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Microsoft RTMs Virtual Machine Manager 2008

Oct. 21, 2008 Paul Thurrott | Paul Thurrott's Supersite for Windows

From Zane Adam, Director of Virtualization Strategy at Microsoft:

I’m writing today to announce the exciting news that we’ve released to manufacturing (RTM’d) System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 and to talk a bit about its critical role in the broad set of virtualization offerings from Microsoft.

Our virtualization solutions span the desktop to the data center including the management tools required to ensure that virtualization remains an asset and doesn’t become an unwieldy burden. On the server we have Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V and also Hyper-V Server, our standalone hypervisor, we recently released in September. We’re seeing rapid adoption of Microsoft server virtualization solutions and IDC recently released findings showing Microsoft's Hyper-V delivering a strong showing, and when combined with Virtual Server 2005, helped Microsoft to capture 23% of new license shipments in 2Q 2008.

Today’s announcement of the RTM of System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 extends the management benefits of System Center even further by enabling not only the management of Microsoft virtualized environments, but also VMware ESX as well.

We’re excited to see the partner and customer adoption of System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008.  We’ve already seen hundreds of our early deployment customers use either the beta or release candidate version of VMM to manage their Hyper-V deployments.  They are seeing the many cost reduction and management simplification benefits of Hyper-V and the SCVMM 2008 integration with the rest of System Center.   Now that RTM is official, I fully expect the rate of Hyper-V deployments to further accelerate.  Through the SCVMM 2008 console, administrators can see the entirety of their data center infrastructure – physical or virtual. SCVMM 2008 facilitates key functions like P2V (physical to virtual) migration, Intelligent Placement (selecting the best virtual host for a VM), and managing Hyper-V host clusters, to name just a few. SCVMM 2008 works closely with its siblings – particularly SC Ops Mgr – in identifying consolidation candidates and in Performance and Resource Optimization (PRO), a new feature in which SCVMM 2008 can alert and recommend solutions to administrators about failing virtual machines or hardware. As I mentioned above, this comprehensive view extends throughout the data center as SCVMM 2008 is capable of seeing and managing VMware ESX infrastructure through Virtual Center. I hope you download SCVMM 2008 today and give it a try. Additional information, including a link to download an evaluation version is available here and it will be generally available for purchase as of November 1.

I’ve been working with a release candidate version of SCVMM2008 for a few weeks now and will have a bit to say about this impressive tool in the days ahead as well.

