Create Virtual Machines
Applies To: Windows Server 2008 R2
The New Virtual Machine Wizard provides you with a simple and flexible way to create a virtual machine. The New Virtual Machine Wizard is available from Hyper-V Manager.
When you use the wizard, you have two basic options for creating a virtual machine:
You can use default settings to create a virtual machine without proceeding through all the configuration pages of the wizard. This type of virtual machine is configured as follows:
Name
New Virtual Machine
Location
The default location configured for the server running Hyper-V
Memory
512 MB
Network connection
Not connected
Virtual hard disk
Dynamically expanding hard disk with a storage capacity of 127 gigabytes
Installation options
No media is specified
SCSI controller
No disks connected to this device. Integration services are required in the guest operating system in order to use this device. Some newer versions of Windows include integration services. For more information, see Install a Guest Operating System.
You can use settings that you specify on the configuration pages to create a virtual machine that is customized for your needs.
The following procedures describe both methods.
Important
If you plan to make a virtual machine highly available, review Configure a Virtual Machine for High Availability before you create the virtual machine.
To create a default virtual machine
Open Hyper-V Manager. Click Start, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Hyper-V Manager.
From the Action pane, click New, and then click Virtual Machine.
On the Before You Begin page, click Finish. Or, if the Specify Name and Location page is the first page that appears, click Finish on that page.
To create a customized virtual machine
Open Hyper-V Manager. Click Start, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Hyper-V Manager.
From the Action pane, click New, and then click Virtual Machine.
Proceed through the pages of the wizard to specify the custom settings that you want to make. You can click Next to move through each page of the wizard, or you can click the name of a page in the left pane to move directly to that page.
After you have finished configuring the virtual machine, click Finish.
Additional considerations
By default, membership in the local Administrators group, or equivalent, is the minimum required to complete this procedure. However, an administrator can use Authorization Manager to modify the authorization policy so that a user or group of users can complete this procedure. For more information, see Using Authorization Manager for Hyper-V Security (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=142886).
You can customize the settings on as many or as few pages of the New Virtual Machine Wizard as you want, and then click Finish to complete the process. Default values are used for any pages that you did not customize before completing the wizard.
Regardless of which method that you use to create a virtual machine, you can change the configuration later by modifying the virtual machine settings. For more information, see Configuring Virtual Machines.
Some configurations cannot be made by using the New Virtual Machine Wizard because they are considered to be advanced configurations. Examples include attaching physical disks to a virtual machine and modifying processor settings. You can edit the virtual machine settings to perform advanced configuration. For more information, see Configuring Virtual Machines.