Greeting folks, Jeff Woolsey here from the Virtualization team.
It’s been a busy week at Microsoft and the Windows Server 2008 RC0 release is off to a great start! If you haven’t downloaded it yet, you can find it here: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/audsel.mspx
In addition to all of the new Windows Server 2008 capabilities (Server Core, Read-Only Domain Controllers, IIS 7.0, Network Access Protection, Terminal Services RemoteApp for starters), Windows Server virtualization (aka Viridian) is getting just a wee bit of notice too… :-) In fact, check out what eWeek has to say: http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2189866,00.asp.
With so many people trying out Windows Server 2008 RC0 and the Virtualization technical preview, my inbox is overflowing from customers all over the world with overwhelmingly positive feedback and questions. (BTW: Hello to folks I’ve communicated this week from Germany, Japan, South Africa and Brazil… :-)) So, I wanted to answer some of the top questions with my own FAQ.
Cheers, -Jeff
Windows Server Virtualization Preview FAQ
Q: Where are the Release Notes and the Microsoft Step-by-Step Installation Guide for the Windows Server Virtualization Preview?
A: Here you go!
Release Notes: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=3ED582F0-F844-40BA-B692-230845AF1149&displaylang=en
Step-by-Step Installation Guide: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/virtualization/install.mspx
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Q: Can I install Windows Server 2008 with a Server Core installation and enable the virtualization role?
A: The Windows Server Virtualization Preview only runs with a Full Installation of Windows Server 2008 RC0 at this time.
Q: Can I install a Server Core Installation of Windows Server 2008 within a virtual machine?
A: Absolutely, works great!
Q: Can you install the Integration Components on a Server Core installation of Windows Server 2008?
A: Yes, you can, but since there’s no GUI, you must do it from the command line. Here are the steps:
Q: I just installed Windows Server 2003/2008 RC0 x64 Editions within a virtual machine, but the drivers for the virtual network adapter aren’t found. What’s the solution?
A: You need to install the Windows Server virtualization Integration Components.
Q: I just installed Windows XP and/or Vista in a virtual machine. I’m trying to install the Integration Components, but I receive an error that the virtualization guest components are only supported on Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008.
A: For the Windows Server virtualization Technology Preview release, Integration Components are only provided for the following operating systems:
Q: What’s the difference between the “Network Adapter” and the “Legacy Network Adapter”?
A: The “Network Adapter” is Microsoft’s new synthetic network adapter. This is a high performance, purely synthetic device. The driver for this synthetic device is included with the Integration Components. The “Legacy Network Adapter” is a network adapter that emulates the DEC/Intel 21140 Ethernet adapter and is provided for legacy guest OS support.
Q: I’ve downloaded an international version of Windows Server 2008 RC0 (e.g., French, German, Spanish, Italian, Japanese) and when I try and run the .MSU files to enable the Windows Server virtualization role I receive the following error: “This update does not apply to your system.” Is there a solution?
A: The Windows Server Virtualization Preview only runs with English Windows Server 2008 RC0 at this time.
Q: I’m attempting to install Novell Suse Linux 10 and I receive the following error: “Kernel panic – not syncing: IO-APIC + time doesn’t work…try booting with the ‘noapic’ option.”
A: This is a known issue at this time.
Q: Are Integration Components available for Linux?
A: Not at this time.
Greeting Folks,
Jeff Woolsey here from the Microsoft Virtualization Team. It’s a great week here at Microsoft and there’s a lot going on…
First, I HAVE to mention Halo 3. :-) Every review I’ve read as been extremely positive and it looks like the Halo team knocked one out of the park, AGAIN. Congratulations to them all!
Over here in Server, we have a release of our own, none other than Windows Server 2008 RC0. RC0 is a big release because it means we’re entering the home stretch for Windows Server 2008 and because it includes the first technology preview of our new hypervisor based virtualization technology, Windows Server virtualization (WSV). The announcement is here:
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2007/sep07/09-24windowserverrc0.mspx
…and the Windows Server 2008 RC0 download is here:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/audsel.mspx
With the announcement that the Windows Server 2008 and the Technology Preview is available, I’ve already received an inbox full of email from folks asking how they can try it out. I’ll send a pointer to the official release notes and the step-by-step setup guide shortly, but I want to get the word out so I’ve written up my own abridged version. This is my own quick setup guide and isn’t a replacement for the Release Notes and official Window Server Virtualization Step-by-Step Setup Guide.
Finally, as excited as everyone is about this release, please remember that this is Technology Preview and is not recommended for production use.
Cheers,
-Jeff
WSV Customer Technology Preview (CTP) Setup Guide
System Requirements:
NOTE: If any of these features were disabled in the BIOS, be sure to POWER OFF the system (not just reboot) to ensure they are properly enabled.
