4

I currently have a Windows 2008 R2 box that I want to convert to a hyper-v host. Currently I have the following running on it: File Services, Web Server (IIS), and Sql Server 2008 R2 with a few different DBs. In the long term, I'd like to move all of those over to the VMs that will be created. However, in the short term I'd like to leave them running on the server.

Are there any complications/problems with leaving them running on the hyper-v server for a day or two? How long will those services typically go down during the addition of the hyper-v role?

Right now my plan is to back up everything, enable the hyper-v role, set up VMs, and migrate stuff off of the host. However, if there is a good probability that something may cease to function I might need to migrate everything over to a temporary host before doing the conversion.

Eric
  • 262
  • 1
  • 6

1 Answers1

4

In my experience, if it's just things like File Services, IIS and SQL, you'll have no problems enabling the Hyper V role. In test environments I've run applications on a host partition such as DPM 2010 (which uses SQL and IIS) and had no problems. In fact, running DPM (the application, not the agent) on a Hyper V host is supported by Microsoft, so that gives you a clue as to the likely outcome for your SQL server.

In general though, people will tell you that it's not best practice to run apps on a hyper V host, and for some things it's a given - you should certainly not run a DC on there unless you like chasing error codes. But in reality running apps on the host works fine if you've got enough resources, and I'd be very suprised if the addition of the Hyper V role changed anything in your setup - it's always worked for me. In terms of efficiency though, you're probably better off following through on converting these roles into VMs. The way that system resources are mapped after enabling the Hyper V role means that your VMs will be much happier.

Mark Lawrence
  • 813
  • 5
  • 7