Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V and Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 provide robust virtualization for customers who have appreciated the capabilities that this solution provides. Virtualization decouples the operating system from the underlying hardware, and this decoupling creates a flexible and dynamic IT infrastructure. Customers who have a heterogeneous operating system environment desire their virtualization platform to provide support for all operating systems that they have in their datacenters. We have supported Linux as a guest operating system on our virtualization platform from the days of Virtual Server and continue to enhance our support in that regard. In July of last year, we submitted our Linux Integration Services for Hyper-V to the Linux community so that they can be included in the Linux kernel. We have seen great support from the community, having received over 200 patches. As part of our continuing efforts to support Linux as a guest on Hyper-V, we are announcing the availability of the beta version of Linux Integration Services for Hyper-V (version 2.1). In addition to the existing features (networking, storage, and fastpath boot), the 2.1 release adds the following:
· SMP support for Linux workloads
o Linux virtual machines running on Hyper-V will be able to use up to 4 virtual CPU’s
· Timesync
o Linux VM’s running on Hyper-V will be able to synchronize their time with the parent partition.
· Integrated Shutdown
o You will be able to shut down a Linux virtual machine gracefully from the Hyper-V manager.
This version of the integration services for Hyper-V can be downloaded from here, and supports Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 SP3, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11, and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.2 / 5.3 / 5.4.
To offer our customers the most flexibility when interacting with Hyper-V, the part of the code which communicates with Hyper-V is licensed under a dual license (BSD and GPLv2), while the part that communicates and interacts directly with the Linux kernel is under GPLv2.
These new capabilities will be submitted shortly to the Linux kernel as well. In fact the SMP patch has already been submitted by Greg Kroah-Hartman - thanks, Greg!
UPDATE #1: Anton, thanks for reading the blog. Yes, we know there are lots of people watching how well, or poorly, Microsoft does maintaining the working relationship with the Linux kernel team and this work with the community is a learning process for us. That’s why there are Microsoft employees focused on this project, and focused to work with the kernel team. Hank Janssen and Haiyang Zhang who are listed as the maintainers of this code are dedicated to working on enhancing the Hyper-V integration services for Linux. If you are following the kernel mailing lists recently, you will have noticed that we have been actively contributing towards adding more capabilities and enhancing the code.
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Preamble: The point of this series, and the spirit in which it is written, is to take a holistic approach at the issues facing our customers, discuss the complexities with regard to memory management and explain why we’re taking the approach we are with Hyper-V Dynamic Memory. This isn’t meant to criticize anyone or technology, rather to have an open and transparent discussion about the problem space.
Virtualization Nation,
When it comes to virtualization and memory, customers want to use physical memory as efficiently and dynamically as possible with minimal performance impact and provide consistent performance and scalability.
Looking at the bigger picture
In addition to asking customers about memory and how it relates to virtualization, we took a step back and talked to our customers about the broader topic of memory and capacity planning. Let’s remove virtualization from the equation for the moment. If you were to setup some new physical servers how would you do this? How would you determine the workload memory requirements and the amount of memory to purchase?
For example,
If you answered, “it depends,” you’re correct. There isn’t one simple answer to this question. Your mileage will vary based on your workload and business requirements for scale and performance. When we ask customers how they tackle this problem, here are a few of the common answers:
The result is far from optimal. Customers overprovision their hardware and don’t use it efficiently which in turn raises the TCO.
Wouldn’t it be great if your workloads automatically and dynamically allocated memory based on workload requirements and you were provided a flexible policy mechanism to control how these resources are balanced across the system?
We think so too.
In my next blog, we’ll discuss the confusion that is “memory overcommit.”
Cheers,
Jeff Woolsey
Windows Server Hyper-V
Today Max Herrmann (who posted on this site on March 18) posted a blog that calls out software and hardware partners' stated intentions to support Microsoft RemoteFX. You can read Max's post on the RDS blog.
Here's an excerpt:
Today, I am very happy to confirm that the following hardware and software companies, among others, have engaged with us as RemoteFX partners with the goal to build a formidable ecosystem of first-class user experience solutions: AMD, AppliedMicro, Citrix, Cloudium Systems, Dell, DevonIT, HP, Nvidia, Quest, Texas Instruments, ThinLinx, Via, Wondermedia and Wyse. Several of these companies have already come forward with their own RemoteFX announcements last Friday, one day after Microsoft RemoteFX was born: We have seen statements of planned support for RemoteFX from AppliedMicro, Citrix, DevonIT, Quest, ThinLinx, Via and Wyse. AMD expressed excitement about our RemoteFX announcement in one of their blogs, and in a Network World article, HP announced future support for Microsoft RemoteFX to enhance the user multimedia experience for their thin clients. Jeff Groudan from HP commented that Microsoft’s recent announcements are consistent with HP’s ongoing efforts to simplify client virtualization, from the desktop-to-the-datacenter. “Integrating Microsoft RemoteFX enables future WES-based HP thin clients to deliver a richer, local-like user experience for Microsoft session-based desktop and virtual desktop infrastructure customers. By leveraging the power of virtualized graphics and advanced codecs, remote workers will be able to access any type of application or screen content, including rich media and 3D applications.” I feel with these great companies on board, RemoteFX is heading into an exciting future. For more information on these RemoteFX partner companies, visit our RDS partner page. And if you want to learn more about RemoteFX, please check in often with my blog for more details as we continue to refine the technology for Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1.
