Microsoft recently released Hyper-V for Windows Server 2008. Hyper-V is Microsoft’s bare metal hypervisor. It is important to note that if you want to use Hyper-V, there are some limitations. For instance, you must use 64 bit hardware with Hardware-assisted virtualization. Also, you must enable Data Execution Protection (DEP) - this is called the XD bit for Intel or the NX bit for AMD. Keep in mind that you can run 32 bit or 64 bit VMs (th 64 bit limitation is only for the host hardware). Besides hardware configurations, there are some maximum limits on memory, processors, networking, physical storage, virtual hard disks, virtual storage controllers, virtual storage, virtual CD/DVD drives, virtual Serial (COM) ports, virtual floppy drives, the number of concurrent running VMs, and the number of configured VMs.

Nick MacKechnie has put together a fantastic list detailing all of the maximum supported configuration for Hyper-V. Nick’s list can be found on his blog on MSDN…

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