Why Upgrade To Windows Server 2012

Editor's Notes

• #3: My name is <insert presenter name and bio here>.
• #5: In this section, we are going to focus on Manageability features and capabilities in Windows Server 2012.
• #6: To summarize, Windows PowerShell 3.0 delivers: Simplified administration of multiple servers A path toward full automation of server management tasks An easier way to learn about cmdlets and how to incorporate them in your automation scripting
• #7: To summarize, Windows PowerShell 3.0 delivers: Simplified administration of multiple servers A path toward full automation of server management tasks An easier way to learn about cmdlets and how to incorporate them in your automation scripting
• #8: To summarize, Windows PowerShell 3.0 delivers: Simplified administration of multiple servers A path toward full automation of server management tasks An easier way to learn about cmdlets and how to incorporate them in your automation scripting
• #9: In this section, we are going to focus on Manageability features and capabilities in Windows Server 2012.
• #13: In this section, we are going to focus on Manageability features and capabilities in Windows Server 2012.
• #18: In this section, we are going to focus on Manageability features and capabilities in Windows Server 2012.
• #19: To summarize, Windows PowerShell 3.0 delivers: Simplified administration of multiple servers A path toward full automation of server management tasks An easier way to learn about cmdlets and how to incorporate them in your automation scripting
• #20: Deployment of both roles and features is combined into a single Add Roles and Features Wizard. While the process of installing roles is familiar, and consistent with the Add Roles Wizard in earlier Windows Server releases, there are changes. To support remote deployment and installations on offline virtual hard disks, some roles have moved some initial configuration (tasks formerly performed in the Add Roles Wizard during an installation) into post-installation configuration wizards. For some offline virtual hard disk deployments, installation tasks are scheduled to run the first time the machine is started.In Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2, you connect to a server to get to a server role, not the other way around.Note that Windows Server 2012 does not abandon the old management model; it simply expands upon it. Sometimes you need to manage a server and its roles. Sometimes you need to manage a role and its servers. A modern server operating system needs to provide this management flexibility.In Windows Server 2008 R2, roles and features are deployed by using the Add Roles Wizard or Add Features Wizard in Server Manager running on a local server. This requires either physical access to the server or Remote Desktop access by using RDP. Installing Remote Server Administration Tools lets you run Server Manager on a Windows-based client computer, but adding roles and features is disabled, because remote deployment isn’t supported.In Windows Server 2012 the deployment capabilities are extended to support robust remote deployment of roles and features. Using Server Manager in Windows Server 2012, IT pros can provision servers from their desktops without requiring either physical access to the systems or the need to enable RDP connection to each server.  Windows Server 2012 with Server Manager can deploy both roles and features in a single session using the unified Add Roles and Features Wizard. The Add Roles and Features Wizard in Windows Server 2012 performs validation passes on a server you select for deployment as part of the installation process; there’s no need to pre-verify that a server in your Server Manager server pool is properly configured to support a role.When logged on to a remote virtual machine using the built-in Administrator account, administrators can deploy roles and features to offline virtual hard disks from Server Manager on their local server. In a single session in the Add Roles and Features Wizard, you can add your desired roles and features to an offline virtual hard disk, allowing for faster and simpler repetition and consistency of desired configurations.In Windows Server 2012 Server Manager is a multi-server management tool. Your servers appear all at once, and you can organize these servers into groups representing, for example, departments or locations or functions. Multiserver experienceManage groups of servers collectively from within a single, integrated consoleRespond to business-critical problems with greater speed and agilityGenerate status views for multiple servers after polling servers for operational statisticsIncludes installed roles and features, events, service states, performance threshold alerts, and Best Practices Analyzer (BPA) scan results
• #21: More IntuitiveEnhanced ISE with IntellisenseSimplified language syntaxUpdatable help systemEasy command discovery and importBroader CoverageOver 2,400 cmdlets across WindowsSupport for thriving communityScript Explorer & Script LibraryGreater ResiliencyRobust session connectivityIntegrated workflowConnect/disconnect remote sessionsScheduled jobsPowerShell 3.0 is a better 2.0Many suggestions addressedOn-the-fly compilation allows scripts to run up to 6x fasterEnhanced interactive console experienceCore cmdlet and provider improvements
