Hyper-V Released. Yahoo reports price is $28. Yeah, right!

Posted on June 26th, 2008 in hyper-v, microsoft, server 2008 by Rich

Microsoft announced the release of Hyper-V today six weeks ahead of schedule. Originally expected to be released in August, news of the much anticipated virtualization platform’s general availability is all over the Internet. In an article on Yahoo News, Jim Finkle reports that Microsoft is charging $28 per server. Although technically the correct cost for the hypervisor if the Server 2008 operating system is already owned, the article, Microsoft starts selling rival to VMware programs, is a shining example of the marketing spin capable of Microsoft.

“Microsoft says it charges $28 per server for its software, dubbed Hyper-V, which was put up on its website for download on Thursday. The company previously said it would make the product available in August.

VMware said it charges $495 for the most comparable software in its product line, which is known as ESXi.”


A more realistic comparison price for the IT department deciding to implement Hyper-V can be found at Newegg.com.

Microsoft Windows Server Standard 2008 32Bit/x64 English 1pk DSP OEI DVD 1-4CPU 5 Clt w/Hyper V - OEM

$699

Microsoft Announces MCTS Certification for Hyper-V and SCVMM

Posted on June 11th, 2008 in MS VMM, hyper-v, microsoft, server 2008 by Rich

Microsoft has announced two new training and certification programs that align with their new virtualization products. In the news release Climbing the Ladder of Success with Microsoft Certification: New training and certification programs help IT professionals develop mastery of Microsoft technologies, Microsoft hints at the availability of the new certifications.

“… Jim Clark, senior product planner, and Per Farny, director of advanced training and certification, will be at Microsoft Tech-Ed 2008 in Orlando, Fla., this week to unveil two new training and certification programs from Microsoft Learning. Scheduled to begin later this year, the programs are designed to prime the pipeline of skilled workers and help companies maximize their technology investments.”

A general outline of how the curriculum will be be delivered is also discussed.

“The virtualization training will be delivered in a variety of virtual, distance learning, and instructor-led options that focus on the fundamentals of virtualization, the underlying principles of virtualization architecture and the specifics of Microsoft’s technology.”

In this same release Microsoft also announced

Microsoft Offline Virtual Machine Servicing Tool

Posted on May 15th, 2008 in MS VMM, hyper-v, microsoft, server 2008 by Rich

The Offline Virtual Machine Serving Tool appears to be Microsoft’s equivalent to VMware’s Update Manger for ESX - in some capacity. The Solution Accelerator tool schedules and automates updates of virtual machines that are not normally powered on in your virtual infrastructure. The tool powers up the VMs allowing them to receive updates such as antivirus definitions, security updates and patches. Unlike ESX 3.5’s Update Manager, the tool only manages the offline VM updates. Server 2008, Hyper-V, and running VM updates will be handled via WSUS and normal Windows Update processes.

The Executive Overview page provides some more information:

Help Me Choose a Hypervisor

Posted on May 9th, 2008 in XenServer, citrix, dell, esx 3i, esx3.5, feature comparison, hyper-v, microsoft by Rich

Dell embedded virtualization offeringsI was researching Dell’s latest announcement, Dell Unveils Virtualization Blockbuster – From Servers and Storage to Software and Services and trying to find definitive proof of the $99 price for embedded ESXi or the $299 price for embedded Citrix XenServer Express as reported by virtualization.info. Although I did not find the pricing in the announcement, I was able to find it by going through the process of using the Dell Online Store to build a R805 server. By clicking the green “customize it” button I was eventually able to see the Optional Virtualization Offerings section with the pricing for the embedded hypervisors. See the screenshot to the right. (click for larger view)What surprised me during this process was the “Help me Choose” link in this section. Clicking that link took me to a Help Me Choose: Hypervisor page from Dell that is basically accurate and helpful for comparing high level features of ESX 3.5, ESXi, Citrix XenServer and Microsoft Hyper-V.

Here is a screenshot of the comparison table from Dell’s page.

XP SP3 supported on Hyper-V

Posted on April 28th, 2008 in hyper-v, microsoft, vdi by Rich

I was not aware that you could not install WinXP SP2 or earlier versions as a VM on Microsoft’s Hyper-V servers. I haven’t had the opportunity to play with Hyper-V yet, so I I’ll attribute missing this fact to not having the need to know. I’m sure there are a bunch of administrators in the same stage of evaluation as me. Hopefully this post will not be old news to most. XP SP3 will become available for download this week as an optional update. Microsoft will begin pushing XP SP3 to everyone that has Windows Update set to Automatic in early June.

