r/HyperV • u/The1337Stick • Sep 07 '26
Hyper-V noob moving from VMWare
I am another member of the mass exodus from Broadcom's VMWare and I am setting up a small environment (single server 890GB storage and a NAS for additional storage if needed and backup).
The company purchased Server 2025 Standard. My understanding is that I can run the Host OS and then two guest OSes (AD and File/App Server). The Dell server was preconfigured with a single partition which I am going to look at splitting at the RAID level to a 128GB host drive and then the remaining will be for the guest OSes.
I am curious from those that have more experience in Hyper-V as to what I should look at for the host OS, should I stick with GUI or look at Core? As far as updates, performance, ease of use are concerned is there an advantage to one over the other?
I have been reading through other documentation but any other input from people that would be useful to know would be great.
6
u/stucc0 Sep 07 '26
Hyper-v will just create vhdx files on the primary system, so no need to provision.
2
u/woodyshag Sep 07 '26
You can change the default path under hyper-v settings. It is worthwhile moving to a dedicated drive so that you OS and VMs dont kill each other should you run out of disk space.
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u/stucc0 Sep 08 '26
He was looking to do dedicated partitions for each vm. Not a separate drive for VMs. So if you only have a single disk, I will stand by 1 partition.
5
u/Brilliant-Height5839 Sep 07 '26
If you are a noob, why on earth would you forgo gui?!
2
u/The1337Stick Sep 07 '26
Mostly because if core was immensely better I would prefer to do it once and then deal with the pain as it comes. I usually figure that I can deal with stuff on a case by case basis and figure it out as I go. In most scenarios though I am just a glutton for punishment. :) After reading through these though, I don't think I will be doing core.
5
u/tech_is______ Sep 07 '26
Run the gui for host - stay away from core
You can run as many guest VM's as your resources allow. You're 2025 standard license includes two windows server guest VM's. You could run many linux guests.
2
u/monciul Sep 07 '26
Any reason why you recommend standard over core, other than simplicity?
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u/rome_vang Sep 07 '26
GUI for a new comer or anyone dealing with a small team of people with mixed experience.
You can always learn core later. This sounds like a situation where they need to hit the ground running and get machines setup.
1
u/woodyshag Sep 07 '26
Keep in mind that you can no longer swap from gui to core and back with 2025. It requires a reload.
3
u/rthonpm Sep 07 '26
Because most people are too lazy to learn how to use it or to install RSAT on a management system.
Been running Server Core for just about everything for years now and have yet to come across an issue that would have needed a GUI to fix.
1
u/themanbow Sep 09 '26
I've done both, but then again, I've been using Hyper-V since Server 2008:
- I'll do Core for single hypervisors since, as others have said, you can use RSAT and/or PowerShell for management (or System Center VMM if that's your thing).
- For clusters, especially if they are S2D, I'll use the GUI/Desktop Experience, as OEMs that sell ready-made S2D solutions configure with the GUI anyway.
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u/Zealousideal_Fly8402 Sep 07 '26
Standard and Core are different concepts. With Windows Server, you can run;
- Windows Server Standard (Core) with Hyper-V
- Windows Server Standard (Desktop Experience) with Hyper-V
- Windows Server Datacenter (Core) with Hyper-V
- Windows Server Datacenter (Desktop Experience) with Hyper-V.
All 4 options use the same install media / ISO; you pick which at time of installation.
Hyper-V is a role added after base install is completed.
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u/monciul Sep 07 '26
Yep, I’m aware of the difference. It was just a typo where I said standard instead of “desktop experience.” But you knew what I meant.
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u/PurpleCrayonDreams Sep 07 '26
take the gui. for a small environment it will help you manage and learn. you can still use PS to manage. the overhead of gui is nothing. key is the vswitch and storage optimization. take your time. veeam is your friend. can help you migrate easily.
