Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V New Features - Provide Better Virtual Host Capabilities

The broadest improvements made by Microsoft to the virtual host capabilities of Hyper-V are the core functions added in to Windows Server 2008 that relate to security, performance, and reliability. However, the addition of a new virtual switch capability in Hyper-V provides greater flexibility in managing network communications among guest images, and between guest images and an organization’s internetworking infrastructure.

Effectively, Windows Server 2008 and Hyper-V leverage the built-in capabilities of Windows 2008 along with specific Hyper-V components to improve overall support, administration, management, and operations of a Hyper-V host server. When Hyper-V host server is joined to a Microsoft Active Directory environment, the host server can be managed and administered just like any other application server in the Active Directory environment. Security is centralized and managed through the use of Active Directory organizational units, groups, and user administrators. Monitoring of the Hyper-V host server and its guest sessions is done through the same tools organizations use to monitor and manage their existing Windows server systems.

Security policies, patch management policies, backup procedures, and the corresponding tools and utilities used to support other Windows server systems can be used to support the Hyper-V host server system. The Hyper-V host server becomes just another managed Windows server on the network.

Also important is the requirement for the Hyper-V host server to run on a 64-bit system, to not only take advantage of hardware-assisted virtualization processors like the AMD64 and Intel IA-32E and EM64T (x64) but also to provide more memory in the host server to distribute among guest sessions. When a 32-bit host server was limited to about 4GB of RAM memory, there weren’t too many ways to divide that memory among guest sessions in which guests could run any business application. With 64-bit host servers supporting 8GB, 16GB, 32GB, or more, however, guest sessions can easily take 4GB or 8GB of memory each and still leave room for other guest sessions, tasks, and functions.

Unlike multiple physical servers that might be connected to different network switches, the guest sessions on a Hyper-V host all reside within a single server. Therefore, the virtual switch capability built in to the Hyper-V Administration tool enables the Hyper-V administrator to create special network segments and associate virtual guest sessions to specific network adapters in the host server to ensure that virtual guests can be connected to network segments that meet the needs of the organization.

Source of Information : Sams - Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V Unleashed 08