Today, I am very happy to confirm that the following hardware and software companies, among others, have engaged with us as RemoteFX partners with the goal to build a formidable ecosystem of first-class user experience solutions: AMD, AppliedMicro, Citrix, Cloudium Systems, Dell, DevonIT, HP, Nvidia, Quest, Texas Instruments, ThinLinx, Via, Wondermedia and Wyse.
Several of these companies have already come forward with their own RemoteFX announcements last Friday, one day after Microsoft RemoteFX was born: We have seen statements of planned support for RemoteFX from AppliedMicro, Citrix, DevonIT, Quest, ThinLinx, Via and Wyse. AMD expressed excitement about our RemoteFX announcement in one of their blogs, and in a Network World article, HP announced future support for Microsoft RemoteFX to enhance the user multimedia experience for their thin clients.
Jeff Groudan from HP commented that Microsoft’s recent announcements are consistent with HP’s ongoing efforts to simplify client virtualization, from the desktop-to-the-datacenter. “Integrating Microsoft RemoteFX enables future WES-based HP thin clients to deliver a richer, local-like user experience for Microsoft session-based desktop and virtual desktop infrastructure customers. By leveraging the power of virtualized graphics and advanced codecs, remote workers will be able to access any type of application or screen content, including rich media and 3D applications.”
I feel with these great companies on board, RemoteFX is heading into an exciting future. For more information on these RemoteFX partner companies, visit our RDS partner page. And if you want to learn more about RemoteFX, please check in often with my blog for more details as we continue to refine the technology for Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1.
Patrick
I’ve had the pleasure of talking with customers in the last few months and the Hyper-V R2 reception has been nothing but unequivocally positive. Whether it’s been folks in small, medium or the enterprise, they appreciate the new capabilities in Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V and the free Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2. At the same time, we’re always listening to our customers to better understand their business requirements and requests so we know know what to build for subsequent releases. Today, we’re pleased to announce new capabilities that will enhance both virtualized server and virtualized desktop deployments:
What Virtualization Users Have Told Us
When it comes to virtualization and memory, virtualization users have repeatedly provided the following requirements:
Their comments are clear: Maximize our investment in the hardware resources, provide high density, and with a minimal performance impact.
(Speaking of performance, Hyper-V R2 performance is exceptional. We recently released an in depth performance analysis on Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V R2 Virtual Hard Disk Performance using a variety of workloads including SQL, Exchange, Web and more. This is a must read: http://download.microsoft.com/download/0/7/7/0778C0BB-5281-4390-92CD-EC138A18F2F9/WS08_R2_VHD_Performance_WhitePaper.docx)
Virtual Machine Performance & Density
If you think about Virtual Machine Performance and Virtual Machine Density as a continuum and you can place the slider, where would you position the slider?
Up to now, we’ve opted to err on the side of performance with excellent results. Now, customers are asking us to start moving that slider over to increase density and still minimize performance impact, so that’s what we’re doing.
So, what is Dynamic Memory? At a high level, Hyper-V Dynamic Memory is a memory management enhancement for Hyper-V designed for production use that enables customers to achieve higher consolidation/VM density ratios. In my next blog, we’ll dive deep into Hyper-V Dynamic Memory…
Windows Server
Hi, my name is Max Herrmann, and I am part of the Windows Server Remote Desktop Services marketing team at Microsoft. Two years ago, Microsoft acquired Calista Technologies where I came from – a startup that set out to create technology that allows remote workers to enjoy the same rich user experience over a network as with a locally executing desktop. This experience includes full-fidelity video with 100% coverage for all media types and highly-synchronized audio, rich media support including Silverlight and 3D graphics, and of course Windows Aero. Today, Microsoft announced during its Desktop Virtualization Hour that Microsoft RemoteFX, a platform feature being developed for Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 will bring a rich, connected user experience to the virtual desktop market. So what is RemoteFX, and how are Calista and RemoteFX related?
Just to be clear, RemoteFX is not a new standalone product from Microsoft. Rather, it describes a set of RDP technologies - most prominently graphics virtualization and the use of advanced codes - that are being added to Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1; these technologies are based on the IP that Microsoft acquired and continued to develop since acquiring Calista Technologies. So think of Microsoft RemoteFX as the ‘special sauce’ in Remote Desktop Services that users will be able to enjoy when they connect to their virtual and session-based desktops and applications over the network. With Microsoft RemoteFX, users will be able to work remotely in a Windows Aero desktop environment, watch full-motion video, enjoy Silverlight animations, and run 3D applications – all with the fidelity of a local-like performance when connecting over the LAN. Their desktops are actually hosted in the data center as part of a virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) or a session virtualization environment (formerly known as Terminal Services). With RemoteFX, these users will be able to access their workspace via a standard RDP connection from a broad range of client devices – rich PCs, thin clients and very simple, low-cost devices.