Discuss this Article 20

Lindy
on Oct 21, 2008
My only question is does it require SCCM or can it run by its self? Give away Hyper V to sell SCCM is what its looking like. VMWare Virtual infrastructure is still way better at this point. DRS clusters/VMmotion is the shiznitz.
mikegalos@msn.com
on Oct 21, 2008
Lindy Just curious. You don't know the system requirements for SCVVM2008 but you already know you don't like it as much as its competitor? How do you know that when you've apparently not installed it or even read the FAQ?
Ocean
on Oct 21, 2008
OT: Apple is officially past goal of 10 million iPhones for calendar year 2008, with the entire holiday season ahead. http://daringfireball.net/linked/2008/10/21/macworld-aapl
gorath
on Oct 21, 2008
Ocean, as impressive as that is, This is the comments section for a blog post about Microsoft RTMing VMM2008. Go away.
Ocean
on Oct 21, 2008
Steve Jobs: >>SJ: "We don't know how to make a $500 computer that's not a piece of junk. Our DNA will not let us ship that." "There are some customers which we choose not to serve."<< https://twitter.com/macjournals
Ocean
on Oct 21, 2008
Can't leave this one out...last one: >>$25B in the bank (safely) and zero debt means we can invest through the downturn, like we did last time (when we did retail stores)<< The man knows how to run a company. >>Apple customers are the best in the world, and they may delay purchases, but are unlikely to abandon the quality products we make.<< I think Paul would agree with that.
xtreem0
on Oct 21, 2008
3 comments in and it’s already about apple? I can understand if it’s a topic that references apple but this is about servers... Freaking trolls.
Master3
on Oct 21, 2008
Paul can you honestly ban this clown? Or at the very least erase his OT comments.
Master3
on Oct 21, 2008
Paul can you honestly ban this clown? Or at the very least erase his OT comments.
Ocean
on Oct 21, 2008
Master, you and others have posted OT posts before. Save the faux-outrage for someplace else.
Ocean
on Oct 21, 2008
Ed Bott says Vista 2.0 will be released next year: http://www.edbott.com/weblog/?p=2181
Master3
on Oct 21, 2008
Uh, yeah. I did it once, regarding politics, and apologized for it in the same post! You decided to take a topic that had NOTHING to do with some blanking Apple financial report and decided to spam it into here for what reason no one can possibly know. It was nothing but total arrogant stupidity from yourself, and I still think Paul should yank your sorry rear off of this site. so you can find some other place to push your BS trolling.
Lindy
on Oct 21, 2008
@Mike, I have used Hyper V only to test it out, I work in a huge VMware shop, huge. I have used the MMC snap in to mange Hyper V on server core 2008 and Enterprise 2008. I knew SCVMM or SCVVM as you call it:), was around seen it demoed technet events, but I dont do MS Beta's any more unless I am paid to do so, so since it just RTM'ed today I would not know about it first hand. Every time I have seen in it in a demo it was added to SCCM, and not a stand alone app, hence my question. I would not want to have to buy SCCM to use it.
mikegalos@msn.com
on Oct 21, 2008
Lindy So, you've never run the product but you feel qualified to do a comparison review of a complex multi-server management suite based on watching a demo of an earlier beta version. There might be a job for you on Walt Mossberg's staff for you at that rate.
shark47
on Oct 22, 2008
"Save the faux-outrage for someplace else." I guess it's the same kind of outrage that Mac fans display when Paul criticizes Apple? Wait... not really, this is Paul's blog. He can write whatever he chooses to. You, on the other hand, are just behaving like a troll, trying to hijack the thread.
shark47
on Oct 22, 2008
"Save the faux-outrage for someplace else." I guess it's the same kind of outrage that Mac fans display when Paul criticizes Apple? Wait... not really, this is Paul's blog. He can write whatever he chooses to. You, on the other hand, are just behaving like a troll, trying to hijack the thread.
shark47
on Oct 22, 2008
"There might be a job for you on Walt Mossberg's staff for you at that rate." Hey, those are the exact qualifications Goatberg wants. A Mac fan, with the Apple logo tattooed all over his/her body and who hasn't used too many "M$" products but feels he/she is qualified enough to talk about them because of his/her intense hatred for "M$". Make sure to include a pic of the Apple logo on your Jag windshield or whatever. Goatberg likes it. :-)
Lindy
on Oct 22, 2008
Ahh Mikey just got win no matter what.....sigh. I have setup Hyper V in a test lab, created at least a couple of dozen VM's on it or child partitions as MS calls them, to include a whole AD environment with multiple sites, Exchagne 2007, SQL 2005 cluster using iSCSI etc. Its a great product for the price. That said it lacks some features that VMware does like VM motion and DRS clusters that are critical in a enterprise environment. Also it looks like I need another MS product, SCCM, to run the more advanced VM manager from MS which is typical MS BS. Example you cant run the basic Hyper V MMC on XP, to manage Hyper V, it can only run on Vista or 2008. There is no reason at all that the MMC cant run on XP except that it wont because MS wont make it work. Lots of companies I know of are skipping Vista.....lots. So I must RDP into a Windows 2008 server to manage them. With VMware I just run the Virtual infrastructure client from my XP notebook.
Waethorn
on Oct 22, 2008
"Also it looks like I need another MS product, SCCM, to run the more advanced VM manager" ?? Where does it say that in the system requirements? http://www.microsoft.com/systemcenter/virtualmachinemanager/en/us/system... "That said it lacks some features that VMware does like VM motion[sic] and DRS clusters that are critical in a enterprise environment." Check again. Even after watching the very brief demo, I already know that it already includes support for dynamic clustering and resource allocation, and Hyper-V already has a Quick Migration approach to migrating VM's between physical boxes. You should also note that it includes something that VMware doesn't: It can manage both VMware VM's as well as Microsoft's (both Virtual Server and Hyper-V VM's too). VMware's website doesn't even mention that it supports Microsoft's. It's also extremely cheap compared to VMware's Infrastructure 3 Enterprise platform ($504 vs. $5750) - you know, the one that actually supports DRS. http://www.microsoft.com/systemcenter/virtualmachinemanager/en/us/pricin... You can even get entire management suites (which include SCCM, SCOM, and DPM) for less than VI3 Enterprise: http://www.microsoft.com/systemcenter/en/us/management-suites.aspx "Example you cant run the basic Hyper V MMC on XP, to manage Hyper V, it can only run on Vista or 2008. There is no reason at all that the MMC cant run on XP except that it wont because MS wont make it work." There's a reason why - Hyper-V administration relies on certain components in Vista SP1 and Server 2008, much in the same way that the VM integration components only support those OS's. It won't work on Vista RTM either. The SCVMM admin console works on XP SP2 or higher, so your complaints are moot. BTW: It's called V-Motion, not VM Motion. Thought I'd point that out after you called out Mike on mispelling "SCVVM".
Ocean
on Oct 22, 2008
>>trying to hijack the thread.<< If I were, I'd thank you for cooperating. :)

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