We need to deploy a Windows 2012 R2 Hyper-V cluster with 4 physical server.
We going to use Datacenter edition licencing, but consider installing the Hyper-V edition on the serveres. Just to install as minimal as possible on the hosts.
Does the Hyper-V editions miss any features that is commonly use for a Hyper-V Cluster?
Should there be any other reason to install the Datacenter edition?
Best Answer
Hyper-V Server has all of the features needed to run a VM cluster.
With that said, Hyper-V Server is essentially a Server Core installation, with all the other server roles stripped out. Since you're getting Datacenter licenses anyway, you can just install Server Core instead. Both are functionally identical (except that you have the option of installing additional roles in the full version). The attack surface is the same, assuming you don't install any additional roles. Additionally, from a licencing standpoint, it will make it easier to later identify what type of licence you are using on that server, since SLMGR will then show the correct OS version.