Microsoft launches Hyper-V beta 1

Completely unexpected Microsoft launches the first beta of its upcoming hypervisor Hyper-V (formerly codename Viridian / Windows Server Virtualization).
This first beta, initially planned for the end of this year, was later postponed to February 2008, in sync with the global launch of Windows Server 2008 (formerly known as “Longhorn”). But Microsoft put a great effort to launch the beta ahead of time. Some people say that this was in conjunction with the VMware launch of VI 3.5…
The new build unlocks several critical features customers were looking for:

• Quick Migration and support for host-level HA (up to 16 nodes)
• Out-of-the-box integration with Windows Server 2008 Server Manager (no more separate installation)
• Support for Windows Server Core edition (allowing a smaller hypervisor footprint)
• Support for Volume Shadow Service (VSS) (which implies capability to perform VMs live backup at host level)
• Support for 64GB virtual RAM per VM
• Support for multiple virtual NICs per VM
• Support for 4 virtual SCSI controller per VM
• ntegration of VHD manipulation tools

With this beta Microsoft is providing support for Windows Server 2003 and 2008 guest OS, as well as Novell Linux guests (thanks to the special agreement the two companies have on interoperability).
Customers and partners today can download Windows Server 2008 RC1 Enterprise with the beta version of Hyper-V to evaluate the new technology, test applications and plan future consolidation, business continuity and high-availability projects. The final version of Hyper-V remains on target for release within 180 days of the RTM of Windows Server 2008.
Windows Server 2008 RC1 with Hyper-V Beta publicly available here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=8F22F69E-D1AF-49F0-8236-2B742B354919&displaylang=en
Beta Integration Components for Linux available through connect.microsoft.com:

1. Login to https://connect.microsoft.com/default.aspx
2. Click on Available Connections in the left panel.
3. Review the available programs and apply for the Linux Integration Components for Microsoft Hyper-V.

Links
Microsoft Virtualization Home: http://www.microsoft.com/virtualization/default.mspx
News Links: http://www.microsoftwatch.com/content/server/microsoft_gets_hyper_about_virtualization.html http://www.news.com/8301-13860_3-9833445-56.html?tag=blog.1 http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2233957,00.asp http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/prnewswire/AQTH03913122007-1.htm http://servervirtualization.blogs.techtarget.com/2007/12/13/vmware-competition-nears-microsoft-ships-hyper-v-beta/ http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/12/13/Microsoft-releases-beta-of-Hyper-V-virtualization-technology_1.html http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=204803022 http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=1043 http://www.virtualization.info/2007/12/microsoft-launches-hyper-v-beta-1.html http://www.windowsitpro.com/Articles/ArticleID/97822/97822.html?Ad=1 Mike Neil, Virtualization GM Blog http://blogs.technet.com/windowsserver/default.aspx
Jeff Woolsey, Windows Server Virtualization Blog (with Hyper-V videos I might add…) http://blogs.technet.com/virtualization/
Hyper-V Videos on Soapbox Hyper-V SMP Support: http://video.msn.com/video.aspx?vid=26086837-dd73-444b-9466-65a1ed759544
Hyper-V Networking: http://video.msn.com/video.aspx?vid=5f2b04d7-c501-4c28-8046-dece495cb5c9
Hyper-V Storage: http://video.msn.com/video.aspx?vid=e1eb9aeb-9cb4-413e-982f-283667232590

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