How many virtual machines i can create on Windows server 2022 standard Hyper-V.

Question

Hi,

one of our client requested to replace their VMware by Hyper-V.

currently they have almost 3 servers on the VMware, 2 X W2012 R and one W2022 STD.

can we create as much as VMs in Hyper-V same like VMware?

is there any limitations to create VMs in Hyper-V, i have read some article says about the restriction of 2 VMS.

Answer 1

The Hyper-V technology can run hundreds of virtual machines on the same host, almost certainly more than the hardware can handle.

If you fully license a single host to run Windows Server 2022 Standard edition, the license includes rights for two virtualized instances of Windows Server 2022 Standard edition (or less). If you need to run more instances, then you fully license the host again. Each time that you properly license the host with Standard edition, you gain another two instance rights.

At some point, you break over into the level where Datacenter Edition is more cost effective.

Note that these rules are exactly the same regardless of hypervisor. They should have done the same when running ESXi. If they are replacing ESXi in-place, and the host was legally licensed for its Windows Server instances, then they do not need to purchase anything additional.

Answer 2

Hey,

Restrictions apply to licenses you have. Hyper-V supports up to 1024 of running VMs per hosts.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/virtualization/hyper-v/plan/plan-hyper-v-scalability-in-windows-server?pivots=windows-server-2025

Here is a nice guide on how to license your hosts: https://licenseq.com/how-to-license-windows-server/

Depending on the amount of the VM, you should choose either Standard edition or Datacenter edition.

As for 3 nodes, you can build Failover Cluster on them to make your VMs highly available. StarWind VSAN can be used as a shared storage. https://www.starwindsoftware.com/resource-library/starwind-virtual-san-for-hyper-v-2-node-hyperconverged-scenario-with-windows-server-2016/

Cheers,

Alex Bykovskyi

StarWind Software

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