Microsoft Hyper-V RTM'ed!

The standalone hypervisor, Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008, was released today for download.

• Hyper-V Server 2008 was built using the Windows hypervisor and other components, including base kernel and driver technologies. Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 shares kernel components with Windows Server 2008.

• Microsoft Hyper-V Server  2008 contains a sub-set of components that make up Server Core deployment option of Windows Server 2008, and has a similar interface and look and feel. But as you know, Server Core has roles like DNS, DHCP, file. Hyper-V Server 2008 is just virtualization.

• Because Hyper-V Server 2008 shares kernel components with Windows Server 2008, we don't expect special hardware drivers to be required to run Microsoft Hyper-V Server.

• The maximum number of guest instances that can run on Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 is 128 (of course this is dependent on the hardware, memory and workloads). Additionally, each guest OS must have a valid license.

• Hyper-V Server 2008 runs/upports all the guest OSes supported by its big brother, WS08 Hyper-V. See here for a complete list.

• Windows Server licenses are not included with Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008. Client access licenses (CALs) are only required for Windows Server and all Windows Server images that are virtualized, regardless of virtualization platform (e.g., ESXi). No CALs are required for Hyper-V Server 2008.