Microsoft Virtual Server – Virtualization Solution on Windows Server

Microsoft Virtual Server, a virtualization solution for Windows server that helps to create virtual machines or enables multiple operating systems to run on a single physical server. The virtual machines are generally created and managed through an IIS web interface or Windows client application tool namely VMRCplus. Furthermore, Microsoft Virtual Server also run on both Intel VT IVT) and AMD Virtualization (AMD-V) technology.

The main aim of Microsoft Virtual Server is providing the best operating software platform for virtualization. Which it offers scalability, high performance as it supports guest multi processing support and 64 bit host and guest support. It offers reliability and security through its hypervisor architecture. It offers flexibility and manageability as it supports features like live migration of virtual machines from one physical host to another. It also offers dynamic addition of virtual resources and integration with System Virtual Machine Manager.

As current version that is being used is the Microsoft Virtual Server 2006 R2 SPI which Linux guest operating system are supported. Beside that, the latest Microsoft Virtual server also includes Virtual Disk Pre compactor, SMP, x85-64, Host OS support which has the ability to mount virtual hard drives on the host OS. Plus more, it also provides a volume shadow copy writer that greatly helps in live backups of the guest OS on a Windows Server 2003 or its Host.

Microsoft Virtual Server Key Features

• Virtual machine isolation: Virtual machine isolation ensures that if one virtual machine crashes or hangs, it cannot impact any other virtual machine or the host system. Maximum application compatibility is achieved through isolation. This allows customers to further leverage their existing storage, network and security infrastructures.
• Broad device compatibility: Virtual Server runs on Windows Server 2003 which supports most Windows Server Catalog devices, providing compatibility with a wide range of host system hardware.
• Multithreaded VMM: Virtual Server’s Virtual Machine Monitor provides the software infrastructure to create, manage and interact with virtual machines on multi processor hardware.
• Broad x86 guest OS compatibility: Virtual Server can run all major x86 operating systems in the virtual machine guest environment. Microsoft will also support specific distributions of Linux running in the virtual machine environment.
• iSCSI clustering: Flexible clustering scenarios provide high availability for mission-critical environments while improving patching and hardware maintenance processes. iSCSI clustering between physical hosts of Virtual Server 2005 R2 offers a cost-effective means of increasing server availability.
• x64 support: Virtual Server 2005 R2 runs on the following 64-bit host operating systems: Windows Server 2003 Standard x64 Edition, Windows Server 2003 Enterprise x64 Edition and Windows XP Professional x64 Edition providing increased performance & memory headroom.
• Comprehensive COM API: Enables complete scripted control of virtual machine environments. Virtual Server supports a full-featured Component Object Model (COM) Application Programming Interface (API) that contains 42 interfaces and hundreds of calls, allowing scripts to control nearly every aspect of the product.
• Virtual Hard Disks (VHDs): Virtual Server encapsulates virtual machines in portable Virtual Hard Disks, enabling flexible configuration, versioning and deployment.
• PXE Boot: The emulated network card in Virtual Server 2005 R2 now supports Pre-boot Execution Environment (PXE) boot. This network boot allows customers to provision their virtual machines in all of the same ways that they do their physical servers.
• Active Directory integration: Virtual machines in Virtual Server function the way you would expect a physical machine, offering full Active Directory integration. This level of integration enables delegated administration and secure, authenticated guest access.
• Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 Management Pack for Virtual Server: A management pack developed specifically for Virtual Server enables advanced management features within virtual machines.

Download Microsoft Virtual Server