Includes few components to run virtual machines.
Has a hypervisor that uses most system resources such as disk space and memory. Hence, this version is comparatively more efficient.
Has no graphical user interface (GUI).

Windows Server with Hyper-V Role

This version of Hyper-V:

Is a standalone machine that runs Windows Server OS over which Hyper-V role is enabled.
Includes management tools and additional features.
It is such that the hypervisor and all Windows Server applications use the system resources, thus potentially affecting the performance of the VM. This version occupies more memory and disk space.
Has a Windows GUI.

How Can You Install the Hyper-V Role?

You can install the Hyper-V role on Windows Server either by using the Server Manager or the Install-WindowsFeature cmdlet on the Windows PowerShell. Before adding the Hyper-V role or installing the Windows Server, make sure that the following pre-requisites are met:

Make sure that your computer hardware is compatible with Windows Server and Hyper-V.
Make sure that you do not plan to use third-party virtualization applications that use the processor features used by Hyper-V. Doing so might cause VMs to run unreliably.

Installing Hyper-V using Server Manager

To install Hyper-V with the Server Manager, follow these steps:

Click Add Roles and Features on the Manage menu.
Verify that your destination server and network environment are prepared for installing the feature. On the Before you begin page, click Next.
Select Role-based or Feature-based installation on the Select installation type page. Click Next.
Select a server from the server pool on the Select destination server page, and click Next.
Select Hyper-V on the Select server roles page.
Click Add Features to add the tools required to create and manage virtual machines. Click Next.
Select the appropriate options from the Create Virtual Switches page, Virtual Machine Migration page, and Default Stores page. Click Next.
Select Restart the destination server automatically as the required option on the Confirm installation selections page. Click Install.
Open the All Servers page in the Server Manager and select the server on which Hyper-V was just installed. Check the Roles and Features tile to verify if it was correctly installed.

Installing Hyper-V using the Install-WindowsFeature cmdlet

To install Hyper-V with the cmdlet, follow these steps:

Click the Start button on the Windows desktop and type any part of the name Windows PowerShell.
Right-click on Windows PowerShell and select Run as Administrator.
Run the following command to install Hyper-V on a server that you are remotely connected to:
```
Install-WindowsFeature -Name Hyper-V -ComputerName <computer_name> -IncludeManagementTools -Restart
```
If you are connected to the server locally, you can run the command without ComputerName <computer_name>.
After the server restarts, you can see that the Hyper-V role is installed. To view other roles and features installed, run the following command:
```
Get-WindowsFeature -ComputerName <computer_name>
```
If you are connected to the server locally, you can run the command without ComputerName <computer_name>.

Parallels RAS Provides Hypervisor Flexibility

Parallels^® Remote Application Server (RAS) is the answer to all your virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) needs. Parallels RAS offers hypervisor flexibility and supports hyper-converged infrastructures such as Nutanix Acropolis, Scale Computing HC3, and Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), as well as VMware ESXi and Microsoft Hyper-V.

With Parallels RAS, you can easily manage virtual machines from different hypervisors in the same infrastructure, as well as:

Automatically deploy VDI desktops on demand.

Deploy guest VMs on the fly.

Provision VDIs in Microsoft Azure.
Deploy persistent as well as non-persistent VDI.
Manage VM pools.
Manage storage space dynamically.
Automate and test VMs.
Improve VDI security.
Manage VDI sessions.
Accommodate additional users with ease.

Parallels RAS is an ideal solution for reducing IT workloads and managing desktops from a centralized location.

Download the 30-day trial of Parallels RAS today!