• #22: Windows PowerShell 3.0 provides a comprehensive management platform for all aspects of the data center: servers, network, and storage. Windows PowerShell 3.0 includes 260 core cmdlets. Windows Server 2012 includes more than 2,400 total cmdlets in 239 available modules.New Windows PowerShell ISE Features. The Windows PowerShell Integrated Scripting Environment (ISE) 3.0 includes many new features to ease beginning users into Windows PowerShell and provide advanced editing support for scripters. Some of the new features are:Show-Command pane lets users find and run cmdlets in a dialog box. IntelliSense provides context-sensitive command completion for cmdlet and script names, parameter names and enumerated values, and property and method names. IntelliSense also supports paths, types, and variables.Code examples add reusable text to scripts and commands. The built-in code examples include templates for functions, parameters, and statements so users don’t have to remember the syntax.Syntax simplification: Windows PowerShell 3.0 includes simplified, consistent syntax across all cmdletsShow-Command pane for finding and running cmdlets in a dialog boxINTELISENSEWindows PowerShell ISE 3.0 includes many other new features to ease beginning users into Windows PowerShell and provide advanced editing support for scripters. Some of the new features are:Code examples add reusable text to scripts and commands. The built-in code examples include templates for functions, parameters, and statements so users don’t have to remember the syntax.Collapsible regions in scripts and XML files make navigation in long scripts easier.Context-sensitive command completion for cmdlet and script names, parameter names and enumerated values, and property and method namesSimplified scripting through Windows PowerShell ISE 3.0:Built-in code examples include templates for functions, parameters, and statementsUsers do not need to remember the syntaxCode examples add reusable text to scripts and commandsCMDLET DISCOVERYWindows PowerShell 3.0 helps IT pros by providing access to a community-generated library of Windows PowerShell code snippets, called Integrated Script Snippets, within Windows PowerShell ISE. To access Integrated Script Snippets, the user presses the keystroke (Ctrl+J). The user can then select from a list of script templates, select the appropriate template, and have partially completed script inserted into the editor.Windows Server 2012 includes more than 2,300 cmdlets, which you can learn and discover easily. Modules are easier than ever to find, explore, create, and use, and users no longer have to import modules manually to use cmdlets. Users can just run a cmdlet, and Windows PowerShell will import the module automatically. In addition, Get-Command has been updated to find all cmdlets installed on the system. For example, to find all networking cmdlets, you can run Get-Command *-Net*. Update-Help Install the latest Windows PowerShell Help files on the local computer. Save-Help Download the latest Windows PowerShell Help files into a network share.In Windows PowerShell 3.0, new Update-Help and Save-Help cmdlets download and install the newest Help files for each module. The cmdlets find the Help files on the Internet, determining whether they are newer than local files, unpack them, and install them in the correct location. The updated files are ready for immediate use in Get-Help—you don't need to restart Windows PowerShell. Help files  for Windows PowerShell 3.0 are guaranteed to be up to date on first use because they do not ship in the box. Get-Help displays auto-generated Help for commands and then prompts you to use the Update-Help cmdlet to install or update the Help files for your modules.For some environments, such as large enterprises behind Internet firewalls, it is preferable to be able to update Help files from a local share instead of from the Internet. In these cases, you can use Save-Help -DestinationPath<share> to create a local share that stores the latest Windows PowerShell Help files. Users within the organization can then update their Help files by pointing to that share and running Update-Help –SourcePath<share>.Script Sharing:Windows PowerShell 3.0 helps IT pros by providing access to a community-generated library of Windows PowerShell code snippets, called Integrated Script Snippets, within Windows PowerShell ISE. To access Integrated Script Snippets, the user presses the keystroke (Ctrl+J). The user can then select from a list of script templates, select the appropriate template, and have partially completed script inserted into the editor.
• #23: IPAM addresses the following challenges:Address planning – ensuring that you are controlling IP address blocks (particularly IPv6) correctly.Address allocation – ensuring that static addresses are managed correctly, that address range for issuing dynamic addresses are correctly configured and that DNS is updated dynamically with the correct address and host information.Usage Tracking – ensuring that you do not run out of IP addresses.Troubleshooting – Identifying DHCP and DNS service issues quickly and accurately.Audit – Logging address assignments to each device or user for troubleshooting or forensic analysis. Also auditing any changes to the DHCP or DNS servers. Note that each service may have different administrators.
