Microsoft ready to ship Virtual Server
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Product will allow a server to run multiple operating systems, or multiple copies of the same operating system at a single time
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The long-awaited update to Microsoft's virtualization software was released Monday. Virtual PC 2007 brings support for Windows Vista -- as both a guest and host operating system -- and takes advantage of new hardware virtualization technology from both Intel and AMD.
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Availability, licensing and promises revealed Microsoft's virtualization team has finally stirred as the market gears up for VMworld next week. A bundle of announcements today include a virtulization management software released to manufacturing, solidified pricing and licensing, and promises for future versions.â¦
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(InfoWorld) - Microsoft and Novell will enable virtualization for each other's server operating systems as part of the companies' ongoing alliance to make Windows and Linux more interoperable. Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2 Service Pack 1 will let users host Novell's Suse Linux Enterprise Server 10 as a virtualized guest, and the next version of Windows Server, code-named Longhorn, will have the ability to host Novell's Linux OS as an enlightened guest using built-in virtualization technology. In turn, Suse Linux Enterprise Sever 10, using Xen virtualization technology that is embedded in the OS, will be able to host Longhorn as a paravirtualized guest. Enlightenment and paravirtualization are different terms that describe similar, but not identical, techniques to improve performance. An enlightened guest OS is modified to make it aware it's running on Windows Server virtualization. A paravirtualized guest OS is modified to make it aware it's running on the Xen hypervisor. A virtualized guest OS running on Virtual Server 2005 R2 does not require modifications to make it aware it's running in a virtual machine. Thus, it is not "enlightened" or "paravirtualized." Longhorn, the long-awaited update to Windows Server, is due in the second half of 2007. Virtualization is just one of four key areas on which the companies said Monday they will focus their collaborative efforts this year. The other areas are Web services-based network management, directory interoperability, and document format interoperability. In the Web services-based management area, Microsoft and Novell said that they will both incorporate WS-Management (Web services for management) in their products to enable OS management through Web services. Novell ZENworks Orchestrator and Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007 will both support WS-Management this year. WS-Management is a specification of a Web services-based protocol for the management of servers, devices, and applications. Microsoft, Intel, Dell, and other companies published the spec in March 2005, and it was ratified by the Distributed Management Task Force for adoption as a preliminary standard in August 2006. Novell also is working to develop an open-source implementation of WS-Management, the company said. Microsoft and Novell already have introduced technologies to make communication between the global standard file format for office documents, ODF (Open Document Format for XML), and the default file format in Microsoft Office 2007, Open XML, easier. On Feb. 2, Microsoft announced the availability of theÂ Open XML/ODF TranslatorÂ for Office 2007, Office 2003, and Office XP. Later this month, Novell will release an Open XML/ODF Translator for the Novell edition of the OpenOffice.org open-source productivity suites. On the directory and identity-management fronts, both companies continue to work on technologies to make their offerings in these areas interoperate, but they have not announced specific progress yet. Microsoft and Novell said they will offer a more detailed roadmap for how their directory and identity management products will interoperate later this year. As part of the deal struck in March, Novell and Microsoft agreed, among other things, to co-develop technologies that would help Novell's Suse Linux and Microsoft's Windows OSes interoperate more seamlessly. The alliance between the two -- particularly Novell's payment to Microsoft for patents -- has inspired much controversy. Novell especially seems to have lost some credibility within the open-source community for joining forces with the proprietary software giant.
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Updated guidelines make clearer how to use Windows Server with third-party virtualization tools including VMware -- but that will all likely change before too long.
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Hoping to keep the heat on archrival Microsoft, VMware on Wednesday will give developers a glimpse of an early version of its Virtual SMP product that allows a single virtual machine to work with as many as four processors, which in turn can more effectively drive mission-critical applications.
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Microsoft has announced the imminent availability of Host Integration Server 2004 in a bid to compete with IBM&#39;s WebSphere.
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At VMware's user conference, server vendors lined up to pledge support for a "thin hypervisor" version of the company's virtualization software that can be built directly into systems.
