Microsoft Releases the First Beta for Virtual Server 2005 R2 Service Pack 1

Microsoft has released the first of two betas planned for its Virtual Server 2005 R2 service pack 1 product.

Virtual Server 2005 R2 service pack 1 will support AMD Virtualization and Intel Virtualization Technology, giving customers better interoperability, strengthened isolation to prevent corruption of one virtual machine from affecting others on the same system, as well as improved performance for non-Windows guest operating systems.

Beta 1 of Virtual Server 2005 R2 service pack 1, which was released for download and testing on April 28, includes Intel Virtualization Technology compatibility, as well as a host clustering technical white paper and the VB script, Microsoft said in a statement released April 28.

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The beta is available for download at Microsofts Web site.

To read more about how the leading Linux vendors are baking virtualization into their operating systems, click here.

The second beta is scheduled for the last quarter of 2006, and is expected to include AMD Virtualization Technology compatibility, the Volume Shadow Service as well as Active Directory integration and management features.

General availability of the final product is slated for the first quarter of 2007. More than 5,000 customers are using Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 for server consolidation, disaster recovery, re-hosting of legacy applications, and software test and development.

Earlier this month, Microsoft announced a technical product support model for Linux guest operating systems running on Virtual Server 2005 R2, that Virtual Server 2005 R2 was available as a free download, and that virtual machine add-ins were available for Linux.

Click here to read more about Microsofts decision to make its Virtual Server free.

Since then, there have been 155,000 free downloads of Virtual Server 2005 R2 and more than 5,000 download registrants for the virtual machine add-ins for Linux guest operating system, the company said.

Microsoft also said that when chairman and chief software architect Bill Gates delivers his keynote at the annual WinHEC (Windows Hardware Engineering Conference) in Seattle later this month, he will talk about the future of Windows and the industry opportunities for the Windows platform.

Other Microsoft executives, including Will Poole, the senior vice president of its market expansion group, and Bob Muglia, the senior vice president of its server and tools business, will also talk about Windows Vista, Windows Server "Longhorn" and future versions of Microsoft products.

The show, largely geared toward Microsofts partner hardware engineering community, is where Redmond talks about what is sees as driving the future engineering and business directions of PC and device hardware.

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