Unsolved
This post is more than 5 years old
21 Posts
0
599660
Server 2012 R2 Essentials as Hyper-V Host
So Microsoft Server 2012 R2 Essentials comes with the rights to virtualize it on Hyper-V as long as that server only hosts a single VM, and that VM is running Server Essentials. Server 2012 Standard gives you rights to run two VMs and Datacanter gives you unlimited VMs.
My question is this. Does Dell provide the media and product keys to be able to install the Hyper-V Host operating system? This host OS would not be the Essentials OS as that has some pretty specific requirements in terms of configuring it as an Essentials server etc. Does anyone know how Dell handles the media and product key side of this Microsoft entitlement?
DELL-Chris H
Moderator
Moderator
•
8.4K Posts
0
November 7th, 2014 08:00
Warren-G,
With the 2012 R2 Version (current Version), the Hyper-V role and Hyper-V Manager console, are now included with Windows Server 2012 R2 Essentials. The server licensing rights have been expanded to allow you to install an instance of Essentials on your physical server to run the Hyper-V role (with none of the other roles and features of the Essentials Experience installed), and a second instance of Essentials as a virtual machine (VM) on that same server with all the Essentials Experience roles and Features.
So in short it will allow you to install a physical Essentials box with only the Hyper-v role (no Essentials roles or features) and then they can virtualize an instance of essentials.
The benefit of this is, that since it is a VM it is easier to recover, yet the disadvantage is the additional resources used to run both OS's.
This link has a nice walkthrough on configuring the server for this - http://bit.ly/1wCbj2g
I hope this helps clarify the issue for you. Let me know if it helps answer your question.
Sean_Crawford
10 Posts
0
November 7th, 2014 09:00
Are you asking specifically about "Hyper-V Server 2012 R2" ? If yes the media and licenses are provided for free Link.
If you wanted to host the VM on Windows 2012 R2 Standard Server with the Hyper-V role installed you would have purchase a NON-OEM copy of Standard and then downgrade one of the VM licenses to Essentials.
Dell does provide a single copy of additional OS media for free.
Warren-G
21 Posts
0
November 7th, 2014 15:00
Hi Chris,
Thanks for your reply to my post. I guess the only question I have at this point is to clarify the situation with the installation media and product key. So if I ordered Essentials together with the server, my understanding is that it normally comes with 2 CDs (we haven't ordered one of these in about 6 months so it might have changed??) One of the CDs is the Dell Systems Build and Update Utility (I think) and the other is the Essentials installation media. So now if I wanted to install the Hyper-V host do I already have what I need or is there something else I need that is not provided? In other words does Dell provide the installation media a) as a separate CD or b) do I install the Hyper-V host using the same Essentials media or c) do I need to get it somewhere else? My question applies to the product key also - does the product key provided on the OEM sticker apply to both the Hyper-V host OS and the Essentials VM, or do I need separate product keys? If separate, does Dell provide that or do I need to acquire it another way? If so, where do I get that from?
Thanks again for your help,
Warren
Warren-G
21 Posts
0
November 7th, 2014 15:00
Hi Sean,
Microsoft has expanded the usage rights of Server 2012 R2 Essentials to allow us to install one instance of the Server 2012 OS at the Hyper-V host level, and also have one VM running the actual Essentials server. The licensing limitation is that you can only have one VM running on the Hyper-V host, while Server 2012 R2 Standard allows 2 VMs. So I am not looking for the free Hyper-V Server but rather I am looking to use the full Windows Server OS.
Page 8 of the following White Paper explains what I am trying to do:
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/server-cloud/products/windows-server-2012-r2-essentials/default.aspx
"Windows Server 2012 R2 Essentials as its own Hyper-V host. With previous versions of the Windows Server Essentials edition, it was necessary to obtain a hypervisor separately in order to run as a virtual machine—options included the free Microsoft Hyper-V Server or using Windows Server Standard edition to run Hyper-V. With Windows Server 2012 R2 Essentials, the product licensing terms have been expanded to enable you to run one operating system instance on the physical server in order to run Hyper-V, plus a second instance on that server in order to run Essentials as a virtual machine. Installation wizards have also been created to simplify the process of deploying as a virtual machine by automating the steps necessary to set up and configure the host server environment. This makes it easier than ever before to take advantage of Hyper-V and its features, such as Live Migration and Hyper-V Replica."
Thanks,
Warren