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Microsoft Thursday did something it rarely does. The company released a beta for a long-awaited technology -- in this case its Windows Server 2008 virtualization technology Hyper-V -- ahead of schedule.Hyper-V, formerly code-named &quot;Viridian,&quot; is now available for download from Microsoft&#39;s Web site and is ready to be used with the current x64 beta version of Windows Server 2008, which is also available online. The technology, called a hypervisor, is the underlying virtualization technology for the server release, which is a major update that&#39;s expected to be released on Feb. 27, 2008. A beta of Hyper-V originally was planned to be released on that date as well.Virtualization, or the ability to use virtual machine technology to run multiple OSes on a physical server, is widely seen as a disruptive technology and is becoming increasingly important as companies seek to cut costs and consolidate hardware in their data centers and IT environments. Microsoft had originally intended to release Hyper-V as part of the original release Windows Server 2008, but the technology was delayed and is now scheduled to be generally available 180 days, or about six months, after Windows Server 2008 ships. Hyper-V&#39;s released was delayed earlier this year because Microsoft opted to pull out some originally planned features.Hyper-V takes advantage of virtualization-optimized microprocessors from Intel and&#160;AMD and is meant to help Microsoft compete with virtualization leader VMware, which already has hypervisor technology on the market. Hypervisors allow for cross-platform support so servers can run multiple versions of different OSes -- such as Windows and Linux -- side by side on one piece of hardware.Bill Hilf, general manager of Windows Server at Microsoft, said customers have been asking the company for a built-in virtualization technology that works directly within the Windows Server environment so it&#39;s easy to manage and implement. By design, Hyper-V is set up as what Microsoft calls a &quot;role&quot; within Windows Server 2008, and can be turned on or off as a customer wishes, he said. Roles are a new feature of the forthcoming release of the OS that allow servers to be set up so only the role or roles a customer wants them to play in the IT environment -- such as e-mail server or application server -- will be turned on.Mike Neal, general manager of virtualization at Microsoft, said Hyper-V is meant to make the virtualization market &quot;a two-horse race&quot; between Microsoft and VMware. However, with Hyper-V not scheduled to ship until the second half of next year, the company has a lot of ground to make up to topple VMware from its leadership position. And Microsoft also faces pressure in providing built-in OS virtualization from Linux leader Red Hat, which already has integrated cross-platform virtualization into Red Hat Enterprise Linux.Windows Server 2008 eventually will be available in multiple editions and will be offered with and without Hyper-V. Microsoft also plans to release a product called Microsoft Hyper-V Server specifically as a virtualization host environment in the second half of 2008.
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Microsoft is now seeking beta testers for its Windows Home Server software, which was unveiled last month at the Consumer Electronics Show and is set to ship before September.
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Microsoft Corp. plans a Dec. 1 release for the latest version of its server software that aims to give companies more secure instant messaging and other corporate communications tools.
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Microsoft (Quote, Chart) is ready to ship Host Integration Server 2004, offering a Windows interface to mainframes and legacy applications.
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NEC Solutions has announced a four-way, high-availability server it&#39;s pitching to enterprises as, among other things, the hardware to host virtual systems such as those made possible by Microsoft&#39;s upcoming Virtual Server 2005.
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Microsoft announces steps it says will help business customers take advantage of a technology called virtualization, including a change in policy to allow all versions of Windows Vista to be virtualized.
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(InfoWorld) - The long march to the release of Windows Server 2008, aka Longhorn Server, continued on Monday, as Microsoft announced that it is making the first Release Candidate version of the upcoming operating system available for public download. Microsoft said that RC0, as it's being called by the software vendor, will become available on its Web site within the next 24 hours -- replacing the Beta 3 release that it has been offering to early users. RC0 is the first pre-release version to include a built-in virtualization hypervisor, which is code named Viridian. But Ward Ralston, senior technical product manager for Microsoft's Windows Server group, noted that the hypervisor component "is not yet in beta" and is thus less mature than the rest of Windows Server 2008. Microsoft declared as long ago as April that the OS itself was basically "feature-complete." In contrast, the hypervisor, which will compete with technology from server virtualization market leader VMware, will still be in Community Technology Preview form when Windows Server 2008 ships in next year's first quarter, Ralston said. A finished version of the hypervisor will be ready within six months of the operating system's release, he added. IT managers who have been testing earlier versions of Windows Server 2008 as part of Microsoft's Technology Adoption Program say they're largely impressed with the OS, though not without some reservations. Robbie Roberts, IT manager at Windrush Frozen Foods, an Oxford, England-based fine foods importer, has been using Windows Server 2008 in live applications for the past two months to run his company's rights management services and its print servers as well as a portal based on Microsoft's SharePoint Server 2007 software. With just a two-person IT team that oversees 25 Windows servers, Roberts considers automation and ease of use to be his highest priorities. Windows Server 2008 is delivering on both