HyperV Advances closer to VMware

Microsoft has just completed the RTM of Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 and Windows 7 SP1 which will be available for download on the 22nd of Feb.

In this post I want to talk about some major enhancements to Hyper V server.

The Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 hyper visor offers two new features - Dynamic Memory and RemoteFX.

Dynamic Memory takes Windows Server’s Hyper-V feature to a whole new level. Dynamic Memory lets you increase virtual machine density with the resources you already have—without sacrificing performance or scalability. In Microsoft's lab environment, Windows 7 SP1 as the guest operating system in a Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) scenario yeilded 40% increased density from Windows Server 2008 R2 RTM to SP1. This was achieved by enabling Dynamic Memory.

You get immediate benefit from the moment you turn on the virtual machine. There’s no waiting for memory management algorithms to work. Nor do you have to tweak the hypervisor with custom settings for specific workloads to maximize density. It’s an awesome out-of-box experience for all your virtualization workloads.

RemoteFX is a "first to market" technology that lets lets you virtualize the Graphical Processing Unit (GPU) on the server side and deliver next-generation rich media and 3D user experiences for VDI - yes they beat VMware at this.

For more info on RemoteFX please see:

http://blogs.technet.com/b/virtualization/archive/2010/03/18/explaining-microsoft-remotefx.aspx