In this article, we will show you how to create a virtual machine in Hyper-V on Windows Server 2008. This article is for those who are already familiar with Hyper-V and want to create a virtual machine in it. If you are not familiar with Hyper-V, please see our earlier article, “How to Configure Hyper-V for Windows Server 2008” for more information. To begin, open the Start screen and type “hyperv” into the search bar. The hyperv command prompt will open and you will be able to use the following commands to create a new virtual machine: hyperv create vm1 -name MyVM -location “C:\Windows\system32” -cpu core2 -memory 8GB -disk 1TB The first command creates a new virtual machine called MyVM on location C:\Windows\system32. The second command sets up the VM with eightGB of memory and a disk of 1TB. The last two commands set up networking and security features of the VM.
Once you have Hyper-V installed the first thing you are going to want to do is start creating virtual machines. The process is mostly a next, next, finish matter, but just incase you are unsure, here’s a quick start-to-finish guide.
Note: this is part of our ongoing series teaching IT administration basics, and might not apply to everybody.
Creating Hyper-V Virtual Machines
To get started you will need to open the Hyper-V management console.
In the right-hand panel, click on the new button and select Virtual Machine from the menu that appears.
Now click next to skip past the Before You Begin section and give your virtual machine a name.
Assign the machine a static amount of RAM.
Now choose a virtual network that you want to join your machine to.
Under most circumstances you will want to create a new VHD, however if you want to attach a previously created VHD it can be done now.
I have opted to install the OS that our virtual machine will be using from a ISO file on my hard drive but you could choose a number of different options including network-based installation.
Finally click finish to create the machine.
When the machine has been created you will be able to start it from the management console by right-clicking on it, from there you can go about installing the OS as you would on a normal machine.
