Manage Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 from same machine

Question

Is there a way to manage Windows Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 from within itself? E.g. not remotely.

I'd like to be able to manage VMs as well as connect to and work with a a VM in full screen mode.

This would provide the ability to, for instance, install Hyper-V on a laptop and then connect to the VM and work per usual - switching between running VMs in the process.

Answer 1

If you want to start machines, stop machines, change disks, etc. you can do that with the PowerShell Management Library for Hyper V. This will just allow you to manage it via CLI. If you actually want to attach to the VM console, this is impossible on Hyper V Server. In order to do that, you'd need to install Windows Server and enable the Hyper V role.

Answer 2

No, Hyper-V server is not meant to be controlled locally.

Or - yes. Best bet would be installing PowerShell / PowerShell cmdlets to manage it (there are some on codeplex). No fancy UI though.

You are better off installing Server 2008 R2 on the laptop with Hyper-V.