those counts, he said. "The worst thing they could have done is totally redesign the [operating system] so that there would be a huge learning curve," Roberts said. Instead, "the user interface is cleaner while keeping it as similar as they could." Small things, such as the ability to reduce the number of Windrush's domain controllers through the use of Windows Server 2008, also are helping to boost the performance of the company's servers, Roberts said. He added that bugs haven't been an issue with the software. "We were involved in the Windows Server 2003 rollout, and we had tons of problems," he said. "We absolutely expected tons of problems with Windows Server 2008. But -- hand on heart -- we've had none. We found running Vista more difficult than Windows Server 2008." The main problem Roberts did encounter was in getting SharePoint, in particular its Excel Services feature, to run properly with the new operating system. But that turned out to be due to a problem with SharePoint, he said. Windrush currently uses VMware's virtualization software, and that product's "features and performance are great," Roberts said. "But I'm a GUI type person, so I don't like using the command line in Linux." He plans to try testing Microsoft's Windows Server Virtualization hypervisor as soon as he can. Roberts also plans to move the rest of his Microsoft applications onto Windows Server 2008 as soon as possible, except for Office Communications Server, which he said is not yet supported by the operating system. Longhorn beta testing feedback The government of Georgia's Fulton County, where Atlanta is located, has been testing Windows Server 2008 for almost three years. Before installing the operating system, the county's biggest need was tighter security, according to Keith Dickie, its assistant director of IT. For instance, he said that the county's libraries are under constant attack from hackers via the Internet as well as the public access terminals located inside library branches. "With Windows Server 2003, it's hard to figure out what ports need to be open or closed," Dickie said. By comparison, Windows Server 2008 has made it easier for county IT staffers to lock down unused ports and manage network firewalls with domain controllers. Workers have even been able to make the domain controllers read-only, so "if somebody hacks that box, they can't take it over," Dickie said. Overall, he added, "we're able to reduce the surface area of attack." Similarly, Microsoft's NAP (Network Access Protection) technology, a new feature in Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista, is enabling Fulton County to block insecure servers and client systems -- think teleworkers whose systems haven't been properly updated -- from accessing its network. "We tried to do this with Active Directory and domain policies. But now we can really enforce what used to be just a paper policy," said James Tabor, the county's network administrator. NAP also will become available in the Service Pack 3 release of Windows XP, which is due in the first quarter of next year. That will let Fulton County "buy more time" before upgrading PCs from Windows XP to Vista, Tabor said. The main detriment to Windows Server 2008 cited by Fulton County officials is a lack of support for the operating system by key third-party applications. For instance, the county's VoIP and unified messaging systems rely on Cisco's CallManager 4.1 software, which the county bought a little over six months ago. But CallManager 4.1 runs only on Windows 2000 Server, according to Jay Terrell, Fulton County's deputy director of IT. Also, the country has had to run Internet Information Services 7.0 in Windows Server 2003 compatibility mode on systems running Windows Server 2008 in order to get some Web applications to work properly. As a result, the county doesn't expect to move most of its third-party applications to Windows Server 2008 until a year from now, Terrell said. "We're not rushing to put anything into production that would hurt our users," he noted. In contrast, Quixtar, which sells health and beauty products online through a network of independent business owners, is running Windows Server 2008 in production mode with Active Directory and on Web servers that are based on IIS 7.0 -- although in the latter case, it is using the Windows Server 2003 compatibility mode like Fulton County. Matt Behrens, supervisor for IT infrastructure at Grand Rapids, Mich.-based Quixtar, said that with Active Directory, the biggest improvement has been in the time it takes to replicate the database. "What used to take five to six days now takes four to five hours," Behrens said. The operating system's password policies also have been improved, according to Behrens. He said that with Windows Server 2008, he can require that workers with administrator-level access to systems create much more difficult-to-crack passwords than lower-level users must have. As for IIS 7.0, Steve Cole, who heads Quixtar's Web operations, said that once the company got past some bugs in the Web server software in the first two beta releases of the OS, it hasn't had any further application compatibility issues. He added, though, that his staff has "had to do a fair amount of reconfiguration as it's a completely new architecture." Cole likes new administration features in IIS 7.0. "It's doing things that we'd been wishing for for years," he said. But for now, raw performance on returning requested information to end-users is only about as good as Quixtar was seeing with IIS 6.0. "Our goal is to see this get at least 15 percent better, and at least 20 percent better in terms of (processing) capacity," Cole said. "Microsoft knows that's on the top of our list." Microsoft also said that an RC0 version of its Windows Media Services 2008 software is being made available for download, as well as a Community Technology Preview release of the IIS 7.0 Media Pack.
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InfoWorld - Microsoft&#39;s first server OS aimed at helping Windows users organize and share files on a home network is nearly ready for prime time.
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Microsoft's in an unusual place in the server virtualization market: second. But Thursday's unveiling of a system management platform for virtualized systems could make a difference as the competition heats up.