The TechNet Australia Blog : Hyper-V

Live Meeting – Beyond the Compete Microsoft vs VMware

Deeps — Mon, 25 May 2009 09:06:42 GMT

Event Overview
This session will focus on the key technologies within the Microsoft Product Family that address very real needs that any organisations adopting VWWare Technology has. We will focus on discussing how to manage VMWare and Hyper-V side by side.

Technologies covered include System Center Virtual Machine Manager, Windows Server 2008 R2

Beyond the compete - Microsoft vs VMware
Language(s): English.
Product(s): Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager,Windows Server 2008 R2.
Audience(s): IT Manager,IT Professional.
Duration: 90 Minutes
Start Date: Friday, 26 June 2009 11:00 AM Australia (East)

Speaker details
Amit Pawar has been with Microsoft Australia for nearly nine years in various roles from Support Engineer, Consultant to currently being the Technology Specialist for Windows Server and Virtualisation. Amit has been involved with many successful proof of concepts, pilots and production deployment of Microsoft virtualisation technologies in both enterprise and small medium business customers in Australia.

Click here to Register

Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 Release Candidate

Deeps — Wed, 06 May 2009 09:58:34 GMT

Its all happening this week. Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 Release Candidate is ready for download.

Microsoft® Hyper-V™ Server 2008 R2 is a stand-alone product that provides a reliable and optimized virtualization solution enabling organizations to improve server utilization and reduce costs. With the addition of new features such as live migration and expanded processor and memory support for host systems, it allows organizations to consolidate workloads onto a single physical server and is a good solution for organizations who are consolidating servers as well as for development and test environments.

By having the ability to plug into existing IT infrastructures Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 enables companies to reduce costs, improve utilization and provision new servers. It allows IT professionals to leverage existing patching, provisioning, management and support tools and processes. IT Professionals can continue to leverage their individual skills and the collective knowledge of Microsoft tools, minimizing the learning curve to manage Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2. In addition, with Microsoft providing comprehensive support for Microsoft applications and heterogeneous guest operating systems support, customers can virtualize with confidence and peace of mind.

Note: This is a pre-release version of Microsoft® Hyper-V™ Server 2008 R2 and not intended to be used in a production environment.

Click here for Technical Resources

Another thing to get your hands on – Windows Server 2008 R2 Beta

Deeps — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 05:38:00 GMT

I blogged about the actual announcement of this a while ago and now Windows Server 2008 R2 is ready for download. As mentioned before Windows Server 2008 R2 is the next version of the Windows Server OS. This includes all the cool new Hyper V features. Hyper-V in Windows Server 2008 R2 includes three core areas of improvement for creating dynamic virtual data centers.

Check out the following resources for more info:

A tour of Hyper-V in 10 minutes

Deeps — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 01:51:35 GMT

Jeffa has released a Screencast on Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008. A nice little tour all in 10 minutes and 57 seconds. Check it out below:

PacLib Group chooses Hyper-V over VMware

Deeps — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 06:43:00 GMT

Full story here http://www.itnews.com.au/News/85969,paclib-performs-vmware-analysis-but-chooses-microsoft.aspx

The analysis involved monitoring PacLib’s servers for a month, according to IT manager David Furey.

“They came back with a proposal of about $25,000 in installation costs and another $25,000 in software costs,” Furey told iTnews.

“You’ve got to question whether it’s worth paying $50,000 for that. I know the VMware camp go on about features like VMotion, but for $50,000 I could pay someone to move my virtual machines for me.”

“To us, it looked like we weren’t losing any performance or benefits of virtualisation but we were saving a lot of money,” Furey explained.

“It just didn’t make financial sense to spend all that money [on vmware], when if we want to add more Hyper-Vs, it’s $49 per server.”

Hyper-V has let PacLib group consolidate its 16 physical servers to 4 Dell Poweredge 2950 Servers. There are still 16 servers running but the other 12 are virtual instances.

Hyper-V Server available as a Free Download

Deeps — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 10:29:24 GMT

Hyper-V Server is now available as a free download.

When to Use Hyper-V Server 2008
Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 is a great choice for customers who want a basic and simplified virtualization solution for consolidating servers as well as for development and test environments. Hyper-V Server 2008 only offers the most basic of virtualization features, making it ideal for:

Test and Development
Basic Server Consolidation
Branch Office Consolidation
Hosted Desktop Virtualization (VDI)

Customers who require richer and more robust virtualization features, such as Quick Migration, multi-site clustering, large memory support (greater than 32 GB of RAM), and more than four processers on the host server, should use Windows Server 2008. Windows Server 2008 provides business continuity, disaster recovery, greater scalability for consolidating large workloads, and flexible and cost-effective virtualization rights (one free virtual instance for Standard Edition, four free virtual instances for Enterprise Editions, and unlimited virtual instances for Datacenter Edition with the purchase of a license of Windows Server 2008).

APIs, Specifications, and How-To

Webcasts

Australian customers using Hyper-V

Deeps — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 06:27:08 GMT

Have a look at some of the stories of customers using Hyper-V in their organisation.

