Combinatrix

For those who may not have seen this on the Microsoft Virtualization blog, the Hyper-V Linux Integration Services for Linux Version 2.1 just went RTM! This is great news for customers using virtualization in a heterogeneous data center environment. Hyper-V has supported Linux as a guest OS for a long time, and this new release really enhances that support at a granular level. You can look for the following new features in the 2.1 release:  

• Driver support for synthetic devices: Linux Integration Services supports the synthetic network controller and the synthetic storage controller that were developed specifically for Hyper-V.
• Fastpath Boot Support for Hyper-V: Boot devices take advantage of the block Virtualization Service Client (VSC) to provide enhanced performance.
• Timesync: The clock inside the virtual machine will remain synchronized with the clock on the host.
• Integrated Shutdown: Virtual machines running Linux can be gracefully shut down from either Hyper-V Manager or System Center Virtual Machine Manager.
• Symmetric Multi-Processing (SMP) Support: Supported Linux distributions can use up to 4 virtual processors (VP) per virtual machine.
• Heartbeat: Allows the host to detect whether the guest is running and responsive.
• Pluggable Time Source: A pluggable clock source module is included to provide a more accurate time source to the guest.

Also, please note that this version supports Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 SP3, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11, and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.2 / 5.3 / 5.4 / 5.5. Head on over to the download page to give it a try.

Wednesday (7/21) was an exciting day for customer Direct Edge. They’re a new stock exchange, and are expected to handle 10%-13% of the monthly U.S. stock trading volume, which comes to an average of 1.4 billion shares a day. You can see news article here and here.

Microsoft, and other technology partners, joined them on stage Wednesday as their CEO “rang the bell” at the open of the market.

Direct Edge datacenter is in Secaucus, New Jersey. They’re running highly clustered Windows Server 2008 environment for low latency, and improved reliability and performance. The CEO said they’ll publish latency numbers in the near future.  They’re using SQL Server 2008, including row/page compression so they can improve I/O utilization and memory utilization, and reduce storage costs. They developed their trading applications using .NET framework.

Three years ago Direct Edge was 1% of the trading volume and less than 20 employees. Now they’re a double-digit player in U.S. capital market with more than 80 employees. Their CEO said that they’re planning to grow against their competitors using better infrastructure and new technology to create better subscriber experience. It’s great to work with customers like Direct Edge. And it was a privilege to participate in Wednesday’s launch of the new stock exchange.

Patrick O’Rourke

The Microsoft Solution Accelerators Team is happy to announce that the Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) Toolkit 5.0 is now available!  This is one of the most useful and popular of Microsoft's planning toolkits allowing customers and partners to automatically assess your current infrastructure and make recommendations for future capacity and compliance. The new version 5 release has several new features, including:

• Heterogeneous server environment inventory
• Software usage tracking for Windows Server, SharePoint Server, System Center Configuration Manager, Exchange Server and SQL Server
• Microsoft Office 2010 readiness assessment
• SQL Server discovery and assessment for consolidation
• Windows 2000 Server migration assessment

This is a powerful tool for assessing your current IT situation and planning for the future -- and it's free! Make sure to check it out.

We're at the sold out Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference in Washington D.C. talking to our partners about the public beta release today of Service Pack 1 for Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7. We managed to get this puppy out the door a few weeks early, so take advantage and download the code to evaluate the new features and benefits that SP1 can provide for server and desktop installations. The final version of SP1 is due out in the first half of next year.

For partners, we think there is great opportunity here to continue evangelizing the benefits that Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7 already deliver while noting for customers that it only gets better when final code for SP1 is released. For example, if you're a distributor, there's a great opportunity to grow your business by selling more server and desktop licenses with virtualization solutions based on Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7. If you're a VAR, you can improve software and solutions sales built on Microsoft software, including Windows Server 2008 R2, with offerings that utilize virtualization and integration with Windows 7.  If you're an ISV, you can increase your sales and reduce development time by building apps and solutions for the virtualized environment on Windows Server 2008 R2. And if you are a hardware partner, you can increase sales by creating solutions for customers, in particular in the area of desktop virtualization with solutions that take advantage of Microsoft RemoteFX. For partner-related news around RemoteFX, please check out Max's blog.

The two most important developments in SP1 for Windows Server 2008 R2 are:

Dynamic memory lets Hyper-V administrators pool available memory on a physical host and dynamically distribute it to any virtual machine(s) running on that host. So as the workloads on that physical workload change, requiring more or less memory, Dynamic Memory will let administrators change the memory allocation to their VMs without service interruption. For a deeper look at Dynamic Memory check here.

