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I was looking for How to Install Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V for some time and finally I found here.

This page discusses the Hyper-V Release Candidate (RC). The information in this article is provided as is and is subject to change without notice. No formal product support is available from Microsoft for this beta release of this feature.

• Prerequisites
• Pre-installation Steps for Migrating from the Beta
• Enabling the Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V role
• Migrating from Hyper-V Beta to RC
• Managing Hyper-V via MMC
• Recommended Configuration for Guest OS
• Operating System Availability
• Recommended Hardware Devices
• Partner Tested Hardware
• Removing Hyper-V

PrerequisitesThe Release Candidate for Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V is only available for x64 editions of Windows Server 2008 RTM. If you are using a version of Windows Server 2008 that is pre-RTM, you will need to perform a clean install of Windows Server 2008 RTM x64 edition on your host system. Hyper-V cannot be enabled on systems running inside virtual machines or on x86 versions of Windows Server 2008.

The full set of prerequisites for installing Hyper-V on Windows Server 2008 will be published separately closer to RTM. The RC release of Hyper-V is available with Windows Server 2008 x64 editions. Hyper-V requires an x64-based processor, hardware-assisted virtualization, and hardware data execution protection. For the RC release, a maximum of sixteen logical processors are tested.

Pre-installation Steps for Migrating from the Beta

If you had previously installed the Beta of Hyper-V  on Windows Server 2008 RTM, the following steps are recommended for moving to the RC version of Hyper-V:

• Take a backup of all your Virtual Hard Disks (VHDs) once you have shutdown the virtual machines.
• Take a note of all of the Virtual Machine (VM) configuration settings such as storage configuration, memory allocations, etc. You will need to re-create the virtual machine settings as these are not compatible with the RC version.
• Take a backup of all your data on the system.
• Install the updates from Download Center or Windows Update (available post March 25, 2008) for the RC version. As mentioned above the RC update package will only install on RTM version Windows Server 2008. Reboot as requested.

Enabling the Hyper V role in Windows Server 2008

To enable Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V on a full installation of Windows Server 2008, follow these steps.

1. If you are updating your existing server that is running a pre-RTM version of Windows Server 2008, you must back up necessary files from the existing Windows Server before proceeding and perform a clean install of Windows Server 2008 RTM x64 edition. All steps in the pre-installation section must be completed before continuing.
2. Ensure that you have hardware-assisted virtualization and No-Execute Bit enabled prior to installation. If BIOS reconfiguration changes were made to enable hardware features, you must complete a full power-cycle before proceeding. A warm-reboot is not sufficient.
   1. Download and install the update package for Hyper-V RC version.
   2. There are two update packages for Hyper-V RC – Update for Windows Server 2008 x64 editions (KB 949219) and Update for Windows Server 2008 (KB949219). You will need to install the Updates for Windows Server 2008 x64 editions on the parent partition for upgrading to Hyper-V RC.
   3. If you had not previously enabled the Hyper-V Beta role, you will need to follow the instructions in Steps 4-7.
3. Start Server Manager. To do this, click Start, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Server Manager. To add roles to a server, you must be logged on with an account with administrative rights.
4. In Server Manager, add the Hyper-V role. To do this, click Add Roles under Roles Summary, and then select Hyper-V in the Add Roles wizard.
5. Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the Add Roles wizard.
   Note: It is optional to allow Virtual Machines access to network resources; at least one network adapter must be selected to bind a Virtual Network Switch to. If there is a single network adapter in the computer, a warning popup will appear. It is recommended that at least two network adapters are available.
6. At the end of the Add Roles wizard, you must restart the system for the Hyper-V role to be enabled.
   Note: It is recommended that no other Windows Server 2008 role be enabled on the host system if the Hyper-V role is enabled on the system.
   Important: Upon restart, log on with the same account used to install the Hyper-V role above.

Enabling Hyper-V in a Server Core deployment

The following steps will replace steps 4-7 above for a Server Core installation.

1. Type “start /w ocsetup Microsoft-Hyper-V” to enable Hyper-V role.
2. Restart when prompted.
   Note: To Manage Hyper-V, you can remotely connect to the server from an existing Hyper-V Manager MMC on a different system.

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