I installed Hyper-V Server a couple of weeks back. I decided to use the standalone server as opposed to installing Windows Server 2008 and adding the virtualization role. I really like how the Hyper-V Server was easy to install and the fact that the guest OS’s sit on top of the Hyper-V Server so there is no host OS that could get screwed up. Yes technically it shares the same kernel as Windows 2008 Server, but the fact you can’t do much with it really helps the stability.
Anyways, I installed Hyper-V server and put two guest OS’s on top. I then found the machines couldn’t route traffic off the guest OS’s, even though they were getting IP addresses from the networks DHCP server and I was able to manage them through the client admin tools. After doing some searches on the internet, I found out it was a common issue. I ended up having to download the network card drivers from the web and installing them. In my case, the drivers were a gui install, but I put them on a memory stick anyways, plugged in the stick to the Hyper-V Server and in the host OS, ran the client command. It installed showing a GUI and after a reboot, the NIC was working properly from within the guest operating systems.
It’s pretty slick and presently the server is in my office as I plan to install more RAM and a quad-core CPU into the server and install a few more guest operating systems.