In recent years Windows Server has become the leading virtualization platform offering world class features, reliability and great performance helping to transform existing infrastructures into modern setups. Latest enhancements introduced in Windows Server 2012 R2 have made it possible for small businesses to build an enterprise-level virtual environment on a very modest budget.
The sysadmins planning to use Windows Server as their virtualization platform may choose between two ways of having a Hyper-V in their data center: installing it as a role on top of Windows Server or simply downloading and installing standalone version of Hyper-V Server.
The affordability can significantly increase if organizations were using Hyper-V Server, which is completely free. Hyper-V Server is an ideal choice for many data centers, because it makes possible to virtualize existing physical servers that are already licensed absolutely free by hosting them on Hyper-V Server, which doesn't require an additional license.
Aside from licensing standpoint, standalone Hyper-V Server has many benefits to offer, but can be difficult to manage in some situations. For example, it has no graphical user interface and after the installation looks like this:
In contrast with Windows Server edition, Hyper-V Server does not include the Hyper-V Manager console and doesn't allow changing Hyper-V settings, except for basic configuration tasks via command line interface.
Of course you can manage Hyper-V by using System Center Virtual Machine Manager, but this option is quite expensive and kind of defeats the purpose. PowerShell is good if you want to do things at large scale, requires a great deal of understanding of the subject and may be quite difficult for sysadmins being new to the Hyper-V world. One more option is to run Hyper-V Manager remotely, but there is no way you can do it locally in case you wanted to troubleshoot your setup in an emergency type situation. RSAT also doesn't allow to manage some versions of Hyper-V Server from the older operating systems, so if you are still running Windows 7 and planning to virtualize with Hyper-V Server 2012 R2, you're out of luck.
vtUtilities as a management tool for Hyper-V
To avoid a painful task of dealing with command-line interface, learning scripting with PowerShell, or paying a small fortune for SCVMM, we recommend VT Technology Management Utilities for Hyper-V. vtUtilities have a powerful collection of features which caters to all your virtualized infrastructure needs. With a license priced only $120 per host, vtUtilities is a sensible choice what can outrun all the mentioned above management options for Hyper-V. The low cost of the tool can be easily justified in small to medium environments, including setups for personal use.
After downloading and installing vtUtilities you'll get the full GUI with functionality level similar to Hyper-V Manager, options to choose local or remote management, monitor health of the Hyper-V host and guests. The tool enables an easy access to Hyper-V event logs and virtual machine jobs history providing diagnostic and troubleshooting options to the user. There are also all kind of extras what can help you to cut your workload and run your data center daily tasks more efficiently.
Take a look at vtUtilities GUI for Hyper-V:
vtUtilities GUI
vtUtilities deliver GUI for:
Replication, including support for extended replica
Guest migration
VHDX
Virtual Fibre Channel Adapters
Virtual network management (including the management of virtual connections and bindings)
Advanced virtual switch management, including port-level access control
File system views and operations
Guest configuration management, including support of Gen 2 virtual machines
Server manager view
New virtual machine wizard, Import virtual machine wizard
Hyper-V settings management
Diagnostic and troubleshooting, including real-time performance monitoring of host and guests, access to Hyper-V event log and asynchronous Hyper-V tasks history.
Advantages of the vtUtilities
vtUtilities allow management and monitoring of virtual machines, virtual hard disks and networks on both local and remote Hyper-V servers.
vtUtilities eliminate the requirement for an additional Windows license when used to manage free Microsoft Hyper-V Server locally.
The features that make vtUtilities unique are the product's ability to manage different versions of Hyper-V from centralized management console, including non-compatible versions and operating systems:
vtUtilities can be used for remote management of different versions of Hyper-V from a single application, adjusting to the features supported by managed version. With vtUtilities you can manage Hyper-V Server 2012 R2 while still having a full access to Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows Server 2012.
vtUtilities allow local and remote management of Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 and Hyper-V Server 2012 / 2012 R2 not only from Windows 8 / 8.1 but from Windows 7 as well.
A 7-day free trial for registered customers can be downloaded here: vtUtilities free trial
Please note, what there is a non-obligatory registration to obtain a download, so the trial link here points to the vtUtilities registration page.
It is recommended what you download and read the latest version of User Guide prior to installing vtUtilities
vtUtilities Prerequisites
Virtualization platform: Microsoft Hyper-V
vtUtilities run only on computers with x64-based processors and 64-bit version of Windows.
vtUtilities require .NET 3.51 or later
vtUtilities can be used on 64-bit versions of Windows that don’t support Hyper-V role too.
VT Technology Management Utilities for Hyper-V (vtUtilities) Demo
Microsoft® Virtual Machine Converter (MVMC) is a Microsoft-supported, stand-alone solution for the information technology (IT) pro or solution provider who wants to convert virtual machines and disks from VMware hosts to Hyper-V® hosts and Microsoft Azure™. New Features in MVMC 3.0 MVMC version 3.0 adds P2V support:
The 3.0 release of MVMC adds the ability to convert a physical computer running Windows Server 2008 or above server operating systems or Windows Vista or above client operating systems to a virtual machine running on Hyper-V host.
Windows 10 Technical Preview designed for "PC experts", so it must be installed separately from the existing OS. The download files are 2,9 GB for 32-bit and 3,8 GB for 64-bit in size
What’s New in Active Directory Federation Services. Active Directory Federation Services (AD FS) in Windows Server Technical Preview includes new features that enable you to configure AD FS to authenticate users stored in Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) directories. For more information, see Active Directory Federation Services Overview.
