Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 is a free standalone virtualization server. We have already demonstrated the installation and management of Hyper-V server 2008 in a series of Screencasts. The R2 release is an update to the Hyper-v Server 2008 which adds support for the following new key features:

– Support for up to 64 Logical Processors (up to 4 virtual processors per virtual machine)
– Host Clustering
– Live Migration
– Processor Compatibility Mode for live migration (live migration across different CPU versions within the same processor family)
– Improved network performance
– Improved VHD performance for dynamic and difference disks
– Hot Add/Remove of storage (VHDs and Pass Through Disks)
– Second Level Address Translation (SLAT) processor support
– Core Parking

Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 is a suitable choice for the small and mid-sized business clients. There are cases when you would prefer to install and use the Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 as a standalone machine in a workgroup environment instead of as a member of a domain. This is where you will hit a problem when trying to connect and manage remotely your Hyper-V R2 server. You might get the following errors:

– “You do not have the required permissions to complete this task. Contact the administrator of the authorization policy for this computer”
– “An error occurred while attempting to connect to server. Check that the Virtual Machine Management service is running and that you are authorized to connect to the server”
– “RPC server unavailable. Unable to establish communication between …”

The scenario when you are using and managing Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 remotely from Windows 7 in a workgroup requires special attention and configuration on both sides – the managed Server and the managing Client.
In the following Step-by-Step Screencast we demonstrate an elegant, simple and easy to follow approach which will help you to configure correctly and manage remotely your Hyper-V R2 server from a Windows 7 workstation in a workgroup environment.

If you need to manage remotely Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 member of a workgroup, from a machine which is a member of a Domain, you have to logon with a local machine account.

For your convenience you can download the text file with the commands, which we use in the Screencast.

Step 1 We start with the minimal initial configuration of Hyper-V Server 2008 R2, using the Server Configuration menu.

Step 2 In this step you can see the specific settings for workgroup scenario on both the Hyper-V Server and the Windows 7 machine.

Step 3 In the last step we download and install RSAT7 (Remote Server Administration Tools for Windows 7). Then we test our configuration by connecting remotely with Hyper-V manager to our Hyper-V R2 Server.