Bare metal hypervisor is here, along with new training, services
"Bare metal" was my attempt at being dramatic ;-)
Anyway, I really wanted you to know that the standalone hypervisor, Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008, was released today for download. This is the no-cost, bare metal hypervisor. Think ESXi, but with Windows and not Linux. More on this in a bit. Today we also announced new virtualization training and certification program. You're qualified to take this training if you have Windows Server experience. Get more info here; I'm told the cost for training is dependent on the country, but generally ranges from US $90-$130. Click here if you need the currency conversion rate.
Before I get back to Hyper-V Server 2008 (and yes, it's different than Windows Server 2008 server core with Hyper-V), today's announcement also said that System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 will be released in a few weeks. The word is: "by end of October", and "there's still some more fine tuning and quality checks to do with early adopter customers." So net-net, SCVMM won't be released next week as announced here, but a couple weeks after.
So what exactly is Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008? Following are some bits I've collected that you might not see/read on the Web site or TechNet (or maybe you will).
- Hyper-V Server 2008 was built using the Windows hypervisor and other components, including base kernel and driver technologies. Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 shares kernel components with Windows Server 2008.
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Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 contains a sub-set of components that make up Server Core deployment option of Windows Server 2008, and has a similar interface and look and feel. But as you know, Server Core has roles like DNS, DHCP, file. Hyper-V Server 2008 is just virtualization.
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Because Hyper-V Server 2008 shares kernel components with Windows Server 2008, we don't expect special hardware drivers to be required to run Microsoft Hyper-V Server.
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The maximum number of guest instances that can run on Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 is 128 (of course this is dependent on the hardware, memory and workloads). Additionally, each guest OS must have a valid license.
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Hyper-V Server 2008 runs/upports all the guest OSes supported by its big brother, WS08 Hyper-V. See here for a complete list.
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Windows Server licenses are not included with Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008. Client access licenses (CALs) are only required for Windows Server and all Windows Server images that are virtualized, regardless of virtualization platform (e.g., ESXi). No CALs are required for Hyper-V Server 2008.
I hope this has helped. Check out the technical resources page for more.
Patrick
Update #1: as John pointed out in the comments, it took longer than expected for the download site to be ready for you to download this morning. Sorry about that.
Update #2: I was reminded that now that WS08 Hyper-V and MS Hyper-V Server support up to 24LP (see KB article 956710), that the actual maximum supported VMs is 192. This is assuming all 192 VMs are uni-processor.
Update #3: Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 will be available in the following languages:
- English (EN-US)
- German (DE-DE)
- Japanese (JA-JP)
- French (FR-FR)
- Spanish (ES-ES)
- Chinese Hong-Kong (ZH-HK)
- Chinese Simplified (ZH-CN)
- Korean (KO-KR)
- Portuguese (Brazil) (PT-BR)
- Chinese Traditional (ZH-TW)
- Italian (IT-IT)
- Russian (RU-RU)
Filed under: Windows Virtualization, Hyper-V, virtual machine, virtualization, Community, System Center Virtual Machine Manager, ESX, VMWare, System Center, Management tools, VMM 2008, Windows Server 2008