What's new for Hyper-V in the Technical Preview. This topic explains the new and changed functionality of the Hyper-V role in Windows Server Technical Preview, Client Hyper-V running on Windows 10 Technical Preview, and Microsoft Hyper-V Server Technical Preview.
Windows Defender Overview. Windows Defender is installed and enabled by default in Windows Server Technical Preview, but the user interface for Windows Defender is not installed. However, Windows Defender will update antimalware definitions and protect the computer without the user interface. If you need the user interface for Windows Defender, you can install it after the operating system installation by using the Add Roles and Features Wizard.
What's New in Remote Desktop Services in the Windows Server Technical Preview. For the Windows Server Technical Preview, the Remote Desktop Services team focused on improvements based on customer requests. We added support for OpenGL and OpenCL applications, and added MultiPoint Services as a new role in Windows Server.
What's New in Storage Services in Windows Server Technical Preview. This topic explains the new and changed functionality of Storage Services. An update in storage quality of service now enables you to create storage QoS policies on a Scale-Out File Server and assign them to one or more virtual disks on Hyper-V virtual machines. Storage Replica is a new feature that enables synchronous replication between servers for disaster recovery, as well as stretching of a failover cluster for high availability..
What's New in Failover Clustering in Windows Server Technical Preview. This topic explains the new and changed functionality of Failover Clustering. A Hyper-V or Scale-out File Server failover cluster can now easily be upgraded without any downtime or need to build a new cluster with nodes that are running Windows Server Technical Preview.
What's New in Web Application Proxy. Web Application Proxy now supports preauthentication for applications using the HTTP Basic protocol, wildcards in external URLS of applications, redirection from HTTP to HTTPS, use of pass-through authentication with HTTP applications, publishing of Remote Desktop Gateway apps, a new debug log, propagation of client IP addresses to backend applications, and improvements to the Administrator console.
What’s New in Windows PowerShell 5.0. Windows PowerShell 5.0 includes significant new features—including support for developing with classes, and new security features—that extend its use, improve its usability, and allow you to control and manage Windows-based environments more easily and comprehensively. Multiple new features in Windows PowerShell Desired State Configuration (DSC) are also described in this topic.
What's New in Networking in Windows Server Technical Preview. With this topic you can discover information about new networking technologies, such as Network Controller and Generic Routing Encapsulation (GRE) Tunneling, and new features for existing technologies, including IP Address Management (IPAM), DNS, and DHCP. Detailed information about what’s new is available for these networking technologies:
GRE Tunneling in Windows Server. This preview release introduces a new feature that enables Generic Routing Encapsulation (GRE) for the Windows Server Gateway.
This topic explains the new and changed functionality of the Hyper-V role in Windows Server® Technical Preview, Client Hyper-V running on Windows 10® Technical Preview, and Microsoft Hyper-V Server® Technical Preview.
RSAT for Windows 10 Technical Preview download link:
RSAT for Windows 10 Technical Preview
RSAT for Windows 10 Technical Preview enables IT admins to manage roles and features that are installed on computers that are running Windows Server Technical Preview from a remote computer that is running Windows 10 Technical Preview
Additional Information for Windows Server Technical Preview (vNext)
"The Windows team recently shared information on the direction and delivery of Windows 10, and on the Server & Cloud Blog, you can learn more about what to expect from Windows Server and System Center this year.
“As we continue to advance the development of these products, we plan to release further previews through the remainder of 2015, with the final release in 2016,” writes the Microsoft Server and Cloud Platform Team.
The next preview is planned for this spring. “Windows Server will continue to share the same core technology as Windows and we will continue working together on solutions for our customers,” the team says. “In fact, the next version of System Center Configuration Manager, which delivers support for Windows 10, will ship in a timeframe that aligns with Windows.”
Microsoft announced a new version of Windows today at San Francisco Event, called Windows 10. Windows 10 will be a single operating system for all Windows devices, embracing Microsoft's vision of "mobile-first, cloud-first world".
Microsoft also shared new information about future Windows Server version (preview available on October 1)
Infrastructure upgrades: Rolling upgrades for Hyper-V clusters to the next version of Windows Server without downtime for your applications and workloads. This includes support for mixed versions as you transition your infrastructure.
Networking: New components for our software-defined networking stack that enable greater flexibility and control, including a network controller role to manage virtual and physical networks.
Storage: New synchronous storage replication that enhances availability for key applications and workloads plus storage Quality of Service to deliver minimum and maximum IOPS in environments with workloads with diverse storage requirements.
Remote Desktop: Enhanced application compatibility with OpenGL and OpenCL support.
Identity and Access Management: New scenarios to reduce the risk profile of administrators with elevated rights, including time-based access with fine-grained privileges, and new application publishing capabilities.
List Server OS Versions
This is a quick reporting script to pull computer objects from Active Directory with "server" in the OS name and then list them seperated by Windows version.
for Windows Vista SP2, Windows 7 SP1, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2008 SP2 Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1, Windows Server 2012 and Windows Server 2012 R2
for Windows Vista SP2, Windows 7 SP1, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2008 SP2 Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1, Windows Server 2012 and Windows Server 2012 R2
Windows Azure Pack Tool Now with added ADFS support Windows Azure Pack Tool enables you to execute tasks through a simple menu. In this version Windows Azure Pack Tool includes the following functions: Change default URLs, Add admin users and more!
