Microsoft released Hyper-V Server as a FREE download from their Web site on Wednesday. Like lots of other server geeks out there, I immediately downloaded it and installed it to see what it was like. It took me about an hour and a half to complete the whole install process. I recorded the entire session as a video file and then edited it down to five minutes by speeding up all of the sections where it is loading files or rebooting.

I have decided to also give away for FREE my video of the Hyper-V Server install. Yes, that's right. You can view my video for FREE, just like you can download Hyper-V Server or ESXi and install them for FREE.

I did the entire install remotely from my desk—our servers are in another room. To do the install I connected through remote desktop into a "gateway" system in the lab and then used a browser from that system to connect to the Dell Remote Access Card (DRAC) on the target server. Then using the remote console redirection and virtual media features of the DRAC, I did the install from the Hyper-V Server ISO that was on our file server.

Hyper-V Server is basically Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Core with only the Hyper-V role included. Did I mention that it is free? Which is a really big deal—I don't remember Microsoft ever giving away something like this before. Because it is based on Windows Server Core it does not have a GUI. It does include a text-based configuration tool that enables you to set the hostname, IP, subnet, and so on (included in the FREE video). Once a Hyper-V Server is on the network you can then use the Hyper-V Manager MMC from a Windows Server 2008 or Vista system to manage it.

Todd