• #25: While Microsoft remains committed to GUIs, the primary place GUIs should exist is on the administrator’s desktop – not on the Server.Server resources are much more expensive than client resources and running GUIs on servers requires additional software components. Every component increases the security and serviceability exposure of that server so you should only install those components that are necessary to that server workload. Fewer things running on the server means fewer patches and more resources available to the server workload.Windows Server 2012 has made several investments to help administrators succeed in choosing Server Core as the primary deployment option for Windows Server. The traditional “Server with a GUI” is still provided as a full option if required.The number of server roles that run on Server Core has increased with support for .Net Framework 4.5 included. SQL Sever 2012 now installs, eliminating the most common reason administrators cited for not being able to run in the Server Core configuration. Firewall-friendly remote management (WinRM) and Windows PowerShell are now enabled and installed by default on all servers, removing any configuration needed before being able to manage the server remotely. Windows PowerShell’s 2400+ cmdlets provide the command line coverage necessary for most admin scenarios. Microsoft has alsoreleased an updated version of the Remote Server Administrative Tools providing a rich GUI experience to manage all Servers, including Server Core, from a Windows Client.Perhaps most significantly Windows Server 2012 has added the ability to move between Server Core, Full GUI and Minimal Server Interface (MinShell) without the need to reinstall the server! This means administrators can safely start with their server deployed in the Server Core configuration and if they find they need the GUI they can add it, and also remove it as needed using the SCONFIG CLI tool, Windows PowerShell or the Add/Remove Roles and Features Wizard. Minimal Server Interface (MinShell), provides many of the benefits of Server Core while still having the safety-factor of being able to run GUIs should the administrator need to log into the Server directly.The Minimal Server Interface enables most local GUI management tasks without requiring the full GUI Shell or Internet Explorer to be installed. Technically, the Minimal Server Interface is a full Windows Server install excluding Internet Explorer, Windows shell components such as the desktop, Windows Explorer, Metro-style application support, multimedia support, and the Desktop Experience. It provides many of the benefits of Server Core (reduced footprint, attack service and serviceability) for those applications that can be made to work without IE or the Shell. We refactored all of the GUI management tools and frameworks (such as MMC.exe) into separate installable packages, and removed extra fonts and graphical resources.Minimal Server Interface can be enabled Add Roles and Features wizard, or with PowerShell.Windows Server 2012 empowers administrators to deploy servers with “just enough” of content and capabilities to fulfill their server’s desired function. By increasing deployment agility and refactoring monolithic components – such as the Windows Foundation – into smaller, installable packages, we’re putting more power in the hands of system administrators than ever before.
• #26: In this section, we are going to focus on Manageability features and capabilities in Windows Server 2012.
• #27: To summarize, Windows PowerShell 3.0 delivers: Simplified administration of multiple servers A path toward full automation of server management tasks An easier way to learn about cmdlets and how to incorporate them in your automation scripting
• #28: To summarize, Windows PowerShell 3.0 delivers: Simplified administration of multiple servers A path toward full automation of server management tasks An easier way to learn about cmdlets and how to incorporate them in your automation scripting
• #29: To summarize, Windows PowerShell 3.0 delivers: Simplified administration of multiple servers A path toward full automation of server management tasks An easier way to learn about cmdlets and how to incorporate them in your automation scripting
• #30: In Windows Server 2012, the Windows PowerShell History viewer in Active Directory Administrative Center allows an administrator to view the Windows PowerShell commands as they execute in real time. For example, when you create a new fine-grained password policy, Active Directory Administrative Center displays the equivalent Windows PowerShell commands in the Windows PowerShell History viewer task pane. You can then use those commands create a Windows PowerShell script for automating the task.By combining scripts with scheduled tasks, you can entirely automate everyday administrative duties that were once completed manually. The cmdlets and required syntax are created for you, so very little experience with Windows PowerShell is required. Because the Windows PowerShell commands are the same as the ones executed by the Active Directory Administrative Center, they function as expected.This means several distinct advantages, particularly for new users of PowerShell. [refer to bullets on slide if needed]
• #35: Many of the domain controllers in the same domain/forest are virtually identical; thus virtual domain controllers are good candidates for cloning. Nevertheless, up to now the process of deploying a virtual domain controller has involved many redundant steps:Preparation and deployment of the sysprep’d server image.Manually promoting a domain controller in one of the following ways:Over-the-wire. This can be time-consuming, depending upon size of directory.Install-from-media (IFM). Media preparation and copying adds time and complexity.Performing post-deployment configuration steps where necessary.With Windows Server 2012 this has changed and virtual domain controllers can be cloned. Using the new domain controller deployment wizard in Server Manager, you can promote a single virtual domain controller and then rapidly deploy all additional virtual domain controllers, within the same domain, through cloning. [More info]The process of cloning involves creating a copy of an existing virtual domain controller, authorizing