Hyper-V R2 – It’s Not Just for Servers!

For the past 15 years I have found interesting ways to test and demo different software and operating systems.  In my early engineer days I had a spare hard drive that I would swap into my computer and boot from that served as my test platform.  As technology progressed I had to a spare computer for testing that I would wipe out and reinstall on a regular basis.  With the advent of virtualization I started to run a hybrid of both physical and virtual machines to meet my needs.  But in the past 5 years, virtual technology has completely dominated my demos and tests.

Virtual Server 2005

When Microsoft released Virtual Server 2005, most technology pundits dismissed it as a futile attempt to go after the VMware production virtual market.  But some of us embraced the technology for what it was: a simple, easy, light-weight, demo and test platform.  Instead of having to install a heavy application that stole precious resources from Windows XP and Vista, Virtual Server was a simple web based app that took advantage of integration with the host OS.  Although it didn’t have all the features of VMware Workstation, it was very stable and effective for giving product demos on a laptop.

Hyper-V RTM

When Hyper-V was released for Windows Server 2008, it became apparent that Microsoft was taking Enterprise virtualization seriously.  Despite it’s limited feature set, Hyper-V was another good solution for product demos.  It’s biggest flaw for this type of use was getting Server 2008 installed on a laptop.  Driver incompatibility and non-existent drivers plagued many laptop owners who wanted to walk the razors edge.  Although it wasn’t impossible to run Hyper-V on a laptop, it was definitely a daunting task.

Windows 7 & Hyper-V R2

Today Microsoft has a veritable panacea available to engineers for test and demo:  Windows 7 & Server 2008 R2.  If you own a laptop from a major manufacturer that runs Windows 7 x64 then the chances are good that you can download Windows 7 drivers that are WHQL.  Most of theses drivers will work in Server 2008 R2, and if your processor supports virtualization then you can also run Hyper-V R2.  While running a server OS on a laptop is not a common occurrence for most folks, it is has become an increasing trend in the “engineer” space. 

Robust Demo and Test Built-in

With Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 sharing a common architecture and kernel, running 2008 R2 as my main laptop OS is a true pleasure.  Dual cores and 4GB of RAM provide plenty of horsepower to run all my applications, as well as supporting 3 VM’s concurrently.  With virtualization built right into the OS, demo’s are again simple and convenient. 

Yes, there are trade-offs that must be taken into consideration when running Server 2008 as your primary OS.  Cost, hardware and application compatibility, backup, and support are just a few.  But for some of us, these trade-offs are well worth having robust, built-in virtualization.

Running Windows Server 2008 R2 with Hyper-V on your laptop may be a worthwhile venture if you find yourself doing lots of product demos or tests.  Hyper-V R2 – It’s Not Just for Servers!