WSv (Viridian) Now Available!

The Preview Release ("pre-beta" quality) of Windows Server Virtualization (WSv) is now available as part of Windows Server 2008 RC0. See John Howard's Blog for details on installing the Virtualization Role in RC0 (US English ONLY at this point.) Even though this is pre-beta quality, it's a solid and useful release. I've currently got 8 VMs up and running on it on my HP ProLiant ML350 G5 Server - a GW Server 2008 (32-bit) with 1GB of RAM, two domain controllers (Server 2008, one 64-bit, on 32-bit, each with 2 GB of RAM assigned), a Terminal Server (Server 2008 64-bit with 4 GB of RAM and 2 CPUs assigned), a 32-bit Server Core(1GB), an XP SP2 client, an XP x64 client, and a Vista 64bit client.

Total RAM utilization on the HP is 13 GB, and so far I'm not hurting on CPU either. Guest speed is quite acceptable, and I haven't had any issues with crashing so far. IOW, it's pretty darn stable. Unfortunately, at this point, there's no support for the new equivalent of VMAdditions in the client OSs. This is something that must change by ship if there is to be any hope of displacing VMWare.

All in all, a good, solid, initial preview. I'd strongly suggest folks grab the RC0 release, which should be on MSDN and TechNet by now, or very shortly, and start playing with the new WSv. It's a big step forward for MS. And does seamless 64bit guests, something I've been really missing.

Charlie.