Hyper-V Role
Windows Server Hyper-V role helps to Create and Manage the Virtual Machines. Hyper-V Role was first introduced in Windows Server 2008.
Earlier versions of Hyper-V Virtual Machines were not able to boot from SCSI Virtual Hard Drive and these Virtual Machines did not support the SCSI. Hyper-V BIOS is not aware of the SCSI Controllers and it only supports the IDE Drive and Legacy Network Adaptors, and that is why the Virtual Machine boots only from Legacy IDE Controller.
Table of Contents
Virtual Machine Generation
Microsoft introduced two Hyper-V Boot Architectures on Windows Server 2012R2 OS. One is Hyper-V BIOS and another is Hyper-V Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI).
Windows Server 2012R2 Hyper-V includes two types of Virtual Machine Generation, the Generation 1 and Generation 2.
Hyper-V Virtual Machine Generation can be defined as the Hardware and functionality that is available on the Virtual Machine.
Hyper-V Windows Server 2012R2 supported two Virtual Machines generations as mentioned earlier and let’s see the difference between Generation 1 and Generation 2 Virtual Machines on Hyper-V Windows Server 2012R2.
Generation 1
Generation 1 Virtual Machines Supports legacy drivers and BIOS based Architecture. Generation 1 Virtual Machine can only initialize the IDE Controller for Operating System.
For Generation 1 Virtual Machines, there are no changes in Hardware and functionality. The same Virtual Machine which is available in Hyper-V Windows Server 2008, 2008R2 and 2012 are available in Generation 1.
- Generation 1 Virtual Machines use BIOS Firmware
- Generation 1 Virtual Machines provide 2 IDE controllers, IDE 0 and IDE 1 to attach up to two drives on each controller
- Connect up to four SCSI controllers and up to 64 attached drives
- Generation 1 Supports older versions of Microsoft Operating Systems, like Windows XP, Windows Server 2003 and above
- Supports both x86 and x64 Operating Systems
- Both Generation 1 and Generation 2 Virtual Machines Support PXE boot
- In generation 1 Virtual Machines, we need to add the Physical DVD drive on H
Generation 2
Generation 2 Virtual Machines can only be created in Windows Server 2012R2 or later Versions. Once you have selected the Generation 2 version then you cannot go back to the previous version ie; there is no backward compatibility.
- Generation 2 Virtual Machines uses UEFI Firmware as replacement of BIOS
- Supports Guest Operating System VMs. (Win 2012, Win2012R2, Win 8.0 (64 bit) and Win 8.1 (64 bit)
- Generation 2 Virtual Machines provide Secure boot by default, and Secure Boot helps computer fight against the Virus infections and Malware attacks
- No IDE controllers on Generation 2 Virtual Machines
- Connect up to four SCSI controllers, attach upto 64 drives
- x86 Operating System not Supported on Generation 2 Virtual Machines
- Both Generation 1 and Generation 2 Virtual Machines Support PXE boot
Type 1 Hypervisor Vs Type 2 Hypervisor
| Type 1 Hypervisor | Type 2 Hypervisor |
|---|---|
| Runs directly on the physical hardware and manages the underlying hardware resources directly | Runs on a host operating system and uses the hardware resources provided by the host operating system |
| Is responsible for allocating hardware resources to the guest operating systems. | Is responsible for managing the guest operating systems |
| Also known as a bare-metal hypervisor | Also known as a hosted hypervisor |
| Examples: VMware ESXi, Microsoft Hyper-V, Xen | Examples: VMware Workstation, Oracle VirtualBox, Microsoft Virtual PC |
Conclusion
Earlier versions of Hyper-V Virtual Machines don’t support booting from SCSI Virtual Hard Drive. To overcome this drawback, new features were added. Microsoft introduced Hyper-V Generation on Windows Server 2012R2 Operating System. Compared to Generation 1, Generation 2 Virtual Machines have some advanced features like Boot from SCSI Hard drive, PXE Boot Option and Secure Boot.
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