Windows Server 2025 is the upcoming long-term servicing channel (LTSC) release of Microsoft’s server operating system. It introduces several enhancements to Hyper-V and storage functions, which benefit the operation of virtual machines. One of the most notable features is GPU partitioning, which allows the sharing of graphics processors among multiple VMs. This improves resource utilization, supports live migration and high availability, and enables AI applications that require GPU acceleration. Another feature is GPU pooling, which combines multiple graphics processors into one virtual GPU for failover purposes.
GPU Partitioning is a new technology coming to the upcoming Microsoft Windows Server 2025. While the Windows Server 2022 has GPU support with Discrete Device Assignment, where the system is able to assign a full GPU to a VM with no sharing between multiple VMs, the Windows Server 2025 goes step further by allowing to assign a fraction (partition) of the CPU to different VMs. Besides that, the W2022 version does not support Failover Clustering or Live migration. Still great for workloads that will consume an entire GPU, but it will get better in Windows Server 2025 where the GPU-P can be used for sharing GPU between multiple VMs.
Of course there are some requirements, some supported CPUs or guest VMs, but still, for those of you that thought that Hyper-V is dead, think twice. Microsoft is just playing catch up with VMware where GPU sharing exists since long time. Microsoft uses Hyper-V technology in Azure and for Microsoft, it is strategic technology. The Azure stack family, Windows Server, Containers with Hyper-V Isolation, Platform security or even XBox. All this and even more uses Hyper-V.
GPU-P is supported in Live Migration and High Availability (HA).
Windows Server 2025 GPU-P Requirements
- SR-IOV (single root IO virtualization)
- AMD Milan or later
- Intel Sapphire Rapids or later
- NVidia A2, A10, A16, 1GO GPUs.
Live migration Support works in a clustered environment or outside of cluster (with standalone servers). You can use Live migration with or without clusters.
Supported Guests:
- Windows 10/11
- Windows Server 2019/2022
- Linux Ubuntu 18.04LTS, 20.04 LTS
Screenshot from Microsoft demo video….
For your information, the Hyper-V is pretty scalable right now…… check the image below. A monster!
GPU with DDA HA support – GPU Pools
To use GPU partitioning, you need to have hardware that supports single-root input/output virtualization (SR-IOV), such as AMD Milan or Intel Sapphire Rapids processors, and Nvidia GPUs A2, A10, A16 and A40. You also need to have compatible guest operating systems, such as Windows 10/11, Windows Server 2019/2022, or Linux Ubuntu 18.04/20.04 LTS. To use GPU pooling, you need to create a pool with the same name on each cluster node and assign the VMs to that pool. You also need to modify some registry settings to enable the feature.
Allows you to group GPUs for High Availability (HA).
- On every node you can create a PCI Express resource pool with same name and add GPUs to the pool.
- Next, assign VM to the GPU pool instead of individual GPU
- During failover or move, cluster will start VM on another host if there are GPUs available in the pool.
Windows Server 2025 – Dynamic Processor Compatibility
Another feature that's coming to the Windows Server 2025 is Dynamic Processor Compatibility. If you're VMware guy, you probably know and use VMware EVC, but for Microsoft this is new and dynamic. Let's say you go and buy 2 new servers but the older CPU that you have in your cluster does not sell any more. You can use Dynamic Processor Compatibility and still add those two new hosts to the cluster where the system will mask the newer CPU features to the rest of the hosts automatically/dynamically.
So yes, there is quite a lot of new stuff coming into the next version of Windows Server 2025. We'll continue to monitor this space and come up with more in another blog post.
Final Words
In conclusion, Windows Server 2025 is a powerful and innovative server operating system that offers many benefits for virtualization and AI applications. It supports GPU partitioning and pooling, which enable the sharing and failover of graphics processors among multiple VMs. It also supports deduplication for ReFS and AD-less live migration, which improve the storage efficiency and flexibility of VMs. These features make Windows Server 2025 a suitable choice for enterprises and organizations that want to leverage the potential of GPU acceleration and Hyper-V functions.
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Is GPU-P only possible on Windows Server 2025 Datacenter ? Or is it possible to use it on Standard too ?