Microsoft has launched the Server Virtualization Validation Program (SVVP) ( http://www.windowsservercatalog.com/svvp.aspx ). SVVP is open to any vendor that delivers a machine virtualization solution that hosts Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2008, Windows 2000 Server Service Pack 4 (SP4)and Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 (SP2) and subsequent service packs. The virtualization solution can either be hypervisor-based or a hosted solution. The program enables vendors to validate various

The release of Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V is eagerly anticipated, due in large part to the many excellent new features coming with this release. The following information provides an overview of the feature set (as announced) that we can expect to have at RTM. Live Migration This is probably the most compelling new feature and certainly the most anticipated in Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V. In a nutshell, live migration provides the ability to move running VMs from one physical host to another

In case you're interested in Exchange Server happenings, the Beta of Exchange Server 2010 has been released and you can download it now! Offer lower-cost, high-value communications solutions to your customers . Always an industry standard, Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 has been improved in three major ways. It is more flexible and reliable. And easier to deploy and administer. So it can save you and your customers money by reducing IT overhead and help-desk loads. Online options let you and

Here’s a free 26 minute video presentation (Learning Snack) from Microsoft to help you get up to speed with Windows 7. Free Learning Snack Offer: Introducing Windows 7 See the Windows 7 client operating system technologies and capabilities that reduce operating costs and improve performance, security, and reliability. This Learning Snack offer is a free, interactive presentation that can help you get up to speed quickly. There’s a lot more of these "Learning Snacks" like this

Have you ever seen the "Unsupported Guest OS" error message below when trying to stand up a Vista VM in Hyper-V? The error text reads: "An error has occurred: The specified program requires a newer version of Windows." Huh?...newer than Vista? Well, it turns out that this is only experienced with Vista RTM...not with an integrated SP1 build of Vista. While it's becoming less and less likely that you're working with just the RTM bits for Vista, it can come up for some folks

I've spoken to a lot of people who have expressed a lot of confusion about the OS licensing model when virtualizing systems using Hyper-V products. There are some simple guidelines to observe when planning your Hyper-V infrastructure to take advantage of the licensing models for each edition of Windows Server 2008. First, a term definition: Microsoft uses the term "OSE" to refer to an operating system environment, either physical or virtual. Also, Microsoft refers to a "processor"

How-To: Manipulate Hyper-V VM Symbolic Links (or How to Unregister and Register Virtual Machines without Deleting Them) Hyper-V operates using a list of symbolic links in a specific directory: · C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Hyper-V\Virtual Machines Each of these are links to the actual VM configuration files in their own respective subdirectories – whether stored locally or on shared storage, the link doesn’t change in its nature. All you need to know in order to control which

This post documents the steps necessary for moving the back-end SQL Server databases for your AD RMS installation to another SQL Server instance / server. The steps for successfully updating the AD RMS server nodes differ from the process used for Windows RMS as originally outlined in this TechNet article: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc747607.aspx This post is essentially a re-write of the article mentioned, with all the steps updated to reflect the correct procedure to follow for

I recently went through this procedure in my Test Lab environment, while planning for the Production implementation. Migrating from a much older version of Windows Rights Management Services (RMS) to Active Directory Rights Management Services (AD RMS), I was left with a couple of older RMS servers that needed to be manually removed from the RMS cluster. Here are the steps: Use the RMS Config Editor (part of the Rights Management Services Administration Toolkit with SP2): http://www.microsoft.com