Does Windows Hyper-V Server 2012 support UEFI clients?

Question

I've read in several places that Hyper-V 2012 supports booting clients in UEFI mode, but I can't seem to figure out how to make that work.

There are no options in the settings for UEFI boot mode. I've tried to force setup to do a UEFI install by booting the setup disk, using shift-F10 and then going into diskpart and converting the virtual disk to GPT, then run setup and click "new" but it only creates the standard MBR reserved partition, and it clears the GPT format, pushing it back to an MBR disk.

Before anyone asks why I want to do this, i'm just trying to figure out how to do a UEFI install, and was hoping to use hyper-v to experiment.

Does the host have to be installed as UEFI to allow UEFI boot? My motherboard does support it, but I upgraded from a BIOS motherboard and did not re-install with UEFI.

Solution

Well, after much searching, experimentation, and general frustration, I have basically come to the conclusion that Hyper-V does not currently support UEFI guests, even if the Hyper-V server is running in UEFI configuration.

This seems to be supported by the fact that that recent builds of Windows Blue have what they call "Generation 2" VM's that include UEFI support, based on this article:

http://www.chris123nt.com/2013/04/23/windows-8-1-blue-build-9369-hyper-v-uefi/

Sad really that there's been so much misinformation about this floating about, with so many people insisting UEFI works for guests, but I can find no way to make that happen.

EDIT:

Since this question was asked, Microsoft released Windows Server 2012 R2, which supports the Generation 2 VM's, which do in fact support UEFI for guests.

Comments

[pauska]

You say you're booting a setup disk, but a setup disk for what? What are you trying to install?

[Sonicsmooth]

@pauska - I thought it was obvious from the context, but Windows Server 2012 clients.

[pauska]

No, not really, as you didn't mention what kind of OS you're trying to install as a VM - only that you're using Hyper-V on 2012.

[Sonicsmooth]

@pauska - Well, I mentioned using shift-F10 and using diskpart, and pressing the "new" button in setup and it creating an MBR reserved partition.. all of those things are pretty unique to windows.

[Sonicsmooth]

That documentation has nothing to do with Hyper-V

[Sonicsmooth]

I don't know what you think you're responding to, or what "problem with Gen 2" you're referring to, but it has nothing to do with my question. You seem to be answering something totally unrelated, and this seems quite spammy. UEFI works perfectly with Generation 2 VM's and I've installed many UEFI guests this way.