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Microsoft's native hypervisor for Windows systems

Core Idea: Hyper-V is a native hypervisor developed by Microsoft that enables the creation and management of virtual machines on x86-64 systems running Windows.

Key Elements

Overview

• Native hypervisor integrated into Windows NT operating systems
• Available in Pro and Enterprise editions of Windows (since Windows 8)
• Available in Windows Server editions (since Windows Server 2008)
• Superseded Microsoft Virtual Server and Windows Virtual PC
• Enables configuration of individual virtual machines with varied network access

Distribution Channels

• As an optional component of Windows Server (2008 and later)
• As an optional component in x64 SKUs of Windows 8/8.1/10/11 (Pro, Enterprise, Education)
• As Hyper-V Server, a freeware edition with limited functionality (discontinued after 2019 version)

Historical Development

• Initially codenamed "Viridian" and briefly known as "Windows Server Virtualization"
• Released in beta with certain editions of Windows Server 2008 x86-64
• Finalized on June 26, 2008 and delivered through Windows Update
• Included in every version of Windows Server since 2012
• Extended to Windows client operating systems starting with Windows 8

Primary Use Cases

• Server virtualization and consolidation
• Development and testing environments
• Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)
• Disaster recovery and business continuity
• Cloud infrastructure

Additional Connections

• Broader Context: Virtualization Technologies (Hyper-V is Microsoft's enterprise virtualization solution)
• Applications: Virtual Machine Management (methods for managing VMs in production)
• See Also: VMware ESXi (competing hypervisor technology)

References

1. Microsoft Hyper-V Documentation
2. Windows Server Documentation

#virtualization #microsoft #hypervisor #windows

Connections:

Sources:

• From: Hyper-V - Wikipedia