RemoteFX enhances Microsoft desktop virtualization. RemoteFX lets Windows Server 2008 R2 administrators provide an even richer and user-transparent desktop virtualization experience. RemoteFX delivers rich content, independent of any graphics stack, to server-hosted virtual and session-based desktops, allowing them to support any screen content, including full-motion video, portable graphics stacks such as Silverlight, and 3D applications. Because it can use virtualized graphics on the server and advanced codecs , RemoteFX can deliver those experiences to a much wider array of target devices, including standard desktops and laptops but also an emerging slew of thin clients. You'll also be able to forward the USB ports of the local client to the virtual machine being accessed on the device - just like you can forward the local printer over RDP today.

Make sure you check out the new SP1 Beta Resource page on Microsoft.com as well as the TechNet SP1 page -- and don't forget to grab the download here. 

Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 is a great value-add for anyone running the latest Windows Server, but especially folks leveraging Hyper-V and Remote Desktop Services. Definitely worth the evaluation effort for these folks, so I encourage you to download the code and try it out. And as always, we welcome your feedback.

Oliver Rist

Sr. Product Manager

Windows Server Marketing

Think you’ve got IT geek chops? Are you 100% geek or only a 50% novitiate? Log into Facebook and check out what folks are saying about our new Geek Quiz and then hit that Go To Application button and take the quiz yourself. Answer 10 questions, check out your score and share with folks not as smart as you are. And while you’re at it, browse the FB page and fan-up to get info on the latest Windows Server product news, content and free offers. Hit the Reviews tab and give us your feedback on Windows Server 2008 R2, too.

And for those of you attending TechEd 2010 in sweltering New Orleans, if you picked up a Windows Server IT Geek Quiz t-shirt at the Windows Server booths on Monday or Tuesday, don’t forget to wear it to the show tomorrow – you might get picked out of the crowd and receive an Xbox 360!

Building on our commitment to provide customers with the right technologies to virtualize their IT environments, today we’re announcing that the public beta of Service Pack 1 for Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7 will be released by the end of July. We’ve posted on the contents of SP1 before, but the beta release will be the first time you’ll be able to actually get your mitts on the new code. In case you missed our earlier post, here’s a recap:

SP1 will be a joint release for both Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7. From the server side, we’ve included two key new features:

Dynamic memory is an enhancement to Hyper-V in R2 and allows IT administrators to pool all the memory available on a physical host and dynamically distribute it to virtual machines running on that host as necessary. That means based on changes in workload, your VMs will be able to receive new memory allocations without a service interruption. For a deeper look at Dynamic Memory check here.

RemoteFX is the latest addition to Microsoft’s desktop virtualization stack. Using this new feature in Windows Server 2008 R2, you’ll be able to deliver an even richer and more user-transparent desktop virtualization experience. RemoteFX functions independently of any graphics stack and supports any screen content, including rich content like Silverlight or Flash. It also enhances the end-user’s hardware experience with support for USB redirection. Because it uses virtualized graphics resources, RemoteFX works on a wide array of target devices, which means you can deploy it over both thick and thin client hosts and a wide variety of network configurations. For some more information on RemoteFX check here.

Additionally, take a gander at these video demonstrations of Dynamic Memory and RemoteFX for a look at both these new features in action. Look for more information on SP1’s installation requirements, additional resources and a link to the bits in the coming weeks. And as always, feel free to contact us with your questions and feedback.

Oliver Rist

Sr. Product Manager

Windows Server Marketing

We in Windows Server are sorry to report a disturbing trend among IT professionals. Ever since Windows Server 2008 R2 was first released as a public beta, and Best Practices Analyzer for Windows Server roles was first available, we've been getting some alarming dispatches from the IT management front.

An IT consultant from the Austin, TX area reported that he was now uncomfortably bunking on a worn cot in his garage after running Best Practices Analyzer on his wife. "It worked so well on Remote Desktop Services, especially with the April update that added new Best Practices rules--I thought I'd try it out at home, see what I would get. Well, unfortunately, it found that my wife's somewhat dated 'mom jeans' were 'noncompliant,' and when I chose not to use BPA's feature that allows you to ignore results you don't need to see, I...well, I'm on this cot. Should've ignored those results."

We heard a sad one from an IT pro in Portland, OR, who, after installing the Best Practices Analyzer update for Hyper-V when it came out, was so impressed by how much time it saved her configuring her enterprise's virtual machines that she decided to try it out on her dad. "I just meant to tease him," she said. "Naturally, the first result it returned was 'Noncompliant--Lose the mullet, public service announcement, the '80s are over.' Dad, he didn't think it was funny at all. In fact, he's growing the mullet out even longer in protest. It's not pretty. And he's not really speaking to me right now, I just get a harumph out of him every once in a while, but the only way I can tell is that the mop of hair surrounding his face stirs a bit when he does it."

The release of BPA updates for DHCP, NPAS, and AD DS provoked a similar wave of doleful tales. The worst involve IT pros running scans on their teenaged children. Let's just say that, from our e-mail, we've learned a few interesting new hand signals that your children are using when they want to indicate to you roughly the same general concept: I would like to communicate my indifference to your information in the strongest possible terms. Hoo boy, are we learning a lot.

