Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1 Released
If you're a virtual server user, you've probably been waiting anxiously for this upgrade. Arlindo's Blog gives a nice run-down of what's changed with this upgrade:
Support for Hardware-Assisted Virtualization
Support for additional guest and host operating systems
VHD Mount command-line tool and APIs
Improved scalability support (Up to 256 GB of memory, Up to 512 VMs etc)
Interoperability with Volume Shadow Copy Service
Service Publication using Active Directory Service Connection Points
Installation of Linux guests on a SCSI virtual hard drive
Default size increased to 127 GB for dynamically expanding virtual hard disks
VMRC ActiveX control now uses the Internet Explorer Security Zones
Host clustering whitepaper
Of these, the one of particular use for most admins is going to be...
...the support for Hardware-assisted virtualization. These are the Intel VT extensions. AMD has a set of extensions as well, but I'm not sure how well those extensions are going to work with this iteration of the software.
If you're out to purchase new hardware (workstation or server) you definitely want to get a processor class that supports VT. That hardware is typically the chipset that is above E6000 for Intel Core Duo and Q6000 for Quad. The change in performance is substantial.
Get the SP1 upgrade at:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/eval/virtualserver/default.mspx
Check out Arlindo's full post at:
http://blogs.technet.com/aralves/archive/2007/06/11/virtual-server-2005-r2-sp1-release-to-web.aspx
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