Virtualization.com
News and insights from the vibrant world of virtualization and cloud computing
Microsoft has published a new 18-pages guide to setup virtual machines fail-over between two Hyper-V (now in Release Candidate 1) virtualization hosts. The step-by-step guide shows you “how to make a virtual machine highly availableby creating a simple two-node cluster and a virtual machine, and then failing over the virtual machine from one node to the other”.
You can download the 216 kb file here.
[Source: Techlog]
Taylor Brown of the Microsoft Hyper-V Test Team has formally announced the availability of Hyper-V RC1 on Microsoft Download Center in a post on the Windows Virtualization Product Group team blog.
There’s a Hyper-V RC1 package for Windows Server 2008 x64, which must be installed on Hyper-V server’s (physical machines). It includes the Hyper-V Server components for Full and Core installs, the Hyper-V Integration Components for Server 2008 x64 and the Hyper-V Management Components for Full Windows installs.
Microsoft also released the Hyper-V RC1 package for Windows Server 2008 x86. This package includes only the Hyper-V Management Components for Full Windows installs and the Hyper-V Integration Components for Server 2008 x86. It does not contain the Hyper-V Server components (Hyper-V is x64 only).
More here.
At the Microsoft Management Summit 2008 in Las Vegas, the Redmond-based software giant released its virtualization management platform, now named System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008, into public beta testing. The release comes well within the 60 to 90 day window Microsoft promised after the public beta delivery of its ‘Viridian hypervisor’, now formally known as Hyper-V. So where’s the beef?
The new platform enables customers to configure and deploy new virtual machines and to centrally manage their virtualized infrastructure, whether running on Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V, Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2 or VMware ESX Server.
Microsoft’s hypervisor and virtualization management platform will likely be used predominantly by Microsoft-centric customers in Windows-centric environments (for your reference: Microsoft owns about half of the server OS space so that’s not too bad a proposition), but support for VMware ESX will be welcomed by many as well (VMM 2008 connects to Virtual Center’s public web service APIs to provide support for most day-to-day administrative tasks on VMware, including VMotion), although most critics are already pointing to the lack of live migration capabilities in SCVMM 2008.
A number of partners, including Brocade, Dell, EMC, Emulex, HP, NetQOS, QLogic and Quest, announced they will deliver management packs enabled for PRO. These management packs enable partners and customers to integrate their domain-specific knowledge directly into Virtual Machine Manager and further integrate physical and virtual management.
[Source: Virtualization Review]
Microsoft is targeting system management as a way to differentiate itself from competitors in the virtualization market, the company reportedly stated today, as reported by PC World.
Anticipating that the market for virtualization software, such as Microsoft’s Hyper-V, eventually will be commoditized, the company sees management as the key revenue opportunity for competitors offering server virtualization, said Windows Enterprise and Management Division General Manager Larry Orecklin, speaking to reporters on Microsoft’s campus Tuesday.
Microsoft is apparently so keen on making management the corner stone of its virtualization strategy that it plans to open up management for other virtualization platforms, such as VMware and XenSource, with its System center Virtual Machine Manager tool, which it released last September.
Also interesting to note:
Microsoft plans to outline its virtualization strategy further at its Microsoft Management Summit next week, said Orecklin, who suggested Tuesday that a beta of Virtual Machine Manager with support for Hyper-V and VMware ESX also will be available at that time.
[Source: PC World]
Upcoming thursday, we’re sitting down with Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer for a short Q&A session. We have some questions in mind for the man, but we thought it might be a good opportunity to ask you for feedback on what we should ask as well. Anything goes, but please avoid questions that could make him go crazy.
So give it us: what would you ask Steve Ballmer if you had the chance?
Post your question in the comments or get in touch directly.
Are you familiar with the Microsoft Assessment and Planning Solution Accelerator (MAP)? If you’re not, you might want to be. From the resources library:
“MAP (download) is a powerful inventory, assessment, and reporting tool that can securely run in small or large IT environments without requiring the installation of agent software on any computers or devices. The data and analysis provided by this Solution Accelerator can significantly simplify the planning process for migrating to Windows Vista, Microsoft Office 2007, Windows Server 2008, Microsoft Application Virtualization (formerly SoftGrid), and Windows Server virtualization technologies including Virtual Server 2005 R2 and Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V.”
As Virtualization.info points out, Microsoft doesn’t seem to put much effort into making the tool known by the rest of the world. The tool could however be useful, and comes at a great price considering its feature list; it’s completely free!