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Hyper-V Server 2008

Double-Take Improves Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V Offerings

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Double-Take Software today announced the availability of the latest version of Double-Take for Windows product and enhancements to other products in the company’s suite including complete platform support for Microsoft Windows Server 2008 and Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008. Double-Take for Windows solves IT managers’ workload portability and availability challenges by making it easy to migrate physical workloads into virtual machines with minimal user downtime and to protect the uptime of critical workloads on physical and virtual machines by using real-time replication and failover.

Overview of the key enhancements to the Double-Take Software product suite:

  • Deeper support for the Windows Server 2008 operating system in Livewire, Cargo, and Double-Take for Windows including its Application Manager and full-server protection features.
  • Broader Capabilities for Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008: In addition to its Double-Take for Hyper-V product, the company now offers a new version of the Double-Take for Windows Virtual Recovery Assistant. This new version enables migration of physical servers to Hyper-V virtual machines, reduces P2V migration downtime, and allows for migration between geographical locations in support of datacenter consolidations and moves. The Virtual Recovery Assistant can also be used to automate the protection of a workload running on a physical server with a virtualized workload at a disaster recovery site.
  • Double-Take Application Manager feature: New functionality includes enhancements to support for clustered SQL servers and full support for SQL Server 2008.
  • Double-Take Cargo: In addition to now supporting Windows Server 2008, the latest version of Double-Take Cargo includes new support clustered file servers, enabling IT administrators to archive file-based data and optimize storage in both standalone and clustered server configurations.

Microsoft Announcements: Hyper-V Server To Compete With ESXi, Windows Server 2008 R2 Will Sport Live Migration Feature

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Microsoft is doing a big virtualization splash today with their much-hyped ‘Get Virtual Now’ event in Washington. The Hyper-V 1.0 hypervisor was officially released, but that wasn’t much of a surprise, unlike the launch of a new version (free of charge) dubbed Hyper-V Server 2008. It’s a standalone server virtualization tool that enables firms to consolidate Windows and Linux workloads onto a single physical server.

You guessed it: it’s direct competition to VMware ESXi, and it’s going to make waves. The new product will be supported by the upcoming System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008, to be released within 30 days as well.

Another surprise: the next version of Hyper-V which will be included with Windows Server 2008 R2, will have a live migration feature, something Microsoft was often criticized for because it lacked it. According to Mary Jo Foley, the release is slated for 2010.

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