Hey guys, as you all know Microsoft just recently officially launched Windows Server 2008 in February and among some of the most high anticipated features it would have to be Hyper-V hypervisor which is Microsoft’s server virtualization product. Hyper-V will be integrated with Windows Server 2008; currently the full version of Hyper-V is not available in Windows Server 2008 only a beta has been included but the full version will be made available as a download via Windows Update at a later date.

I recently attended a Microsoft Webcast on Windows Server 2008 and the Hyper-V technology and here are some of my notes:

Hyper-V benefits:

• Scripting and automation of virtual machines
• Robust testing with scripting API
• automate tasks in testing or live environment
• Extensive guest operating system support (so for example within Windows Server 2008 you could host a Linux virtual machine)
• Support for Windows and third party operating systems
• Virtual machine portability
• Easily copy backup or move virtual machine files
• Quickly synchronize development or recover lost data
• Create templates to speed deployment
• Microsoft System Center can manage and store and share virtual machines in a library
• Delegate control of virtual machines for development and testing
• Configure role based security through Active Directory
• Virtual Machine snapshots
• Multiple saved states can be stored
• Physical to virtual and virtual to virtual conversions
• Migrate or decommision old servers to virtual servers
• Create and test before moving to physical hardware
• Flexible resource control
• Assign resources on a per virtual machine basis
• Simulate workloads with CPU and memory allocation
• Hyper-V is compatible up to 8 cores
• Exchange 2007 will eventually be supported in Hyper-V
• Does support virtual floppy disks

The benefits to the Windows environment and for those wanting to use virtualization are enormous! If Microsoft really gets it right this time we can expect to see more powerful innovations in the virtual world to come! My suggestion to anyone in the IT field and to pickup a copy of VMware or Microsoft’s Virtual PC (to be honest I would lean towards VMware) and start getting familiar with this technology because it is here to stay and it looks to be the future!

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