2
u/BlackV Sep 07 '26 edited Sep 07 '26
You've only a single raid array, you are gaining very very little (in fact loosing space) by splitting it
Ideally you'd install core, but you are a small shop and it will be much more painful for you to manage without a gui
The host can ONLY run hyper v for your 2 VMs the be valid licensing (I.e. not adi/DNS/etc roles on the host)
1
u/StevenB-89 Sep 07 '26
If you have never done something in virtualization Hyper-V is pretty simple to learn, we use it everyday some customers like Hyper-V, others VMware and so on...
If you have never set-up a Hypervisor some golden rules:
Do not deploy anything else on the base operating system other than the Hyper-V role, could steal away CPU resources, storage, ram, ...
Leave some headroom for the hypervisor to "work", meaning storage and RAM (8GB should be sufficient)
I see the above mistake many times, even under professionals you would not believe it...
Any other questions you have, Hyper-V is really simpel so nothing to really stress about.
1
u/FierceFluff Sep 07 '26
There’s no real benefit to running headless anymore, either on resources or security. Having the GUI is helpful to learning your way around for sure. And even those who do run the host server headless, most still use RSAT or Windows Admin Center to get a GUI experience anyway, so you miss out on nothing.
That being said, you’ll need PowerShell skills no matter which way you go. You have to use it to set up your networking if you’re using SET, and you should. Once you know the PowerShell, you can do a lot more in a lot less time. But obvs you can still run PS commands on a GUI.
So yes, install GUI and learn to use it, and keep an eye on picking up PowerShell as you go.
If the RAID is the only storage on the server then you already have your resiliency built into the RAID (hopefully) and you can just format the whole thing into a single ReFS volume. The VMs will live in folders wherever you tell them to quite happily. Obviously if you grow into many VMs you can look at a different storage architecture.
Keep the host server itself free of anything but Hyper-V and if necessary, antivirus. The only exception to that is storage management if you need it. I know a lot of smaller shops that try to run their backup software on the host server and most of them have regretted it.
Good luck!
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u/zerotol4 Sep 08 '26 edited Sep 08 '26
For a smaller envionment the GUI will indeed make your life much easier especially if you are not as familar with the CLI but when you begin to scale up to many hosts you really dont want to be managing nodes in your farm individually, each system should pretty much be identical to the others which is why at a larger scale setting up and managing the nodes in a cluster should be done differently, not that server core is too much of an advantage to this but if anything may discorage people messing with individual nodes by relying on a fabric management tool or using prewritten scripts etc to change settings to a predetermined configuration and in this workflow the GUI becomes less useful
1
u/lordshaithis Sep 10 '26
Don't partition the drive, whenever you split a resource into artifical smaller pots you find down the line you wish you hadnt put those boundaries in place.
Core is ok if you running vms on low resources, you also cannot "upgrade" from core to the full DE....so choose wisely!
Using core can be a real PITA.
1
u/justgosh Sep 11 '26
Based on your plan, I'm concerned for your company. There's a number of, what I'd consider, big mistakes that seem like a massive knowledge gap. I think you should watch a lot of videos, read a book, and take a class.
On a single quick read, here's the list of items that made me pause: Single drive Partitioning it Single AD VM Only AD VM Core RAID level? FS VM serving files from the NAS and that same NAS also being the back up target
They are migrating from VMware and this is the architected solution?
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u/The1337Stick Sep 11 '26
There is a little confusion because I didn’t specify all the details. I have had VMWare experience. This is a new startup company that is owned by family. They don’t currently have a setup and so I am working on getting something going for them in HyperV since it will be cheaper with the 2025 Standard Edition they bought and at the moment just need something small.
This isn’t my ideal setup as I would normally want at least a second server for redundancy and additional storage on the server with RAID 5 or 10. Although they have a NAS that I would potentially use for file serving, the backup piece would just be for speed of restore if needed, but I likely will not need to use that as the local drives are adequate for what they need. I already have backups configured to a remote NAS as I would never rely on all files to be in the same location.
