New Hyper-V Release Candidate Out
Microsoft has published a new release
candidate (RC2) of its first enterprise-class hypervisor, Hyper-V. The
release marks the next step of what has been a quick march to commercial
availability for a critical product in Microsoft's emerging virtualization
lineup.
Hyper-V RC2 includes very minor upgrades, including support
for an old operating system: Windows Server 2000, SP4. It also includes
enhancements for use with Linux Virtual Machines (VMs), and a smoother
install process for some components that come with Windows Server 2008.
Hyper-V, which can only run in 64-bit environments, is bundled with Windows
2008.
Hyper-V, formerly codenamed Viridian, has been on a fast track
to release since late last year, when the initial public beta came out last
Dec. 13. The first RC, named RC0, came out two months ago, on March
19.
Hyper-V is Microsoft's first bare-metal hypervisor. It sits on
top of the physical hardware of a server, and creates the VMs. Microsoft's
previous server virtualization product, Virtual Server 2005, was hosted
inside an OS, making it much slower and less scalable than bare-metal
implementations.
The final version of Hyper-V is slated to be
released no later than August. It competes in the same space as VMware's ESX
and XenServer from Citrix. Other companies offering similar hypervisors
include Parallels, Virtual Iron, Novell, Sun, HP, Red Hat and Oracle among
others.
Virtualization separates software from the underlying
hardware. The most typical current use is to run multiple copies of an OS on
a single server, or different OSes, like Windows and Linux, on one piece of
hardware. Other types of virtualization include desktop, PC, storage and
application virtualization. More information about the distinctions can be
found here.
As for Hyper-V's reliability and performance, an entry on Microsoft's Windows
Virtualization Team Blog mentioned that Hyper-V is in live production use on
several important Microsoft sites, including MSDN and TechNet.
About the Author
Keith Ward is online news editor for the Redmond Media Group. You can contact him at [email protected].