the source domain controller to be cloned in AD DS, and creating a configuration file that contains detailed promotion instructions (name, IP address, Domain Name System [DNS] servers, and so on) or can be left empty, allowing the system to automatically fill in the blanks. This dramatically reduces the number of steps and time involved by eliminating repetitive deployment tasks and also allows you to fully deploy additional domain controllers that are authorized and configured for cloning by the Active Directory domain administrator. Virtual machines can be rolled back to a previous state when snapshots are applied, but domain controller clocks assume that time always goes forward. If an administrator inadvertently applies a snapshot to a virtual domain controller, it can cause the virtual domain controller to create security principals with the same time stamp as ones that already exist in the domain – in other words, duplicates. This can also happen if a virtual domain controller is copied within the domain. In Windows Server 2012, a virtual domain controller is able to detect when snapshots are applied or a virtual machine is copied, because of a unique identifier exposed by the hypervisor called the virtual machine GenerationID. The virtual machine GenerationID changes whenever the virtual machine experiences an event that affects its position in time. The virtual machine GenerationID is exposed to the virtual machine’s address space within its BIOS and made available to its operating system and applications through a Windows Server 2012 driver.During boot and before completing any transaction, a Windows Server 2012 virtual domain controller compares the current value of the virtual machine GenerationID against the value that it stored in the directory. A mismatch is interpreted as a “rollback” event, causing the domain controller to converge with other domain controllers, preventing it from creating duplicate security principals. For Windows Server 2012 virtual domain controllers to gain this extra level of protection, the virtual domain controller must be hosted on a virtual machine GenerationID–aware hypervisor such as Windows Server 2012 Hyper‑V.
• #36: In this section, we are going to focus on Manageability features and capabilities in Windows Server 2012.
• #37: To summarize, Windows PowerShell 3.0 delivers: Simplified administration of multiple servers A path toward full automation of server management tasks An easier way to learn about cmdlets and how to incorporate them in your automation scripting
• #50: With Windows Server 2012, technologies such as RDS and Hyper-V provide the scalability and flexibility that enterprises demand from their virtual desktop platform.User Disks:One of the reasons that customer want to look at pooled desktops or sessions is to lower the cost of their VDI (since in both models, there are fewer images to manage and store). However, one of the biggest issues with pooled VMs and sessions is that users loose any changes made to their profiles (including setting changes) upon logout. In order to make pooled VMs and sessions a viable deployment model, the users data (user and application settings, personal data such as documents and pictures, etc.) are stored on a separate .vhd file called a User Disk.When the user logins in, RDS combines the User’s disk with a desktop either from the VM or session pool, thereby providing the user with their data and settings. With User Disks, IT can provide a certain level of personalization to pooled VMs or session based deployments. However, it is important to note that User Disks cannot be used to roam across different pools or collections, or across physical to virtual environment. It is also important to note that user installed applications cannot be persisted even with user disks, and are lost upon logoff.Personalization is a critical aspect of the user experience in virtualized desktop deployments. In a standard physical PC, the user’s data and settings are intertwined with the apps and OS settings. This makes the desktop difficult to manage and it reduces the benefits of virtualizing it. What we need is a way to assemble to desktop from ingredient components. Windows composed of replaceable parts.  User Profile Disk is a key technology we are unveiling with Server 2012 that takes the first step towards this vision. What is UserDisk?With UserDisk, each user of a collection is assigned a unique VHD that stores all of her settings and data. UserDisk can be configured for both RDSH collections and Pooled VM collections. As the user is logging on to that collection, the user’s UserDisk is mounted to the VM or the RDSH and her profile and data folders are mapped to this mounted volume. As the user logs on to other vms or RDSH servers within that collection, the userdisk roams with her, making her data and settings available within the collection.UserDisk appears as a local disk; therefore it works better with applications that expect to have local data access. This improves app compat.There are other technologies such as Roaming User profiles, Folder redirection, and especially User Environment Virtualization, which are designed for user data and settings isolation. UserDisk provides a container for all of these technologies. E.g.The RUP profile is cached in the User Disk at logonWhen FR is configured with caching, the cache resides on UserDisk.The per-application setting datasets used by UEV are cached in the UserDiskIn all of these cases, it is important to recognize that UserDisk is scoped to the collection for which it is configured. It provides roamable access within the collection. RUP, FR, and UEV enable roaming beyond the collection, and between different collections.So, what is the right way to deploy these technologies?We recommend that you deploy user disk with all Pooled VM collections and RDSH collections. There is really no downside!If you have multiple collections, or if you want user settings to roam between VDI and physical environments, then you should also use UEV. Folder Redirection can be used in such a scenario to provide roaming access to user documents, e.g. My Documents, My Pictures folders. FR is also a reliable way to centralize users’ data to a file server from where it can be more easily backed up and managed.
