Hyper-V has RTM'd!
I've been waiting for this day since December 2007! Effective 6/26/2008 9:00 am PST, Hyper-V for Server 2008 has reached Released to Manufacturing (RTM) status . I've been using the beta bits of Hyper-V since last summer and I've been very pleased with the progress I've seen over the last 12 months. I'm running three multi-core machines and System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 (still in beta), the combination is absolutely killer! The thing I really like about Hyper-V is that it runs on normal (64-bit) Server 2008 hardware. The hardware requirements are a 64 bit chip that includes the virtualization functionality. Almost every multi-core chip is in this category, but there were some of the initial x64 chips and even some of the dual core chips that do not support virtualization. Be sure to check your chip. AMD has a good tool you can run against your CPU to see if it's Hyper-V ready. Check it out here, the test utility is the third choice down. It's titled something obscure like "AMD Virtualization™ Technology and Microsoft® Hyper-V™ System Compatibility Check Utility" <smirk>. Hyper-V also runs on Intel and AMD, one of my three multi-core machines has an Intel Zeon CPU in it.
I think the greatest part about the RTM of Hyper-V is that now more people will start deploying it. It is an awesome product and it helps to continue to extend your infrastructure in a cost effective way. The other great thing is that some of our other solutions that have been waiting on the RTM of Hyper-V, can now move towards their RTM. Two prime Microsoft products are DPM and System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM). I'll keep talking about virtualization, but I wanted to make this announcement short and sweet.
How do you get the RTM bits? Around noon PST today, the Hyper-V bits will be available for download on the Microsoft download site. I say around noon because we post the bits and then they replicate globally. The bits will be available via Windows Update on July 8th. Our plan has always been to ship the Hyper-V bits via Windows Update, so you can get it now, or get it later.
Until next time!
Rob