The problem with installing XP SP2 on Hyper-V is that you can not install Integration Services (also called VM Additions or VMtools by other vendors), and without Integration Services you do not have network adapters in the VM. Christian Saborío sums up the problem in his post titled How to Install Integration Services on a Virtual Machine without Windows XP SP3.

“The problem happened when importing a Virtual hard disk that I had that had Windows XP SP2. See, in order for a VM to take full advantage of Hyper-V, you need to have the Integration Services installed (these are the new Virtual Machine Additions, in Virtual Server lingo). In order to install the Integration Services, I needed to have Windows XP SP3 - which I could easily download; but the VM did not had network support. Why? Because it needed Integration Services…see where I am getting at here?”

Christian explains that he was able to slipstream an .iso of XP with SP3 and, after a new install he had a running VM.

Microsoft announced that XP SP3 will be generally available this week. I found the following useful info

Things that make you go hmmmm - April 25, 2008

Posted on April 25th, 2008 in blogs, hyper-v, microsoft, vmetc.com by Rich

This weeks edition is centered on the topic of quick migration versus VMware HA and VMotion. We start with a post from the Windows Virtualization Team’s blog site and then explore some responses from a couple popular blogs in the virtualization community. Finally, if you have not seen Microsoft’s Quick Migration in action then check out the video at the end of this post. Links to the full posts are provided by clicking the section titles. Enjoy!

Heroes Happen Here event provides live demonstrations of Hyper-V and Server 2008

Posted on April 23rd, 2008 in events, hyper-v, microsoft, server 2008 by Rich

Earlier this week I was able to attend one of the free Heroes Happen Here events Microsoft is hosting. Although I only attended the morning IT Pro - Infrastructure sessions, the event also had sessions on SQL 2008 , Visual Studio 2008, and a Small Business Server and Essential Business Server session. All things considered it is an event worth attending if you have the time. The format was a a surprisingly minimum number of presentation slides and a lot of live demonstrations.

Here are the primary reasons I was glad I went:

Mixed vendor virtual data center

Posted on April 21st, 2008 in XenServer, citrix, esx3.5, hyper-v, microsoft, vmetc.com, vmware by Rich

Is the mixed virtualization vendor data center possible? is Virtualization Pro blog that builds upon other discussions about the technical advantages and administrative logistics involved with the possibility of using different virtualization vendors in the same data center. In this post author Adam Trujillo expands on comments from other linked posts on the same topic - what types of applications and services might be best implemented on VMware ESX, Citrix Xenserver, or Microsoft’s Hyper-V, and how all of these virtual hosts could probably be used side by side by the same IT staff.

From Adam’s post:

“I threw out the notion that data center managers might use, for example, Hyper-V for end-user file servers; VMware ESX for apps that require dynamic load balancing, sophisticated disaster recovery and migration, and Xen for commodity Linux boxes.

The idea behind that supposition was to match your enterprise investments to appropriate workloads because, let’s face it, running everything on ESX is going to be expensive compared to other options. Big deal if you don’t get ESX-level features because you may get enterprise level features on silver-medal products.”

This post peaked my interest because I too have had similar discussions about the potential for a multi virtualization vendor data center, and I see it as a reality that architects, consultants, and administrators need to prepare for. My reasoning is not so much based on technical features, but on vendor optimization and support.

Microsoft Hyper-V Beta implementation details

Posted on December 17th, 2007 in hyper-v, microsoft, news by Rich

Microsoft’s announcement this past Thursday of the availability of the Hyper-V Beta has definitely generated some “buzz”. Market analysts continue to speculate on how Hyper-V will ultimately challenge for data center dominance. Most reports reason that because Microsoft Server is the prevalent OS is data centers today the adoption of Server 2008 and Hyper-V will likely be fast and furious over the next few years. As always, the technical details and logistics of implementation need to be better understood.

Microsoft’s How to install and enable the Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V Beta in Windows Server 2008 RC 1 page details what is needed to implement the solution and what features are currently available (MS still has a ways to go in my opinion!). The following sections summarize the process and contain cut and pastes from Microsoft’s page.

Prerequisites