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

Windows Server 2008

Windows Server 2008 R2 Coming Half July, Public Availability Of Hyper-V 2.0 Set For 22 October

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From Microsoft’s Windows Server Division Weblog:

“You may have seen some of the recent news articles that have started to roll out around the RTM and General availability dates of Windows 7.  As Windows Server 2008 R2 is a joint development effort with Windows 7 we are aligned with the same RTM and General Availability (GA) dates.

With that – Windows Server 2008 R2  RTM code is on track to be available to our partners sometime in the 2nd half of July. Windows Server 2008 R2 will also be broadly available about the same time as the Windows 7 GA date of Oct 22.

Download and start testing with the RC candidate at http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver“

Via Virtualization.info

Release: Unitrends 4.1 (Data Recovery Software)

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Further expanding its OS, virtualization and application support, Unitrends today announced the latest version of its data recovery software with new support for the Windows Server 2008 family and the Novell OES family of products, including Microsoft Hyper-V and Xen virtualization platforms. Unitrends Release 4.1 also includes expanded multi-appliance management and monitoring capabilities as well as enhanced support for Network Attached Storage (NAS) systems.

The new Unitrends Release 4.1 backup and recovery software offers support for more than 40 operating systems and applications. This support now includes:

·         Windows Server 2008 (including Hyper-V)

·         Exchange 2007 support on Windows Server 2008

·         SQL 2008

·         Novell OES1 and OES2 (including Xen and Groupwise 8.0)

·         MacOS X 10.5

·         Linux 64-bit

·         pSeries 6.1

The latest Unitrends release also delivers extensive context-sensitive help, increased appliance management and monitoring functionality, and new reporting flexibility. In addition, Unitrends Release 4.1 adds new appliance scalability features and supports NAS protection via CIFS and NFS protocols without a high-priced NDMP agent.

The new Unitrends Release 4.1, with enhanced operating system support, is available now for all Unitrends rapid-recovery appliances including the recently announced, 1U Recovery-610.  There is no charge for the new version for existing Unitrends customers.

Microsoft Hyper-V 2.0 To Support Live Migration

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According to Bink.nu, Windows Server 2008 R2 will include Hyper-V R2, aiming to deliver the final pieces for enterprise level OS virtualization (together with SCVMM2008) and to really compete with VMware at that level.

Stephen Bink writes:

“The most anticipated is of course Live Migration: moving running VM’s from one host to another without interruption of services running inside the VM’s

To accomplisch this technique a new shared filesytem is needed and so will also be introduced in Hyper-V 2.0: Clustered Shared Volumes.

The Live migration works best together with System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008, it can provide additional Live Migration management and orchestration scenarios such as Live Migration via policy.”

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

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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.

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.

Microsoft

GoGrid Takes Windows Server 2008 Into The Cloud

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GoGrid announced today the immediate availability of 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Windows Server 2008 within its Cloud Computing infrastructure. Parent company ServePath is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, and launched Windows Server 2008 dedicated hosting in February of this year.

With this release, GoGrid becomes one of the first Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) providers to offer Windows Server 2008 “in the cloud.” GoGrid customers can now deploy Windows Server 2008 servers in just a few minutes for as little as 19 cents an hour.

Initial Windows Server 2008 offerings on GoGrid include both 32-bit and 64-bit preconfigured templates. GoGrid users select the desired operating system and then choose preconfigured templates in order to minimize time to deploy. Pre-configurations include:

  • Windows Server 2008 Standard with Internet Information Services 7.0 (IIS 7)
  • Windows Server 2008 Standard with IIS 7 and SQL Server 2005 Express Edition
  • Windows Server 2008 Standard with IIS 7, SQL Server 2005 Express Edition and ASP.NET

GoGrid continues to offer Cloud servers for Windows Server 2003 as well as various Linux distributions and will continue to expand GoGrid’s “Control in the Cloud” offerings in the future.