In beginning of August 2008 we finalized testing of compatibility of Microsoft Dynamics NAV 4.0 SP3 and Microsoft Dynamics NAV 5.0 SP1 with Microsoft Windows Server 2008 and we are ready to announce that test results were positive and Microsoft Dynamics NAV now runs on Microsoft Dynamics Windows Server 2008. The only product update to be aware of applies for customers who take advantage of Business Notification and / or Commerce Gateway functionality. In these customer cases it is necessary to update the solution with the KB Article no 956161 requirements if customers wish to run on Microsoft Windows Server 2008.

You can find more info regarding Microsoft Dynamics NAV and Windows 2008 here

We are currently running test for Microsoft Dynamics NAV 4.0 SP3 and Microsoft Dynamics NAV 5.0 SP1 to be able to announce the compatibility with Microsoft SQL Server 2008. When there is more news regarding this subject, you can find it here

Dynamics NAV 2009 will be SQL 2008 and Windows 2008 compatible out of the box.

Edit on September 4th:

Dynamics NAV 5.0 does not support Windows 2008 x64. Only the x86 version is supported.

Since the release of Hyper-V there have been several important updates. (Updates till September 2008)

The following table provides an overview of when to use which update.

More info on KB articles related to Hyper-V on (in the community section):
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc754747.aspx

Thanks to our colleague Joachim Gomard for providing a lot of the content.

The Style Sheet feature in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 5.0 has been enhanced with a tool that allows you to easily and without programming knowledge create and modify style sheets in Microsoft Office Word. This tool is on the market now for quite some time now, but it is still worth mentioning, and above all, it is still worth using.

The release of Microsoft Dynamics NAV 5.0 introduced the option to export any form (apart from matrix forms) from Microsoft Dynamics NAV to Microsoft Office Word and Excel. By simply clicking a button, Microsoft Dynamics NAV will generate an XML document that works in conjunction with an XML style sheet that passes the requested information to either Word or Excel.

Seven style sheets are included in Microsoft Dynamics NAV. You can read about these in the White Paper ‘Creating XML Style Sheets for Data Export from Microsoft Dynamics NAV 5.0’. However, if you want to create more style sheets or modify an existing one, you need to have knowledge of XML and C/AL programming in order to add the relevant data elements.

To simplify this process, a style sheet tool has been created that does not require programming knowledge. The first version of this tool will support the export of data to Word, and this means that the only skill required to create additional style sheets is some end-user knowledge of Word.

The Microsoft Dynamics NAV Stylesheet Tool supports integration to Microsoft Word 2003 and Microsoft Word 2007.

It consists of a fob file and a user guide.

You can download it here

The parent partition, also known as the root partition, is the partition from which you manage Hyper-V. Besides running child partitions or Virtual Machines, you can install and run applications in the parent partition as well. This however is a bad idea as the parent partition is unlike other Virtual Machines. It is a special Virtual Machine in that it is able to manage other Virtual Machines and it handles all IO of the other Virtual Machines. So technically it is possible to use it as a typical Virtual Machine but it is highly recommended to only use it for Hyper-V management.

The story changes when you reach the maximum allowed number of instances for the Windows Server 2008 edition you purchased. The rights you have with using the Windows Server 2008 edition is outlined in the Product Use Rights document. Product use Rights can be downloaded here in various languages.

When you reach the maximum allowed number of instances of the edition you purchased, you are not allowed to run arbitrary applications in the parent partition. The document states the following:

“If running the maximum allowed instances, the instance in the physical operating system environment may only be used to run hardware virtualization software, provide hardware virtualization services, or run software to manage and service operating system environments on the licensed server.”

In the case of Windows Server 2008 Enterprise Edition, you obtain the right to run one instance on the physical machine and four instances in Virtual Machines. When you reach the maximum of four Virtual Machines, the parent can basically only be used to manage those four Virtual Machines. Software in the parent partition for any other purpose than stated above may not be used.

Looking at the evolution of server virtualization it's obvious that it's starting to become a commodity technology and it's on everybody's mind.

What we notice a lot in the field is that often different technologies are compared on a product/feature basis, but not on a platform/strategic basis.

Using server virtualization is a strategic choice, a platform choice!

Just as choosing your hardware and operating systems, the choice for server virtualization is a longer term choice. Every server is dependent on the server virtualization platform that enables your servers to be virtualized and cannot just be replaced by a different platform from one day to the next.

The way I look at server virtualization is that it should seamlessly integrate with the physical infrastructure in a way that it almost becomes transparent from a server management perspective. The fact that a server is actually virtualized shouldn't be anything more than a property of that specific server, nothing special!
An example:Should my database service report performance issues due to resource constraints, my management solution should be able to make an intelligent decision to move the server to a different host, a different host where these specific resources are available so sufficient resources are available for the service. Or that if my web server farm's resources are almost maxed out, my management solution can fire up the creation of new web servers on other hosts and add them to the farm.
This is seamless integration!

There shouldn't be a difference in the way physical or virtualized servers are managed. Not even if the physical server is a virtualization host!

The management solution needs to understand that that database server is running in a virtual machine and act accordingly if required.

The biggest differentiator for virtualization platforms in the coming years will be the way the virtualized infrastructure can be managed and how this integrates with the physical infrastructure.

That's is exactly what Microsoft's server virtualization platform offers using Windows Server 2008 with Hyper-V and the System Center product suite!

More on:

getVIRTUALnow

The Promise of Virtualization

Server Virtualization and System Center