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About Virtual Machines and Guest Operating Systems

Updated: February 1, 2012

Applies To: Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2008 R2 with SP1

 Supported guest operating systems

The following tables list the operating systems that are supported for use on a virtual machine as a guest operating system. You can run 32-bit and 64-bit guest operating systems at the same time on one server running Hyper-V. The guest operating systems are supported for Hyper-V in Windows Server 2008 R2, Hyper-V in Windows Server 2008 with Service Pack 2, and Hyper-V version 1 (KB950050, “Hyper-V Update for Windows Server 2008 x64 Edition”).

ImportantImportant
Support for Windows 2000 Server and Windows XP with Service Pack 2 (x86) ends on July 13, 2010. After this date, integration services for these operating systems will not be updated and support will not be available for any issues arising from using these operating systems in virtual machines. For more information about the end of support, see Support for Windows 2000 and Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) Ends on July 13, 2010 (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=196706).

noteNote
A virtual machine running on a version of Hyper-V earlier than Windows Server 2008 R2 can be configured with 1, 2, or 4 virtual processors, regardless of the number of processors that the guest operating system supports.

 

Server guest operating system Editions Virtual processors

Windows Server 2008 R2 with Service Pack 1

Standard, Enterprise, Datacenter, and Web editions

1, 2, 3, or 4

Windows Server 2008 R2

Standard, Enterprise, Datacenter, and Windows Web Server 2008 R2

1, 2, 3, or 4

Windows Server 2008

Standard, Standard without Hyper-V, Enterprise, Enterprise without Hyper-V, Datacenter, Datacenter without Hyper-V, Windows Web Server 2008, and HPC Edition

1, 2, 3, or 4

Windows Server 2003 R2 with Service Pack 2

Standard, Enterprise, Datacenter, and Web

1 or 2

Windows Home Server 2011

Standard

1, 2 or 4

Windows Storage Server 2008 R2

Essentials

1, 2 or 4

Windows Small Business Server 2011

Essentials

1 or 2

Windows Small Business Server 2011

Standard

1, 2, or 4

Windows Server 2003 R2 x64 Edition with Service Pack 2

Standard, Enterprise, and Datacenter

1 or 2

Windows Server 2003 with Service Pack 2

Standard, Enterprise, Datacenter, and Web

1 or 2

Windows Server 2003 x64 Edition with Service Pack 2

Standard, Enterprise, and Datacenter

1 or 2

Windows 2000 Server with Service Pack 4

ImportantImportant
Support for this operating system ends on July 13, 2010. For more information, see the notice at the beginning of this article.

Server, Advanced Server

1

CentOS 6.0 and 6.1

x86 edition and x64 edition

1, 2, or 4

CentOS 5.2-5.7

x86 edition and x64 edition

1, 2, or 4

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.0 and 6.1

x86 edition and x64 edition

1, 2, or 4

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.7

x86 edition and x64 edition

1, 2, or 4

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.6

x86 edition and x64 edition

1, 2, or 4

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.5

x86 edition and x64 edition

1, 2, or 4

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.4

x86 edition and x64 edition

1, 2, or 4

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.3

x86 edition and x64 edition

1, 2, or 4

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.2

x86 edition and x64 edition

1, 2, or 4

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 with Service Pack 1

x86 edition and x64 edition

1, 2, or 4

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 with Service Pack 4

x86 edition and x64 edition

1, 2, or 4

 

Client guest operating system Editions Virtual processors

Windows 7 with Service Pack 1

Enterprise, Ultimate, and Professional. This applies to both 32-bit and 64-bit editions, as well as N and KN editions.

1, 2, 3, or 4

Windows 7

Enterprise, Ultimate, and Professional. This applies to both 32-bit and 64-bit editions, as well as N and KN editions.

1, 2, 3, or 4

Windows Vista

Business, Enterprise, and Ultimate, including N and KN editions

1 or 2

Windows XP with Service Pack 3 (SP3)

ImportantImportant
Performance might be degraded on Windows XP with SP3 when the server running Hyper-V uses an AMD processor. For more information, see Degraded I/O Performance Using a Windows XP Virtual Machine with Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=208750).

Professional

1 or 2

Windows XP with Service Pack 2

ImportantImportant
Support for this operating system ends on July 13, 2010. For more information, see the notice at the beginning of this article.

Professional

1

Windows XP x64 Edition with Service Pack 2

Professional

1 or 2
 Integration services

Integration services are available for supported guest operating systems as described in the following table.

ImportantImportant
When a service pack is listed, the service pack is required and the guest operating system is not supported without the listed service pack.

noteNote
Some guest operating systems do not support the Volume Shadow Copy Service. As a result, online backup service is not available and is not listed for those guest operating systems.

 

Guest operating system

Device and service support

Windows Server 2008 R2

Drivers: IDE, SCSI, networking, video, and mouse

Services: operating system shutdown, time synchronization, data exchange, heartbeat, and online backup

Windows Server 2008 (64-bit editions and x86 editions)

Drivers: IDE, SCSI, networking, video, and mouse

Services: operating system shutdown, time synchronization, data exchange, heartbeat, and online backup

Windows Server 2003 (x64 editions) with Service Pack 2

Drivers: IDE, SCSI, networking, video, and mouse

Services: operating system shutdown, time synchronization, data exchange, heartbeat, and online backup

noteNote
This operating system does not support a legacy network adapter. For more information about virtual networking and network adapter types, see Configuring Virtual Networks.

