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I just started exploring Server 2012, and the Hyper-V features are compelling for my place of business. Here is the question:

We have several computers around the facility currently running XP and 7. Is it possible to somehow PXE boot from those machines into a VM on the 2012 server (say, Windows 8)? We have a FOG server that we use for PXE imaging, so all computers support and are configured in BIOS for PXE booting, but I'm simply not sure if a VM could be streamed to workstation as a live environment over the PXE system?

There are internal reasons why this would come in handy (when various stations need to access a common desktop, with specific software tools, etc...), so I don't want anyone getting hung up on what operating system is contained on the virtual machine. I have XP on there, 7, as well as 8, just to experiment.

I'm simply wondering if a Server 2012 Hyper-V VM can be sent over the network at startup through PXE boot. If so, does anyone have any resources to guide me? If not, can anyone suggest another method of accomplishing this? I have read a LOT of white papers about how companies are achieving this type of functionality through Server 2012 and Hyper-V, but I'm not finding any useful information. I've found a lot of info on how to get the VM to PXE boot, but nothing about how to PXE boot into a VM.

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    Simple answer: no. More ddefined answer: We do not tell people here the basics of the technology they try to use, no beginner questions.
    – TomTom
    Jul 24, 2014 at 17:56
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    "PXE boot" means "use the remote server as a disk drive, but do the work locally", "run a Virtual Machine" means "do the work on the server". You can't do the work of running an OS in both places at once, so "PXE boot into a VM" is a confusion of ideas and has no clear meaning. Why don't you PXE boot the workstations, and the VMs, from the same PXE image? The concept you are imagining - what would it do differently from doing that? Jul 24, 2014 at 21:03
  • Sounds like you want iSCSI + PXE, very possible to accomplish. In fact, here is a simple freeware (5 pxe client limitation) ccboot.com ---- serves images to pxe clients based on mac address, each gets it's own version of the same virtual hard disk. No local hard drive required for booting. Aug 4, 2014 at 17:52

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I'm simply wondering if a Server 2012 Hyper-V VM can be sent over the network at startup through PXE boot.

No, it cannot. For that matter, you can't do this with any other virtualization technology either. You simply can't "stream" an operating system over a network cable in the way you seem to be envisioning.

can anyone suggest another method of accomplishing this?

You're not very clear on what "this" is, but it sounds like you're talking about some kind of VDI (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure), but what you're describing isn't how that works, either.

Typically, the way VDI is implemented, regardless of platform, is with a remote session to a virtualized operating system on a server. The connecting clients will typically be thin clients that utilize a remote desktop technology to connect from within an operating system that's installed and run locally on the client.

This idea has been around for a long time, believe it or not (I remember using thin clients to connect to a mainframe in the computer labs at my alma mater over a decade ago). The simplest incarnation is simply a client machine that's configured to launch a remote session on boot or logon to a shared sever environment on a server (such as a Microsoft Remote Desktop Services server).

VMWare and Microsoft have VDI offerings, as do a lot of other companies... but "suggest a VDI architecture/technology" is a hugely broad topic that people have written books on, so this is not a good venue for that discussion.

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  • You simply can't "stream" an operating system over a network cable in the way you seem to be envisioning. - Hyper-V can alllmost do it, with shared-nothing migration you can move VMs from host to host with no clusting, no shared storage, just a network connection - aidanfinn.com/?p=12287 (but it won't be a bare-metal boot, I realise that). Jul 24, 2014 at 21:00

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