Windows Server 2016 has numerous innovations in terms of storage and networking. … However, these innovations are not part of Windows Server 2016 Essentials, although Hyper-V is included in Essentials. You can easily run virtual machines (VMs) on a server with Essentials and virtualize the server itself.

Can you run Hyper-V on Windows Server 2016 Essentials?

Hyper-V can be installed as a server role in Windows Server 2016 Essentials. You can have a physical instance of Windows Server 2016 Essentials installed with the same copy of Windows Server 2016 Essentials running as a VM. This is really only done for the manageability of a VM rather than a physical host.

Does Windows Server Essentials support Hyper-V?

From a licensing perspective, Windows Server Essentials allows you to set up the Hyper-V role and virtualize your environment. The license allows you to set up another guest operating system that is running Windows Server Essentials.