Also today, we announced a collaboration agreement with Citrix, which will enable Citrix to integrate and use Microsoft RemoteFX within its XenDesktop suite of products and HDX. Microsoft RemoteFX is designed to integrate with partner solutions, and we expect solutions from Citrix and other partners to enable the fidelity of a RemoteFX-accelerated user experience for a broad range of environments.
With SP1 just now being announced (see Oliver's blog) but not available for a while, there will be many more details I will be able to share with you as we progress. This is just the beginning of an exciting time for centralized desktop computing and the benefits of the user experience enhancements that Microsoft RemoteFX will deliver for that architecture. Please stay tuned for great things to come, and check in on my blog every once in a while for the latest news. Meanwhile, I would encourage you to read up more on today’s announcements.
Max
UPDATES: here are answers to your questions
Q: Will RemoteFx support also OpenGL hardware acceleration which is the 3D high level API used by professional applications like CAD systems or medical applications ?
A: RemoteFX will support certain OpenGL applications. However, as the development of RemoteFX is still ongoing, it is too early to provide any specifics at this point.
Q: Are you plan to introduce RemoteFX also for Windows 7 because their are many scenarios where the remote system is not a server but a high end workstation ?
A: RemoteFX has been designed as a Windows Server capability to support the growing demand for multi-user, media-rich centralized desktop environments. Windows 7 will be supported as a virtual guest OS under Hyper-V.
UPDATE #2
@mattspoon: Session virtualization, formerly known as Terminal Services, will also benefit from RemoteFX support in Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1
@fiddley: Windows 7 SP1 will have an updated RDP client to support RDP connections with RemoteFX. Unfortunately, it is too early for us to make any statements about future down level client support.
@someone: With Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1, RemoteFX will support both multi-user deployment scenarios in Remote Desktop Services: VDI and session virtualization (formerly known as Terminal Services). There will be an updated RDP client for end points.
Louise Johns blogged about software availability and roadmap news for the Opalis software we acquired in December. Since all of you care about systems management as much as virtualization, I wanted to make sure you saw Louise's post. Here's some excerpts:
We have started the process of sending notifications of the grant of Opalis software to all customers who are licensed for SMSE/SMSD. The key licensing contact in your organization will be receiving an email on how you can download the software and start to automate your IT processes. Any SMSE or SMSD customer with active Software Assurance on or after December 10 2009 will receive the Opalis grant. As announced previously, the prices of SMSE/SMSD will go up on July 1, 2010 so purchase or renew now to take advantage of current prices.
Today, Opalis supports integration to 3rd party tools such as BMC, CA, HP, EMC, IBM and VMware. In Q2 we will expand on interoperability capabilities with new Integration Packs for UNIX, Linux Redhat and Suse. In Q3, Integration Packs for Service Manager 2010, Configuration Manager 07 R2, VMM 2008 R2 and DPM 2010 will be made available. Planning for Opalis v-next, 2011 releases are underway and will be communicated in the upcoming months.
We’ll provide more information about the sessions at MMS in the coming weeks.
Our customers often deploy Microsoft server workloads, such as SQL Server, SharePoint and Exchange, on Microsoft Hyper-V and System Center, and want to know how other customers have deployed these workloads and if there are deployment guidelines from specific solution partners that can help optimize for scale and business continuity.
A case in point is our customer Avanade. Avanade wanted to reduce their datacenter costs and turned to Microsoft Virtualization, even for their most demanding workloads. Avanade designed a series of tests to evaluate virtualization of SQL Server in production environments. In one test, Avanade was impressed to see Hyper-V support 6,000 Microsoft Dynamics CRM users on the SQL Server 2005 cluster. “We felt extremely comfortable standing behind our corporate strategy to virtualize our biggest workloads—our upgrade to Microsoft SQL Server 2008, Exchange Server 2007—all those applications people were saying just couldn’t be done,” says Andy Schneider, Infrastructure Architect at Avanade. Avanade was able to virtualize its databases and consolidate them on fewer servers connected to a 50TB storage solution from NetApp. Overall, they reduced servers by 85% and improved performance by 50%.
Speaking of NetApp, they recently released a whitepaper (click here for pdf) that discusses their testing with consolidation of multiple workloads: Exchange Server 2007 (2000 heavy users; 250 MB Mailbox), SharePoint 2007 (3000 users; 500MB user quota) and SQL Server 2008 (3000 users using OLTP workloads such as CRM). They used Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V with its Clustered Shared Volume (CSV) technology. They used LiveMigration along with NetApp MetroCluster software for high availability and cross-site disaster recovery. In these their tests, they were able to achieve 100% up-time! For more details, check out their blog.
Last but not least, I would like to encourage you to join Microsoft and its solution partners at the Windows ITPro Business Critical Virtualization online conference on March 31st. This in-depth virtual event will provide all you need to know around the best way to virtualize Microsoft applications like SQL Server, SharePoint and Exchange on a highly resilient virtual infrastructure. You can get more information and register for the event here.
Vipul ShahSr. Product ManagerMicrosoft Virtualization Marketing