WorleyParsons Hyper-V Case Study

Engineering Services Company Reduces Hardware, Support Costs With Virtualization
Headquartered in Australia, WorleyParsons provides professional services to the energy, resource, and complex process industries. WorleyParsons has grown revenue from AU$0.5 billion to $3.5 billion (U.S.$0.48 billion to $3.3 billion) over the past five years. The company relies on an agile and flexible IT infrastructure to deliver the expanding business applications required for sustaining growth, and it is deploying Windows Server® 2008 Hyper-V™ to help reduce the growing costs associated with rapid global expansion. Microsoft® System Center Virtual Machine Manager will help simplify server management and the physical to virtual server conversion as WorleyParsons converts 50 percent of its physical servers to virtual servers. This conversion is expected to reduce hardware costs and space requirements, improve server management, and facilitate faster deployment of applications.

Telstra Business Systems Hyper-V Case Study

IT Integration Services Company Increases Network Performance While Reducing Costs
Telstra Business Systems, an Australian provider of IT integration and management solutions, needed to improve the performance of its own enterprise network. Because of increased business from new customers, government agencies, and business partners, the performance of the network was reduced. To resolve this, Telstra Business Systems upgraded its server software to Windows Server® 2008 and used features such as Read-Only Domain Controllers and Hyper-V™ server virtualization. Since the upgrade, the company has significantly improved network performance to continue its excellent customer service levels to customers. It has also reduced costs by consolidating servers. In addition, IT administrators spend less time on routine maintenance and more time improving the system and responding to customer calls.

University of Canberra Hyper-V Case Study

Virtualization Halves Management Effort for Campus Technology Support
Established in 1968 the University of Canberra delivers education to approximately 10,000 students in a technology-leading environment. However, the university’s IT department was constrained by the effort required to maintain network security and the time it took to commission new servers and maintain its existing large server environment. IT staff did not have the resources to explore or implement new technology services that the university wanted to retain premium technology support for its teaching. In 2008, the university installed Microsoft® Windows Server® 2008. As a result, servers could be configured faster, and firewalls were easier to install and were more effective. In addition, by utilising Hyper-V virtualisation functionality, the university drastically reduced its server hardware requirements and server environment maintenance needs.

Are you using Hyper-V? We want to know plus there are some Veek shirts up for grabs

Deeps — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 07:05:58 GMT

Are you using Hyper-V? (preferably in production or business critical environments). We want to know because we have some great media opportunities for you at TechEd this year. We have some limited edition Veek shirts to giveaway for those of you using Hyper-V in a production environment.

Send Rosemary (She’s the Product Manager for Windows Server) an email at rostark@microsoft.com with your Hyper-V information.

Windows Server Hyper-V is available for Download

Deeps — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 03:31:00 GMT

Hyper-V has been released to manufacturing and ready for download here. It will also be available through Windows Update soon.

I was also reading a good story about BMW Dealerships going Virtual across the world with upgrade plans to Windows Server 2008 64-bit and Hyper-V.

Dont forget to check out our Virtualization coverage at TechEd Australia this year.

A First Look at Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V

Deeps — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 05:09:00 GMT

Windows IT Pro have put up their first look at Hyper-V technology.

"Microsoft’s Hyper-V is an evolutionary technology that can complement or go beyond the virtualization approach of Virtual Server 2005 R2. Hyper-V’s new microkernel, hypervisor-based solution delivers better performance, more features and functionality, and improved scalability over Virtual Server 2005 R2. These advances level the playing field with VMware’s market leader, ESX Server. The fact that Server 2008 introduces Windowsnative virtualization in the form of Hyper-V is sure to drive the adoption of virtualization in organizations of all sizes. And Hyper-V will help drive the adoption of Server 2008. The price and easy accessibility make moving to Hyper-V virtualization especially attractive for small and medium businesses (SMBs). Plus ESX Server’s more difficult Linux-style administration and higher price deters many SMBs."

http://www.windowsitpro.com/Windows/Articles/ArticleID/97857/pg/1/1.html

Definitely worth a read if you are considering Virtualization in your IT environment. Don't forget there will be a Virtualization session at the upcoming Heroes Happen 2008 events.

Early Xmas Pressie - Hyper-V Beta

Deeps — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 02:19:40 GMT

This Beta version has more features and capabilities not available in the previous Community Technology Preview of Hyper-V:

Quick Migration
High Availability
Server Core role
Server Manager Integration

Download it today or Learn more about it

Yes, that is a Pac-man xmas tree...

Microsoft Hyper-V Server

Deeps — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 06:04:00 GMT

Sounds fancy doesn't it? Its the official name for our Microsoft server virtualization technology, previously known as "Viridian". This was just announced at the recent TechEd IT forum in Barcelona. Hyper-V technology will be included in Windows Server 2008 when it launches and there will be a stand-alone virtualization server called Hyper-V Server.

What is Hyper-V Server?
Microsoft Hyper-V Server, a hypervisor-based server virtualisation product, complements the Hyper-V technology within Windows Server 2008, allowing customers to consolidate workloads onto a single physical server. In addition, Microsoft Hyper-V Server will increase original equipment manufacturer (OEM) partners’ ability to offer customers simplified, reliable and cost-effective virtualisation solutions that can easily plug in to their existing infrastructure. Partners including Dell Inc, Fujitsu Siemens Computers, Fujitsu Ltd, Hitachi Ltd, HP, IBM Corp, Lenovo, NEC Corp and Unisys are already committed to working with Microsoft to offer solutions based on Microsoft Hyper-V Server once it is available. The estimated manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP) for Microsoft Hyper-V Server is $28 (US).

Notice the price point. Nice.

A customer technology preview of Windows Server Hyper-V is now available as part of Windows Server RC0.

Here is a short video demo of Hyper-V (I don't know about the background music in this one!)

Read more about it here or subscribe to the Virtualization Blog