Open up Server Manager and click on ‘Add Roles’. At the ‘Before You Begin’ page, click Next. Select ‘Hyper-V’ from the list of Roles in the ‘Select Server Roles’ page and click Next through the wizard until you get the role installation Results, confirming that Hyper-V has been installed.
- Launch the Hyper-V Manager from Start -> Administrative Tools. In the Actions pane on the right, click on Connect to Server… node if Hyper-V if you do not want to connect to localhost. In the actions pane, click on New -> Virtual machine. Click next at the ‘Before You Begin’ page.
- In the ‘Specify Name and Location’ window, enter the name of the new guest VM. If you do not want to store the VM in the default location (C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Hyper-V\) select ‘Store the virtual machine in a different location’ and click on Browse.
- Click Next and allocate the total amount of memory you want the VM to have.
- Click Next to arrive at the ‘Configure Networking’ page and select a network adapter. A default adapter should have been created during the installation of Hyper-V. A virtual network can also be created later on.
- Click next to proceed to the ‘Connect Virtual Hard Disk’ window. Here you can create a new virtual hard disk or use an existing disk. You can also opt to attach a virtual hard disk later. If you are creating a new virtual hard disk, you will have to specify the location where you want to store it as well as the Size.
- Your final step is to configure the Installation Options. Here you will need to determine the installation media. You can install an OS from a boot CD/DVD-ROM, a boot floppy disk or from a network-based installation server. If you would like to install the OS at a later time, select the ‘Install an operating system later’ option.
- The summary page that you get when you click Next lists the VM information you would have configured. You can choose to start the virtual machine after it is created or leave it set to default to start it up at a later time. Click Finish and you are done!
- You will now see your newly created VM under the ‘Virtual Machines’ section in the middle pane. Clicking on the VM in this list allows you to select various options in the ‘Actions’ pane on the right. The Settings node allows you to configure any parameter, such as amount of memory, additional hard disks, etc.
- To boot up your virtual machine, click on ‘Start’ in the VM pane and voila! You’re done. Congratulations on setting up your first virtual machine with Hyper-V!
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