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Sorry for the newbie question, but I could not find an answer for it.

I have a Windows 2008 R2 Server in production running some applications, and I need to create a Virtual Machine to run a very light workload in that server to isolate another application, and keep running the actual applications on the "host".

I've read somewhere that when one adds the Hyper-V role on Windows 2008 R2 Server, the actual Windows installation becomes somewhat a "guest", running inside Hyper-V (because Hyper-V is a hypervisor).

It is safe to add the Hyper-V role in Windows already running on production? Should I expect breakages on the actual "host"?

Thanks!

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You should always expect breakage and always assume that you'll need to rebuild from the ground up. – EEAA May 24 '12 at 0:38
It should be safe, unless your applications are using the GPU or other hardware-specific resources. But you still need to have a recovery plan. (And you will of course need to reboot at least once.) – Harry Johnston May 24 '12 at 1:32

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If you have mission-critical applications running on a single server you already have a problem. If nothing else, I would plan for a reboot or two whenever you install anything system-level on Windows (though sometimes you'll be surprised by a major installation that doesn't require a reboot.)

Have backups and a recovery plan.

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