Use Virtualization in Windows Server 2012 - MCSA Windows Server 2012 R2: Installation and Configuration Study Guide - page 443

The list of supported guest operating systems may always be extended.
Please check the official Microsoft Hyper-V site to obtain a current list of
supported operating systems: www.microsoft.com/virtualization .

Hyper-V Architecture

This section will provide you with an overview of the Hyper-V architecture (see Figure 9.1).
I'll explain the differences between a hypervisor-aware and a non-hypervisor-aware child
partition.

figUre 9.1 Hyper-V architecture

Parent partition Child partitions

Virtualization stack
WMI provider

Applications Applications Applications

VM worker
process

VM service

User mode

Windows Server
2008

Hypervisor-aware
OS (e.g., Windows
Server 2003, 2008)

Xen-enabled Linux
kernel

Non-hypervisor-
aware OS

Windows
kernel

Windows
kernel

VSP

Integration
components

Linux Integration
components

Kernel mode

Emulation

VMBus

Hyper-V hypervisor

Hardware

As you can see, Hyper-V is based on the new microkernel architecture. Hyper-V
provides a virtualization layer called a hypervisor that runs directly on the system
hardware. You can see that the hypervisor is similar to what the kernel is to Windows.
It is a software layer responsible for the interaction with the core hardware and works in
conjunction with an optimized instance of Windows Server 2012 R2 that allows running
multiple operating systems on a physical server simultaneously. The Hyper-V architecture
consists of the hypervisor and parent and child partitions.
The Windows Server 2012 R2 operating system runs in the parent partition, and it
delivers the WMI provider for scripting as well as the VM service.