Is running Hyper-V Server 2019 from a USB flash drive possible and recommended?

I'm coming from running my homelab server with the ESXi bare metal hypervisor running from a USB Flash Drive (UFD). I'm building a new server and looking to eliminate VMware from my installation and use the Windows Hyper-V Server 2019. I want to install it to run from a UFD like I did with ESXi.

I can boot the installation media from a UFD and start the installation, but the installer only gives options to install to the hard drives/SSDs that I want to leave for the guest VMs.

From what I've discovered so far, it seems like running Hyper-V Server 2019 from a UFD is maybe a non-starter, or maybe only for the big-boy OEMs not guys in their basement pretending to be System Builder OEMs.

Some people throw out reasons like "your UFD will prematurely fail due to the way Windows uses the disk" which seems like it might be a good general insight into Windows, but I would hope that Hyper-V Server as a bare metal hypervisor like ESXi might load and run just from RAM. Not true? This note regarding Hyper-V Server 2008 seems to indicate this theory might be true as they warn to only use UFD devices that can handle it, and that this is only supported for OEMs. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/windows/it-pro/microsoft-hyper-v-server-2008-r2/ee731893(v=ws.10)

I'm not too scared by the "only OEMs" warning as technically that's what I am: a solo "System Builder" OEM. And the warning about the UFD media being up to the task seems not-insurmountable, especially given how flash drives have advanced since 2008. Also I would hope that between Hyper-V Server 2008 and 2019 there have been some advances to try to achieve feature-parity with VMware, where everyone has enjoyed installing to UFD's for a very long time now.

If I need to I will cough up another SSD for the Hyper-V Server install, but that seems like wasteful overkill for a modern bare metal hypervisor. And it makes me think about revising my strategy and maybe abandoning Hyper-V Server and just installing full Windows Server 2019 on that SSD and use its (non-bare metal) Hyper-V capability to host all the VMs. Windows Server 2019 was going to be one of my guest VMs anyways, so why add another layer and and one more drive to the mix.

Bottom line: Is it possible to install Hyper-V Server 2019 to a UFD, and even if it is, is it inadvisable?

Solution 1:

If you can boot, it is possible, but not recommended. Your main problem is that normal USB drives will possibly wear out too fast - limited writing. THAT SAID: There are SATA DOM drives from Supermicro - small USB size SATA drives. They are certified to run Windows (1.3 write per day). I use them in all newer servers.