VM /ETC

Posts Tagged ‘server2008’

Although Microsoft’s roadmap for general availability is still 2010, a public beta version of Server 2008 R2 currently available for Technet subscribers enables live migration for Hyper-V guests. Non subscribers will apparently be able to download the R2 beta from the product’s web page on Friday, January 9th.

This post consists of some quick notes primarily about the new virtualization related features. For more information about all the new enhancements be sure to follow the  links.

From Matt McSpirit’s Virtualboy Blog post Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7 Client Now Available on MSDN/TechNet!

“It’s come round pretty fast I have to say, but Microsoft have announced availability, through MSDN and TechNet (non-MSDN/TechNet subscribers can download them from Friday 9th January), of the beta’s of Windows 7 client, and better still, Windows Server 2008 R2.”

From the Windows Server Division Web Log

“Hyper-V in R2 now has Live Migration, allowing IT admins to move VMs across physical hosts with no interruption of service or network connectivity and significant network performance improvements. VMs in Hyper-V for R2 also get greater access to physical resources, namely support for 32 logical processors.”

From the document Top 10 Reasons to Upgrade to Windows Server 2008 R2

Read the rest of this entry »

First announced at the Microsoft getVirtualNow launch event on Sept 8, Microsoft’s stand alone, bare metal installable Hyper-V Server 2008 is now available for free download. Go to the
Microsoft Hyper-V Server page to get your copy.

Patrick O’Rourke’s Windows Virtualization team Blog post Bare metal hypervisor is here, along with new training, services announced the availability yesterday (Oct 1). Patrick summarized the new product as follows:

“This is the no-cost, bare metal hypervisor. Think ESXi, but with Windows and not Linux.”

Patrick appears to be confusing ESXi with another version of VMware’s servers as ESXi does not require or use Linux as an OS. Regardless, the feature comparison is justified.

More on the new training from Microsoft in another post.

When you are ready to build your Hyper-V Server 2008 host, here’s a quick screen shot summary of the hardware requirements for your reference: Read the rest of this entry »

Although it’s VMware’s conference, every year I’ve attended Microsoft (and various other virtualization competitors) has always had a booth in the Solutions Exchange and/or presented their own session. VMworld 2008 was no exception. In fact, this year Microsoft’s presence was a little more noticeable than in the past. Starting with a marketing stunt of handing out $1 casino chips with anti VMware propaganda on Day 1, continuing throughout the conference with activities in the Solutions Exchange at their booth, and finally ending the week with their own session, Microsoft did their best to grab the attention of the attendees.

On Thursday 9.18 at 2:00 pm I sat in on Microsoft’s Virtualization session hosted by David Greshler and Edwin Yuen. The presentation was informative and entertaining with David explaining Microsoft’s server and desktop virtualization products and Edwin providing some great demos of Hyper-V and System Center Virtual Machine Manager. This post is a summary of my notes along with numerous links to related videos, blogs, and sites.

What’s New in Microsoft Virtualization? Read the rest of this entry »

If you missed the Microsoft Get Virtual Now Virtualization Event in Bellevue, WA today then check out the recorded Keynote session presented by Bob Muglia, Senior Vice President Server and Tools Business, and Kevin Turner, Chief Operating Officer. This 45 minute video, recorded and provided by Microsoft, provides live demonstrations of App-V, VDI with Windows Vista on Citrix XenDesktop, Hyper-V, System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008, and the newly announced, bare metal installable, and free Hyper-V Server 2008. This Keynote also features the first public demonstration of the new Live Migration feature announced to be included in the future release of Server 2008 R2.

Much like when VMware used to frequently demonstrate Vmotion, at around 35 minutes into the Keynote Bob Muglia streams a video from a virtual machine that is live migrated between hosts in a Server 2008 cluster. When the migration is completed without any disruption Bob declares “There is no magic in Vmotion. It’s just a feature.”

Click this link to watch the video in your desktop media player. If the link does not work from your browser then right click the link and save the .asx file to your desktop. Then double click the saved file.

300_ms_virtualization_PM_OD_080908.asx

The following summary of announcements from today’s event was also provided for the Press by Microsoft: Read the rest of this entry »

The title of this post is part of a quote from David Davis’ SearchCIO article titled COMPARISON: Microsoft vs. VMware. David’s article was published back on June 4, and it’s been sitting in my drafts “screaming at me” to comment on here at VM /ETC. Now, with Hyper-V having been released and Microsoft’s marketing machine starting to cloud virtualization reality, I point my readers to David’s arguments as examples of sane and logical analysis of the two products. Here’s the entire quote my title is taken from in the context it was written:

“VMware is obviously the most experienced company when it comes to delivering a virtualisation product. The company has 10 years of virtualisation experience and a huge customer base, including 100% of the Fortune 500 companies and 92% of the Fortune 1000, totaling over 100,000 customers worldwide. VMware also holds 11 virtualisation patents, and in 2007 their revenue hit the $US1.33 billion mark.

This is in comparison to Microsoft which has a new virtualisation product, little enterprise virtualisation experience, and, to date, no Fortune 500 customers who have adopted their enterprise virtualisation product in a production environment. Ask yourself, which of these companies sounds more qualified to deliver your enterprise virtualisation solution?”

David’s article goes on to make excellent comparison points about Read the rest of this entry »

Many administrators today are testing Microsoft Server 2008, or even testing running Server 2008 as a guest hosted on various virtualization products. There are also plenty of projects not even related to virtualization involving testing applications and services on Microsoft’s newest server operating system. For those looking for a little more time, there is the option to extend the standard Server 2008 evaluation period. The Dugie’s Pensieve blog post Extend the Windows Server 2008 evaluation period (KB 948 472) first made me aware this was possible.

Normally, installing Server 2008 without a key gives you a 60 day evaluation period. As Dugie’s post point out, Microsoft has provided a KB article titled How to extend the Windows Server 2008 evaluation period which fully explains the use of the script and how many times you can “re arm” the evaluation.

From the KB article: Read the rest of this entry »

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: Read the rest of this entry »