Installing Windows Server is a straightforward process. After installing the operating system, make sure that you added this server to the domain. I wrote a separate blog post, Windows Server 2012 R2 licensing in relation to Veeam Backup & Replication for Hyper-V, discussing their differences in details. Thus, from a virtualization point of view, we have only three options from a wide range of server Windows-based operating systems (which are good enough to start from the very beginning and create a small virtual environment): The completely free Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2012 R2 also includes Hyper-V. Standard and Datacenter editions offer Hyper-V while Foundation and Essentials editions don’t. Windows Server 2012 R2 offers four paid editions (ordered by price from low to high): Foundation (OEM only), Essentials, Standard, and Datacenter. Which Windows Server 2012 R2 version should you choose? In our case, this will be Windows Server 2012 R2. The next step is to add the operation system. Take an old server, add more memory and storage (these investments you can definitely get from your boss compared to a brand new server), and you’re ready to go. Where does it start?įirst of all, you should not spend a fortune to build your first virtual environment.

Let’s imagine a small company decides to virtualize using Microsoft Hyper-V.

It’s affordable and easy to understand and use. Small companies with 10-20 employees are not an exception.įor example, Microsoft Hyper-V allows even small organizations with tiny budgets to compete with large enterprises when considering the data center. Today, it’s an absolutely MUST-HAVE for each company thinking about its effectiveness and operational costs. Free educational video for end-users – Windows Server 2012 R2: Licensing and installationįor 5 years, virtualization was considered an IT trend.

Windows server 12 r2