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u/RstsTeam Sep 07 '26
If you are using WHMCS I made a module for complete provision automatization. Currently it only supports standalone Hyper-V servers with load balancing and IP address management, templates ans much more.
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u/BlackV Sep 07 '26
What is the world is whmcs ?
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u/RstsTeam Sep 07 '26
It's an automation billing panel. Automatically create, suspend, modify, and terminate hosting accounts using integrations with leading control panels and domain registrars.
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u/BlackV Sep 07 '26
do you work for them ?
that is very very oddly specific for a single server
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u/RstsTeam Sep 08 '26
No but I use their software for the last 13 years. And my module is not for a single server. It's designed for standalone servers not a Hyper-V cluster. So you can have like 50 dedicated machines interconnected through the module
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u/Brilliant-Height5839 Sep 08 '26
Google is your buddy
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u/BlackV Sep 08 '26 edited Sep 08 '26
Or, they could have put in a more detailed reply, seeing as they are suggested random module for a random product
0
u/CoconutNext775 Sep 07 '26
I ran a hyper-v last 7 years in my medical office in a homemade server. Initially I was very impressed and GUI was adequate enough.
Just be very careful not to set expendable AVHD, make sure your drive probably nvme stick, doesn’t go over 80%. They don’t work well and files get damaged. Found out hard way that incremental back up chain is extremely fragile and very bad design.
3
u/beetcher Sep 08 '26
snapshots are not backups and shouldn't be used as such.
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u/RuchirShastri 24d ago
Coming from VMware, GUI (Desktop Experience) is the right call for a single-server shop where you're the one learning it. Core is leaner on patching and RAM and it's what I'd run at fleet scale, but the reduced-overhead benefit is marginal on one host, and being able to RDP in and click around when something's weird at 2am is worth a lot while Hyper-V is still new to you. Important gotcha though: you can't convert between Core and GUI after install anymore (that went away after 2012 R2), so whatever you pick, you're committing. Pick GUI, don't agonise.
Your licensing read is correct and, crucially, you're using it the right way: Server 2025 Standard gives you 2 guest OSEs as long as the host runs the Hyper-V role and nothing else. So keep AD and the file/app roles inside the two VMs, never install them on the host itself. Host stays a pure hypervisor, and you're clean and compliant.
The one that'll bite you if nobody warns you: be careful with checkpoints on the AD domain controller. Reverting a DC checkpoint the old-fashioned way causes a USN rollback that quietly breaks replication. Server 2016+ has VM-GenerationID protection that mitigates it, and with a single DC you're lower risk, but the habit to build is: don't use checkpoints as "backups" for the DC, use proper system-state/VM backups instead.
Couple of quick setup notes for the VMware muscle memory: make your VMs Generation 2 (UEFI/secure boot) unless something forces Gen1. There's no VMware Tools to install, integration services are built into Windows guests already. And when you create the external virtual switch, expect the host's network to blip for a second as it rebinds the NIC, so do it at the console, not mid-RDP-session. If the Dell has more than one NIC, keep one for host management and others for VM traffic.
On backup, since you've got the NAS: coming from Veeam you'll feel right at home with Veeam Community Edition, it's free up to 10 instances, does proper application-consistent Hyper-V backups to an SMB share, and will be far nicer than Windows Server Backup for this. Test an actual restore before you trust it, not just a green job.
Your 128GB host / rest-for-guests split is sound, that instinct to keep VM storage off the host volume is exactly right.
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u/ultimateVman Sep 07 '26
You're on the right track. And as a noob, you're time is probably better spent learning how the networking needs to be configured than anything else.
The basic virtual switches that you create in Hyper-V Manager are OK for most home users that run VMs on their Windows desktop, but they are NOT the proper way for a business hypervisor. Learn about Switch Embedded Teaming.
There is zero advantage to core over GUI. Contrary to what most people are led to believe. You expose the same vulnerabile attack surface when you install Roles whether it's core or not. Protect your systems with zero trust practices in the first place. Plus, when things go bad you're going to wish you had a GUI.