• #52: Key Messages: While customer perception and user experience in branch offices is very important to business, many times it is challenging to deliver great experience to a branch office due to limited network bandwidth between central data locations and the branch office. Windows Server 2012 and Windows 8 offer built-in branch office optimization technologies, and can complement hardware based WAN acceleration solution by optimizing data traffic over a slow network connection.With Windows Server 2012 and Windows 8 advancements, data traffic over a slow network is further optimized with significant improvements in performance and user experience, both in terms of users accessing large files or data and also with print performance. With BranchCache, data is cached on a device that resides on the Local Area Network (LAN) within the branch office. After a client has downloaded content one time, other client computers that request the same content don’t download it from the content servers over the WAN connection; instead, they retrieve small identifiers, called content information, from the remote content servers. Clients use the content information to find the content in the local office, cached on either a server running Windows Server or on other client computers, depending on the mode in which BranchCache has been deployed. This enables employees to access data more quickly, improves productivity, and significantly reduces network bandwidth usage, particularly when a large number of users access the same data multiple time through the course of the business day. Windows Server 2012 also significantly improves user print experience in the branch office. It enables print requests to be sent to the print server located in the data center and redirect the printing to local printers without sending data to the print servers to reduce the network traffic. Even when a WAN connection goes down and no print requests can be sent to the server, branch offices can still have the print ability, because the print jobs can use the last known configurations to continue work.
• #53: BranchCache is deployable in two different modes:Distributed cache: client computers act as data caches. In essence, the first client computer to download content stores it and makes it available to other computers in the branch office. When another user requiring the same content from the central data store, their BranchCache enabled PC is redirected to a local client computer that previously accessed the content. With this mode, cache availability declines as users log off, or turn off their PC to go home for the night.Hosted cache, on the other hand requires local infrastructure which stores the content on a server at the branch location. A benefit here is improved cache availability, meaning that the server and data is available as long as the server is available.
• #54: Thefollowing enhancements have been made to BranchCache in Windows Server 2012:PerformanceIn this release the average block size of the cache is around 64K instead of 32MB. This allows the cache to remain valid even if small portions of the cache are changed. In the past the entire cache would have be invalidated and rebuilt if a small change has occurred in the cache file.ScalabilityMore client connections per Branchcache cache. Hosted Cache collection:This feature allows the admins to configure a bunch of servers to work together to act like a single hosted cache.Simplified deployment and managementWindows Server 2012 allows the admin to encrypt the BranchCache cache data and keepdata encrypted through storage and transport.A Certificate is no longer required on hosted cache server.As the data is now encrypted there is no need to encrypt data during transfer as the data is already encrypted within the cache. It removes the need for having a certificate on hosted cache greatly simplifying the deployment of a hosted cache server. Furthermore, BranchCache can be managed and configured using known tools like WMI and PowerShell. This allows third party management solutions to extend the solution using standardized tools.Data can be exported from “warm” hosted cache servers. Data Packages can be imported on hosted cache servers and clients.Cloud readyCaching can be done over the public net (Internet), so as workloads move to the cloud, Branchcache can help address bandwidth and latency issues.