Fortunately, when you use new Best Practices Analyzer update packages for File Services, WSUS, AD RMS, or Application Server, you'll never receive such responses from your server roles. You'll never know the pain of having your mother run a BPA scan on your own life, and having her *snif* carefully fold her exported and printed Warning results that show you're not getting any younger and it's time to settle down and give her grandchildren, tuck the results into a pink-flowered envelope, and mail them to you. No, *choke*, at least you won't suffer that.

Friends, please; we're telling you this for your own good: BPA scans are absolutely awesome on 12 of the server roles that are running on Windows Server 2008 R2. But they're a really lousy idea for your personal life. Thanks, and happy scanning. On servers.

I have been talking with a number of customers, CSOs, CIOs and industry professionals over the past few weeks and I realized that the availability and benefits of using the Server Core option of Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2008 R2 was not as widely known as I think it should be.  Windows Server Core provides a minimal installation environment for running specific server roles, which reduces the maintenance and management requirements and the attack surface for those server roles.  The following roles are supported in Windows Server 2008 R2:

• Active Directory Certificate Services
• Active Directory Domain Services
• Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services (AD LDS)
• DHCP Server
• DNS Server
• File Services (including File Server Resource Manager)
• Hyper-V
• Print and Document Services
• Streaming Media Services
• Web Server (including a subset of ASP.NET)

Over time, the number of reboots for patching or security updates is significantly reduced for a Server Core installation of which the benefits are obvious.  In some cases, customers can see up to a 60% reduction in patch requirements and the number of reboots on a monthly basis.  Over time, more roles and configurations will support Server Core and is already a best practice in many enterprise environments.  Many line of business and third party applications support running on a Server Core installation – not just the in-box roles of Windows Server above.

For more information and background on the capabilities of Server Core in Windows Server 2008 R2, see our TechEd presentation from last year or to get started with a Server Core installation now, see our downloadable guide.

David B. Cross

Director of Program Management

Hi everyone.  Good news:  Active Directory Federation Services 2.0 (AD FS 2.0) has been finalized and is now available for download! 

AD FS 2.0 is a role in Windows Server that simplifies access and single sign-on to both on-premises and cloud-based applications.  Using “claims-based” identity technology, it helps enable secure business collaboration and productivity within the enterprise, across organizations, and on the Web.  (We also released Forefront Protection 2010 for SharePoint today, and published some high-level recommendations around ensuring more secure collaboration.)

Some of the top scenarios AD FS 2.0 will support are:

1.       Collaboration with Office documents and SharePoint across companies with single sign-on access.

2.       Single sign-on access to hosted/cloud services, extended from on-premises Active Directory to Microsoft (or other) cloud services.

3.       Implementation of access security and management policies to many different applications with varied security requirements.

Overall, AD FS 2.0 will help you streamline user access management with a simpler, unified approach and native single sign-on. It builds on AD and interoperates with other directories via WS* and SAML support, too.

And, because it provides a single user access model that can be applied again and again, AD FS 2.0 also helps provide better, more consistent application security.  It puts access control decisions where they should be:  In the hands of IT.

The AD FS 2.0 planning and deployment guide is here .

Joel Sider

IDC recently released a analysis of the x86 server market “Business-Critical Workloads: Supporting Business-Critical: Computing with an Integrated Server Platform.”  If you don’t have time to read the whitepaper, check out the ComputerWorld webcast covering this material here.

What does the white paper show?  Clearly, IT managers have realized that large, proprietary UNIX systems cost their businesses more all up (support, staff, hardware, other).  That realization shows itself in IDC’s numbers - shipment growth rates for these big RISC dinsours is flat or declining while the rest of the technology world continues to expand.  In many data centers UNIX systems are already gone.  Archeologial expeditions below the raised floor can yield remiders of their existenct - strange LVD SCSI cables and nutty looking power connectors.

How does this relate to Windows Server and business critical applications?  The move away from these monotlithic hosts to x86 is real and I believe it is accellerating with new technology introductions like Intel’s Xeon 7500 processor line.  The question for IT managers isn’t if it makes sense to move (the whitepaper and other industry analysis shows that!), but to what operating system to migrate critical business processes. 

Microsoft and server OEMs have invested heavily in improving software and hardware to support business critical workloads.  In the last decade there have been huge increases in the percentage of business workloads trusted to Windows Server - from Windows 2000 through Windows Server 2008 R2. 

The IDC whitepaper includes real world customer “snap shots”  that are worth reading through.  I’m sure organizations that have already moved key business process from UNIX to Windows may find it hards to remember what it was like working the RISCy stone age! 
-John
John Kelbley, Senior Technical Program Manager, Windows Server