“Friday the 13th?”
No.. I’m talking about the availability of a new Beta (“New Beta?” Yeah, I know.. redundant):
System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2.
This beta is full of features that coincide with the up-coming version of Windows Server 2008 (Windows Server 2008 R2) and the new Hyper-V therein (also currently in Beta). Many of the new features of Hyper-V, and benefits of new clustering capabilities, will need and greatly benefit from improvements in SCVMM.
“So what are the new features?”
The following comes from an e-mail from a Principal Program Manager Lead…
Key new features in R2
Live Migration support
- Windows 2008 R2 supports Live migration, and now so does SCVMM 2008 R2.
Clustered Shared Volumes (CSV) support
- Ability to place multiple VMs on a single LUN is a key customer request that is enabled by CSV.
SAN enhancements:
- SAN migration in and out of clusters
- Multiple LUNs per single iSCSI target which provides support for iSCSI products from Network Appliance and EMC.
Networking enhancements:
- Support for VMQ & Chimney
- Support for MAC spoofing
- Support for reusable port groups in VMWare VirtualCenter.
Maintenance mode support
- Maintenance mode is supported across all platforms: Hyper-V, VS and VMWare ESX hosts
- Putting a host in maintenance mode, triggers evacuation of all VMs on the host via live migration on Windows 2008 R2 and VMWare.
- PRO migrations to the host are disabled.
Disjoint domains support
BITS compact server support
“Where do I go to get it?”
You can download either the full install or a pre-built VHD from https://connect.microsoft.com/site/sitehome.aspx?SiteID=799
And if you want help with the beta you should definitely participate in the public forums for SCVMM.
Absolutely Full of I.T. 