• #55: Branch Office Direct Printing can reduce Wide Area Network (WAN) usage by printing directly to a print device instead of a server print queue. This feature can be enabled or disabled on a per printer basis and is transparent to the user.This feature requires a print server running Windows Server 2012 and clients running Windows 8.Branch Office Direct Printing may be able to save your organization money by reducing network traffic on expensive WAN links and by reducing the workload on busy print servers centrally located in your datacenter.Branch Office Direct Printing may benefit your organization in the following ways:Client computers running Windows Server 2012 obtain printer information from the print server, but send the print jobs directly to the printer. The print data no longer travels to the central server and then back to the branch office printer.The printer information is cached in the branch office, so that if the print server is unavailable for some reason (for example if the WAN link to the data center is down), then it is still possible for the user to print.The client computer renders the print job before sending it to the printer. The major difference between Branch Office Direct Printing and Client-Side Rendering (CSR) is that Branch Office Direct Printing does not send the print job to the server. Instead the job is sent directly to the printer, resulting in a significant reduction in network bandwidth usage when the printers are centrally managed.To sum up the benefits, Branch Office Direct Printingdecreases the amount of print traffic on the networkreduces the workload on print servers in the main officeallows users to download and print documents faster
• #59: To summarize, Windows PowerShell 3.0 delivers: Simplified administration of multiple servers A path toward full automation of server management tasks An easier way to learn about cmdlets and how to incorporate them in your automation scripting
• #63: Current situationBusiness continuity is the ability to quickly recover business functions from a downtime event with minimal or no data loss. There are number of reasons why businesses experience outage including power failure, IT hardware failure, network outage, human errors, IT software failures, and natural disasters. Depending on the type of outage, customers need a high availability solution that simply restores the service. However, some outages that impact the entire data center such as natural disaster or an extended power outage require a disaster recovery solution that restores data at a remote site in addition to bringing up the services and connectivity. Organizations need an affordable and reliable business continuity solution that helps them recover from a failure.Before Windows Server 2012Beginning with Windows Server 2008 R2, Hyper‑V and Failover Clustering can be used together to make a virtual machine highly available and minimize disruptions. Administrators can seamlessly migrate their virtual machines to a different host in the cluster in the event of outage or to load balance their virtual machines without impacting virtualized applications. While this can protect virtualized workloads from a local host failure or scheduled maintenance of a host in a cluster, this does not protect businesses from outage of an entire data center. While Failover Clustering can be used with hardware-based SAN replication across data centers, these are typically expensive. Hyper‑V Replica fills an important gap in the Windows Server Hyper‑V offering by providing an affordable in-box disaster recovery solution. Windows Server 2012 Hyper‑V ReplicaWindows Server 2012 introduces Hyper‑V Replica, a built-in feature that provides asynchronous replication of virtual machines for the purposes of business continuity and disaster recovery. In the event of failures (such as power failure, fire, or natural disaster) at the primary site, the administrator can manually fail over the production virtual machines to the Hyper‑V server at the recovery site. During failover, the virtual machines are brought back to a consistent point in time, and within minutes they can be accessed by the rest of the network with minimal impact to the business. Once the primary site comes back, the administrators can manually revert the virtual machines to the Hyper‑V server at the primary site.Hyper‑V Replica is a new feature in Windows Server 2012. It lets you replicate your Hyper‑V virtual machines over a network link from one Hyper‑V host at a primary site to another Hyper‑V host at a Replica site without reliance on storage arrays or other software replication technologies. Benefits of Hyper‑V ReplicaHyper‑V Replica fills an important gap in the Windows Server Hyper‑V offering by providing an affordable in-box business continuity and disaster recovery solution. Failure recovery in minutes. In the event of an unplanned shutdown, Hyper‑V Replica can restore your system in just minutes.More secure replication across the network. Hyper‑V Replica tracks the write operations on the primary virtual machine and replicates these changes to the Replica server efficiently over a WAN. The network connection between the two servers uses the HTTP or HTTPS protocol and supports both integrated and certificate-based authentication. Connections configured to use integrated authentication are not encrypted; for an encrypted connection, you should choose certificate-based authentication. Hyper‑V Replica is closely integrated with Windows failover clustering and provides easier replication across different migration scenarios in the primary and Replica servers.Hyper‑V Replica doesn’t rely on storage arrays.Hyper‑V Replica doesn’t rely on other software replication technologies.Hyper‑V Replica automatically handles live migration.Configuration and management are simpler with Hyper‑V Replica:Integrated user interface (UI) with Hyper‑V Manager. Failover Cluster Manager snap-in for Microsoft Management Console (MMC).Extensible WMI interface.Windows PowerShell command-line interface scripting capability.RequirementsTo use Hyper‑V Replica, you need two physical computers configured with:Windows Server 2012.Hyper‑V server role.Hardware that supports the Hyper‑V role.Sufficient storage to host the files that virtualized workloads use. Additional storage on the Replica server based on the replication configuration settings may be necessary.Sufficient network bandwidth among the locations that host the primary and Replica servers and sites.Firewall rules to permit replication between the primary and Replica servers and sites.Failover Clustering feature, if you want to use Hyper‑V Replica on a clustered virtual machine.