Logical Processors and Hyper-V Limits Clarified

Michael analyzed and wrote about Microsoft's operating systems, including the Windows client OS, as well as compliance and governance. Michael... more

Hyper-V can support 64 logical processors, but this does not mean that each VM can have up to 64 processors or that a host can run a total of only 64 VMs. Instead, it refers to the number of physical processors and the number of processing cores within those processors. Processor manufacturers are continuing to increase the number of cores on a processor, with eight-core processors starting to emerge. Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V will support servers with eight processors, each with eight cores, for a total of 64 logical processors.

But this raises the question: how many VMs can Hyper-V support?

Each VM running on Windows Server 2008 R2 can include up to four virtual processors. Hyper-V supports up to 384 running VMs with up to 512 virtual processors, meaning a host could support any combination that does not exceed either a total of 384 VMs or a total of 512 virtual processors:

384 single processor VMs
256 dual-processor VMs (for a total of 512 virtual processors)
128 quad-processor

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