Windows Server 2003 (x86 editions) with Service Pack 2

Drivers: IDE, SCSI, networking, video, and mouse

Services: operating system shutdown, time synchronization, data exchange, heartbeat, and online backup

Windows 2000 Server with Service Pack 4

ImportantImportant
Support for this operating system ends on July 13, 2010. For more information, see the notice at the beginning of this article.

Drivers: IDE, networking, video, and mouse

Services: operating system shutdown, time synchronization, data exchange, and heartbeat

Windows 2000 Advanced Server with Service Pack 4

ImportantImportant
Support for this operating system ends on July 13, 2010. For more information, see the notice at the beginning of this article.

Drivers: IDE, networking, video, and mouse

Services: operating system shutdown, time synchronization, data exchange, and heartbeat

CentOS 6.0 and 6.1 (x86 edition and x64 edition)

Drivers: IDE, SCSI, networking, and mouse

Services: Time synchronization, operating system shutdown, and heartbeat

CentOS 5.2 – 5.7 (x86 edition and x64 edition)

Drivers: IDE, SCSI, and networking

Services: Time synchronization, operating system shutdown, and heartbeat

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.0 and 6.1, x86 edition and x64 edition

Drivers: IDE, SCSI, networking, and mouse

Services: Time synchronization, operating system shutdown, and heartbeat

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.7 (x86 edition and x64 edition)

Drivers: IDE, SCSI, and networking

Services: Time synchronization, operating system shutdown, and heartbeat

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.6 (x86 edition and x64 edition)

Drivers: IDE, SCSI, and networking

Services: Time synchronization, operating system shutdown, and heartbeat

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.5 (x86 edition and x64 edition)

Drivers: IDE, SCSI, and networking

Services: Time synchronization, operating system shutdown, and heartbeat

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.4 (x86 edition and x64 edition)

Drivers: IDE, SCSI, and networking

Services: Time synchronization, operating system shutdown, and heartbeat

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.3 (x86 edition and x64 edition)

Drivers: IDE, SCSI, and networking

Services: Time synchronization, operating system shutdown, and heartbeat

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.2 (x86 edition and x64 edition)

Drivers: IDE, SCSI, and networking

Services: Time synchronization, operating system shutdown, and heartbeat

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 (x86 edition and x64 edition) with Service Pack 1

Drivers: IDE, SCSI, and networking

Services: Time synchronization, operating system shutdown, and heartbeat

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 (x86 edition and x64 edition) with Service Pack 4

Drivers: IDE, SCSI, and networking

Services: Time synchronization, operating system shutdown, and heartbeat

Windows 7

Drivers: IDE, SCSI, networking, video, and mouse

Services: operating system shutdown, time synchronization, data exchange, heartbeat, and online backup

Windows Vista (64-bit editions) with Service Pack 1

Drivers: IDE, SCSI, networking, video, and mouse

Services: operating system shutdown, time synchronization, data exchange, heartbeat, and online backup

Windows Vista (x86 editions) with Service Pack 1

Drivers: IDE, networking, video, and mouse

Services: operating system shutdown, time synchronization, data exchange, heartbeat, and online backup

Windows XP Professional (x86 editions) with Service Pack 2 or 3

ImportantImportant
Support for Windows XP with Service Pack 2 ends on July 13, 2010. For more information, see the notice at the beginning of this article.

Drivers: IDE, SCSI, networking, video, and mouse

Services: operating system shutdown, time synchronization, data exchange, and heartbeat

Windows XP Professional x64 Edition with Service Pack 2

Drivers: IDE, SCSI, networking, video, and mouse

Services: operating system shutdown, time synchronization, data exchange, and heartbeat
 Additional considerations
  • On Windows operating systems, you may need to close the Found New Hardware Wizard to start the installation of integration services.

  • If you installed a prerelease version of integration services on a guest operating system, we recommend that you upgrade to the release version. For supported Windows operating systems, the release version of integration services is included with the release version of the Hyper-V role. For more information about the role update package, see Installing Hyper-V [Node]. For more information about version compatibility, see Version Compatibility for Integration Services.

  • Integration services for the supported versions of Linux distributions are distributed through the Microsoft Download Center and are identified as Linux Integration Components for Microsoft Hyper-V. For Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.0 and 6.1, see Linux Integration Services Version 3.0 for Hyper-V (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=225105). For other supported Linux distributions, see Linux Integration Components for Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V R2 (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=183398).

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Linux IC 3.x download link is broken      Pronichkin   |   Edit   |   Show History
The correct download linsk for Linux IC are:

Content Update in Process      tonysoper_MSFT   |   Edit   |   Show History
The following are being added to the topic and should publish shortly:
CentOS
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Linux integration services now available      KBD [MSFT] ... Regi George   |   Edit   |   Show History

The integration services for Linux (also known as integration components) are now available for download from the Connect site. Look for the Linux Integration Components for Hyper-V program. (https://connect.microsoft.com).

Check out Mike Sterling's blog post for descriptions: http://blogs.msdn.com/mikester/archive/2008/09/10/linux-integration-components-now-posted.aspx

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Tool for creating fixed VHDs _Fast_      Philip Elder   |   Edit   |   Show History
This is a free tool that works really well:

Usage:

  • VhdTool.exe /create <FileName> <Size> [/quiet]
    VhdTool.exe /convert <FileName> [/quiet]
    VhdTool.exe /extend <FileName> <NewSize> [/quiet]
    VhdTool.exe /repair <BaseVhdFileName> <FirstSnapshotAVhdFileName> [/quiet]
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