Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 Available for Download

Microsoft is now making "Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008" available for download.  Unlike the Hyper-V role-based virtualization that’s available under Windows Server 2008, the Hyper-V Server product does not require a host operating system to run under.  This puts it more in-line with products like VMWare’s ESXi product, also a free download.  Neither requires a parent (host) operating system to run under and both are administered via remote management interfaces now.

According to the Microsoft site, Hyper-V Server 2008 is ideal for "basic server consolidation, branch office consolidation and hosted desktop virtualization (VDI)".  It’s pointed out that customers wanting large memory support (>32GB of RAM) and more than 4 processors on the host server should use Windows Server 2008 + Hyper-V.

I’ll go through the motions of installing the new Hyper-V Server on a dev box later on and try to post a webcast of the process.

Doug White