Virtualization.com

News and insights from the vibrant world of virtualization and cloud computing

Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V

Microsoft Equips IPTV Platform Mediaroom With Virtualization Support

by 1 Comment

Microsoft today launched Microsoft Mediaroom with virtualization, making it the first Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) platform to offer virtualization support. Mediaroom with virtualization can deliver up to a sixfold reduction in the number of physical servers required to support a full-featured IPTV service, significantly reducing hardware and management costs and speeding time to market for Mediaroom customers by up to three weeks.

With virtualization support, it is possible to deploy and operate a full Mediaroom-powered TV service for up to 30,000 subscriber homes per market using fewer than 10 physical servers. Even for deployments of greater than 30,000 subscriber homes, a mix of virtualized and dedicated servers can still provide efficiency benefits.

Mediaroom with virtualization offers the full functionality of Microsoft’s award-winning IPTV platform including video on demand, DVR Anywhere for viewing and managing recorded shows in any room, and Mediaroom Anytime for viewing of previously aired programs or restarting currently airing shows without any preplanning or prior digital video recording. Other capabilities include high-definition video for live and on-demand content, multiview, instant channel zapping, and TV applications that support rich interactivity and seamless blending of Web content and services with broadcast TV.

To power virtualization in Mediaroom, Microsoft is using Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V, Microsoft’s hypervisor-based server virtualization technology.

AMD and Microsoft Team Up On Virtualization

by 1 Comment

AMD today announced the availability of robust new virtualization solutions powered by a combination of technologies from AMD and Microsoft. This new deployment model uses AMD Opteron processors with AMD Virtualization technology together with Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V. Mid-market companies in particular, which have traditionally been slower to implement virtualization, can take advantage of the combined AMD and Microsoft product offering to help reduce cost, complexity and energy consumption.

Resource consolidation achieved through virtualization can deliver the low energy consumption, and superior utilization and manageability demanded by today’s businesses. AMD Opteron processors and Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V, a hypervisor-based virtualization feature of Microsoft Windows Server 2008, allow OEMs, VARs and Solution Providers to offer a valuable server virtualization combination to help increase their competitive edge and market opportunity. AMD-V technology and Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V also help enable businesses to scale according to demands, boosting the efficiency of workloads.

Advanced Micro Devices

SteelEye Brings Disaster Recovery Solution to Hyper-V

by Leave a Comment

SteelEye Technology (previous coverage), a provider of business continuity and disaster recovery solutions for multi-vendor IT infrastructures, recently announced SteelEye DataKeeper support for Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V.

DataKeeper is a highly optimized data replication solution for Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008. The product is sold in two versions: DataKeeper delivers data replication services as an extension to Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008 while DataKeeper Cluster Edition further extends the capabilities of Windows Server Failover Clustering. Both editions support real-time replication of Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V virtual machines between physical servers across either LAN or WAN connections.

By keeping a running Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V virtual machine in sync with a standby VM in an alternate location, DataKeeper enables disaster recovery without the data loss typically associated with traditional backup and restore technology. Real-time continuous replication of active Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V VMs helps ensure that in the event of a disaster, the standby server can be activated with minimal to no data loss.

DataKeeper Cluster Edition allows administrators to build “shared-nothing” and geographically dispersed Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V clusters. By eliminating the requirement for shared storage, the administrator can protect against both planned and unplanned downtime of servers and storage. The use of DataKeeper in tandem with Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V VMs allows for non-disruptive disaster recovery testing. By simply accessing the replicated VMs in the disaster recovery site, the administrator can segment a virtual network separate from the production network and start the replicated VMs for disaster recovery testing. Complete disaster recovery testing can be performed without impacting the production site at all.

Microsoft and Novell Announce Joint Virtualization Solution

by Leave a Comment

Microsoft and Novell are announcing the availability of a joint virtualization solution optimized for customers running mixed-source environments. The joint offering includes SUSE Linux Enterprise Server configured and tested as an optimized guest operating system running on Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V, and is fully supported by both companies’ channel partners. The offering provides customers with the first complete, fully supported and optimized virtualization solution to span Windows and Linux environments.

The new offering represents significant progress in the Microsoft-Novell collaboration and business model first announced in November 2006, which delivers seamless integration of SUSE Linux Enterprise and Microsoft Windows, providing a bridge between proprietary software and open source software. The virtualization solution is the first to include technology developed by both companies at their joint Interoperability Lab, including virtual machine adapters built to optimize SUSE Linux Enterprise Server as an optimized, or often referred to as enlightened, guest operating system on Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V, providing optimized performance to SUSE Linux guests.

The new offering represents more than 18 months of technical collaboration undertaken between Microsoft and Novell in response to customer demand for a virtualization solution that provides high performance and ease of deployment, and is tested and supported.

The original November 2006 Microsoft-Novell agreement included four areas of technical collaboration: virtualization, standards-based systems management, identity federation and document format compatibility. Since then, the companies have announced three other areas of collaboration: Moonlight, accessibility and a new SUSE Linux Enterprise Server management pack for Microsoft System Center product. With the new Linux Enterprise Server management pack, Microsoft System Center customers can manage Windows and Linux environments, both physical and virtual, from one common tool. Novell is also a charter member of Microsoft’s Server Virtualization Validation Program, and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server is a validated operating system in the program.

CiRBA Packages Analysis Templates Comparing Hyper-V and VMware Based Solutions

by Leave a Comment

CiRBA today announced the availability of packaged analysis templates that enable organizations to compare the impact of implementing Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V versus VMware-based virtualization.

Using CiRBA’s analysis, organizations can quickly examine the suitability of each hypervisor for a given environment, understand consolidation ratios, longer term management considerations, and financial returns associated with each platform. CiRBA’s analysis templates for Hyper-V and VMware-based virtualization are driven by specialized Rulesets for each platform in combination with the solution’s advanced utilization analysis.

CiRBA provides cross-platform, multi-dimensional analysis that enables organizations to safely and cost-effectively consolidate heterogeneous environments and maximize efficiency within virtualized infrastructure through dynamic capacity management.

CiRBA’s comparative analysis templates for Hyper-V and VMware provide an opportunity for organizations to leverage vendor agnostic analysis, empirical data, and organization-specific business and technical constraints to determine the optimal solution for any given environment.

As with other Rulesets in the CiRBA product, CiRBA customers can access these new analysis features through CiRBA Central, a central repository of analysis rules that allows organizations to stay up to date on the latest best practices in data center optimization. CiRBA Powered Partners will also have access to these rules in order to help guide their clients through the selection of the optimal technology for their environment.

Defragmentation Software Maker Diskeeper Certified for Hyper-V

by Leave a Comment

—

Diskeeper Corporation today announced that its flagship product Diskeeper 2008 automatic defragmenter achieved Certified for Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V status from Microsoft, making it one of the first three applications, out of 175 applications currently certified for Windows Server 2008, to earn the Hyper-V designation.

All systems suffer from file fragmentation. Servers suffer even more so due to their heavy multi-user traffic. And virtual servers yet further since fragmentation takes place on three separate levels–the virtual, the physical disk and the mapping in between them. Without a professional grade defragmenter designed to address the virtual issues, server performance is going to crawl to a slow.
Thanks to recent developments in transparent processing technology (known as InvisiTasking, defragmentation of such systems with Diskeeper 2008 has now become a fully automated process. This speeds up server response time, ensures the level of virtual disk performance is optimal and saves time by taking the guesswork out of defragmenting.
Diskeeper