Hyper-V Questions on Rackable Server

Notice: Page may contain affiliate links for which we may earn a small commission through services like Amazon Affiliates or Skimlinks.

artbird309

New Member
Feb 19, 2013
25
2
3
I have been doing a lot of research on Hyper-V Server 2012 R2 and my Rackable server.

I have a 2U Rackable Server 2x Intel Xeon Quad Core E5345 2.33Ghz 8GB that I would like to install Hyper-V Server 2012 R2 on to work as a small VM server for my router(pfSense) and secondary DC and DNS server.

I have not tried this on the hardware yet due to limited access and I would like to figure out if its possible before trying it.

I have three main questions:

1. Can I install and use Hyper-V Server 2012 R2 on a Xeon E5345. Looking at ARK it is x64 with VT-x but it does not have EPT. I had ESXi 5.1 on it before without a problem but I know Hyper-V is a lot more picky.
2. I know it is possible to install Hyper-V on USB drive and boot from that link. Would this be ok for this use case? Would it work on this server?
2. If not would it be ok to have the VM store on the have spinning drive as the OS?

I have not done much with Hyper-V and would like to try it with my older server, if this can't work I will just use ESXi 5.5.

Thanks,
ARTbird309
 

MiniKnight

Well-Known Member
Mar 30, 2012
3,072
973
113
NYC
If you are running FreeBSD based VM's go with ESXi.

On a E5400 or newer processor Hyper-V is really easy to use. I'm not sure about older processors.
 

artbird309

New Member
Feb 19, 2013
25
2
3
I know FreeBSD works better on ESXi, but I would like to try out Hyper-V and I know pfSense works on it due to the main site post from Patrick.

I have two of those server, one will have pfSense that is my core router for my network. This one I think will end with ESXi but I will test Hyper-V with it. The other server will be 2 Windows servers and a pfSense server that is just an OpenVPN site to site link.
 

artbird309

New Member
Feb 19, 2013
25
2
3
I created a flash drive last night, I used a SanDisk Cruzer Fit that I have been for my ESXi installs and it took an hour to copy over the 12GB .VHDX. It is really slow to boot but it does work and I was able to start a VM so Hyper-V does work. Now I'm trying to figure out the networking, I haven't been able to setup lag trunk to my Dell 5324 switch.
 

artbird309

New Member
Feb 19, 2013
25
2
3
An update:

I have given up on running from a flash drive. It booted but it was very slow and somethings didn't seem to be working correctly. I installed it on a small SATA drive and it much quicker on boot and normal use.
 

Darkytoo

Member
Jan 2, 2014
106
4
18
An update:

I have given up on running from a flash drive. It booted but it was very slow and somethings didn't seem to be working correctly. I installed it on a small SATA drive and it much quicker on boot and normal use.
That's about what the experience I had. I think the key part is to get a USB3 flash drive, as USB2 is just too slow.