High Level Setup:
NOTE: It is CRITICIAL that you perform steps 2 & 3, otherwise the option to install the Windows Server virtualization role won’t be available in the Role Manager.
Hi - this is Chris Stirrat and I run the team that built System Center Virtual Machine Manager (also known as SCVMM or “Carmine”). I very excited to share a couple of HUGE announcements with everyone around virtualization and SCVMM.
First - I am extremely proud to announce that after 2 short (OK - it didn't always seem short...) years of customer focused development, SCVMM has been officially released! It has been a long road and as many of our TAP and Beta customers can attest, we have come a long way. It is not easy bringing a competitive version 1 product to market, especially in a newer industry that is moving quickly.
Here are some of the interesting details of the release:
In addition here are some quotes from our Beta and TAP customers:
· “VMM came through for us "Big Time", I would have been doing this for many hours, 5 min opposed to many hours, what more can I say! VMM was the only reason I got sleep last night!”
· “We hadn’t used System Center software before, but we found it fairly easy to move from Linux to Virtual Server and adopt Virtual Machine Manager because VMM is so well designed and easy to administer.”
· “Virtual Machine Manager handles so many tedious, yet critical, VM infrastructure tasks. It makes VM management so easy, we’re ecstatic.”
· “System Center Virtual Machine Manager provides us with many important benefits. Its centralized management and sophisticated provisioning capabilities make it so much easier for us to manage and enhance our virtual infrastructure.”
I want to thank all the TAP and Beta customers for all the great feedback – it has been a great partnership for us. The release is now publicly available at www.microsoft.com/scvmm, with general availability in October.
Second – we are announcing the pricing/licensing for SCVMM.
We learned from our customers that managing virtualization encompasses many things – provisioning, monitoring, optimizing, reporting, patching and backup/restore. As we looked at the Microsoft assets across these areas, we created integration with some of the existing tools to help cover all the key scenarios for virtualization. We have tight integration with Operations Manager to provide health monitoring, performance monitoring, eventing/alerts, and ultimately the combination of SCVMM and Operations Manager provides a powerful solution to continually optimize your virtualization environment. In addition, with Operations Manager we can see a full picture of how an application running in a VM. We monitor the application and combine that data with the VM and physical host data. For patching the VMs and images, we have integration with Configuration Manager that allows you to patch VMs including the ones not currently running. For backup/restore, we have integration with Data Protection Manager that allows you to backup at the physical host level (which includes all the VMs running on that host).
In order to make it easy for customers to manage their virtual environments and cover the key scenarios – we are announcing a new license to cover that situation. We are announcing the System Center Management Suite Enterprise license which gives you everything you need to manage you virtual environment at a very reasonable price of $860 per physical host.
You get:
One key thing to note – the license is on the physical host and includes unlimited VMs running on that host. Also – one question I get pretty often is whether or not SCVMM requires the other tools in order to run. The answer is no – SCVMM is stand-alone and does not require the other System Center tools in order to run. Having said that – there are many scenarios that are better and “light-up” when SCVMM is used in conjunction with the other System Center tools.
Third – we are announcing System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2007 Workgroup edition, which will be available in January 2008. This edition is aimed at mid-market customers and allows them to manage up to five physical host servers and an unlimited number of virtual machines. The only restriction in the software is the number of physical hosts you can manage (5) but everything else is full functionality. The System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2007 Workgroup edition will be priced at $499 and will be available in January.
The fourth announcement centers on where we are taking SCVMM moving forward. We are on a long roadmap with SCVMM and continue to get great feedback from customers about where to go. Our next release is planned to coincide with the release of Windows Server Virtualization (codename Viridian) so that we can expose all the great features it provides. In addition to Viridian support – we are also adding some key customer driven features. We have heard loud and clear from customers and partners that we need to manage other virtualization environments in addition to Windows virtualization. They want a single management solution that manages all the different hypervisor technologies. So – in our next set of releases will be adding support for non-Windows virtualization environments – specifically VMWare and Xen. We listened to you!!! And when I say we will manage these environments I mean really manage them – covering all the key scenarios they offer. From a single console and a single command-line you will be able manage Virtual Server, Viridian, VMWare and Xen.
We are finalizing the project plans and will announce specific details closer to our Beta release – but we are very excited to get working on the next release. The team is focused, hardworking and dedicated to providing a great solution. We have fully recovered from our release celebration and are heads down cranking away.
For more information on Virtual Machine Manger and other Microsoft virtualization products please visit these sites www.microsoft.com/scvmm and http://www.microsoft.com/virtualization.