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Hyper-V is a mature, robust, proven virtualization platform. Hyper-V is a software layer that abstracts physical host server hardware resources. It presents these resources in an optimized and virtualized manner to guest virtual machines (VMs) and their workloads. Hyper-V optimizes the use of physical resources in a host server such as CPUs, memory, NICs, and power. Hyper-V virtualization allows many VMs to share physical host resources concurrently.
The Windows Server platform uses the Hyper-V role to provide virtualization technology. Hyper-V is one of many optional roles that are offered with Windows Server.
The Hyper-V role is not installed by default. Features that are typically installed to support the Hyper-V role include Multipath I/O and Failover Clustering.
To learn more about Hyper-V features, see the Microsoft Virtualization Documentation library.
You can install and manage the Hyper-V role and other roles and features on a Windows Server using these methods:
Windows Admin Center is a free, centralized server-management tool from Microsoft. Windows Admin Center consolidates many common in-box and remote-management tools to simplify managing server environments and server clusters from one interface.
Windows Admin Center is a locally installed client that is HTML5-based and browser-accessible. Windows Admin Center is also an extensible platform allowing third parties to develop integrations for their own products or solutions.
PowerStore integration with Windows Admin Center is supported. For more information about Windows Admin Center integration with PowerStore, see the Dell PowerStore Manager for Windows Admin Center User Guide at Dell Support.
Windows Admin Center is the recommended tool for managing Windows Server environments. However, it might not have full feature parity with the traditional management tools it replaces. Continue to use Hyper-V Manager, Failover Cluster Manager, Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM), and Microsoft PowerShell if the functionality you want is not in Windows Admin Center.
This document includes configuration examples that use a combination of traditional tools and Windows Admin Center.
To learn more, see the Microsoft Windows Admin Center website.
For more information about Hyper-V features that are not specific to storage, see the Microsoft Virtualization Documentation library.
PowerStore support for different versions of Windows Server and the Hyper-V role might change over time. To verify Windows operating system and Hyper-V version compatibility with PowerStore for your environment, see the latest documentation and release notes for your version of PowerStoreOS at Dell Support.
PowerStore is supported with long-term servicing channel (LTSC) releases of Windows Server. Use of semiannual channel (SAC) releases of Windows Server with PowerStore should be limited to nonproduction, test, or development use. To learn more about the differences between LTSC and SAC Windows Server versions, see this Microsoft article.
See References for a list of other resources.