Microsoft Virtual Server

Microsoft Virtual Server

Developer(s)	Microsoft
Stable release	Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1 / June 11, 2007; 4 years ago (2007-06-11)
Operating system	Microsoft Windows
Type	Virtual machine
License	Proprietary
Website	Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2

Microsoft Virtual Server is a virtualization solution that facilitates the creation of virtual machines on the Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows Server 2003 operating systems. Originally developed by Connectix, it was acquired by Microsoft prior to release. Virtual PC is Microsoft's related desktop virtualization software package.

Virtual machines are created and managed through an IIS web-based interface or through a Windows client application tool called VMRCplus.

The current version is Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1. New features in R2 SP1 include Linux guest operating system support, Virtual Disk Precompactor, SMP (but not for the Guest OS), x86-64 (x64) Host OS support (but not Guest OS support), the ability to mount virtual hard drives on the host OS and additional operating systems, including Windows Vista. It also provides a Volume Shadow Copy writer which enables live backups of the Guest OS on a Windows Server 2003 or Windows Server 2008 Host. A utility to mount VHD images is also included since SP1. Virtual Machine Additions for Linux are downloadable here. Officially supported Linux guest operating systems include Red Hat Enterprise Linux versions 2.1-5.0, Red Hat Linux 9.0, SUSE Linux and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server versions 9 and 10.^[1]

Virtual Server has been superseded by Hyper-V.

Version history

Microsoft acquired an unreleased Virtual Server from Connectix in February 2003. The initial release of Microsoft's Virtual Server, general availability, was announced on September 13, 2004.^[2]

Virtual Server 2005, was available in two editions: Standard and Enterprise. The Enterprise edition supported more processors.

On 2006-04-03, Microsoft made Virtual Server 2005 R2 Enterprise Edition a free download,^[3] in order to better compete with the free virtualization offerings from VMware and Xen, and discontinued the Standard Edition.^[4]

Microsoft Virtual Server R2 SP1 added support for both Intel VT (IVT) and AMD Virtualization (AMD-V).^[5]

Limitations

Known limitations of Virtual Server, as of September 2007^[update], include the following:

• Although Virtual Server 2005 R2 can run on hosts with x86-64 processors, it cannot run x64 guests that require x86-64 processors (guests cannot be 64-bit).^[3]
• It also makes use of SMP, but does not virtualize it (it does not currently allow guests to use more than 1 CPU each).^[3]
• Performance may suffer due to the way the instruction set is virtualized in this platform, with very limited direct interaction with the host hardware.^[6][7]

See also

• Hypervisor
• Virtual disk image
• Virtual appliance
• x86 virtualization

References

1. ^ Linux Guest Support for Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1
2. ^ "Virtual Server 2005". Microsoft Press Release. 2004-09-13. http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2004/sep04/09-13availabilityvs2005pr.mspx. Retrieved 2009-07-02. 
3. ^ ^{a b c} "Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1 Download Frequently Asked Questions". Microsoft TechNet. 2007-06-11. http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserversystem/virtualserver/software/faq.mspx#EIB. Retrieved 2007-10-15. 
4. ^ Microsoft Virtual Server is now free
5. ^ "Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1 Product Overview". Microsoft TechNet. 2007-06-11. http://www.microsoft.com/technet/virtualserver/evaluation/vsoverview.mspx#EMC. Retrieved 2007-08-24. 
6. ^ "Benchmarking VMware ESX Server 2.5 vs Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 Enterprise Edition". Virtualization Benchmark Review. 2006-04-19. http://capitalhead.com/articles/benchmarking-vmware-esx-server-25-vs-microsoft-virtual-server-2005-enterprise-edition.aspx. Retrieved 2009-06-11. 
7. ^ "Benchmarking Microsoft Virtual Server 2005". Benchmarking Microsoft Virtual Server 2005. 1900-1-0. http://capitalhead.com/articles/benchmarking-microsoft-virtual-server-2005.aspx. Retrieved 2009-06-16. 

External links

• Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1
• System requirements for Microsoft Virtual Server 2005
• Benchmarking VMware ESX Server 2.5 vs Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 Enterprise Edition
• HyperAdmin: Microsoft Virtual Server Management
• System Center Virtual Machine Manager
• Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2 Resource Kit Book
• Benchmarking Microsoft Virtual Server 2005
• Microsoft Server Virtualization for government agencies