14 DAY TRIAL // At approximately a month after the release of the first upgrade for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 Microsoft is also kicking up a notch Hyper-V Server 2008 R2.
The first Service Pack for Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 has also reached RTM and is available for download, free of charge, from the Redmond company.
At this point in time, customers leveraging the Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V role, as well as the standalone Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 can grab and deploy SP1 RTM. (I’ve included links for both at the bottom of this article)
Unlike Windows 7 SP1 RTM, both Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 RTM and Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 SP1 RTM contain new features, with a focus on pushing the virtualization capabilities of the hypervisor to the next level.
In fact, it should not be a real surprise the fact that with the advent of SP1, Microsoft has chosen to enhance both the hypervisor role and the standalone version of Hyper-V with the same features.
“Service Pack 1 for Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 includes all the rollup fixes released since Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 and adds two new features that greatly enhance VDI scenarios: Dynamic Memory and RemoteFX,” revealed Jeff Woolsey, from the Windows Server & Cloud team at Microsoft.
Customers familiar with Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 will undoubtedly notice that the features mentioned above are the same as those introduced for the Hyper-V role in the second half of February 2011.
“Dynamic memory is an enhancement to Hyper-V R2 which pools all the memory available on a physical host and dynamically distributes it to virtual machines running on that host as necessary,” Woolsey explained.
The software giant has referred to RemoteFX as the ‘special sauce’ in Remote Desktop Services, and the company is right in doing so.
Remote Windows desktops can feature Windows Aero, allow users to enjoy full-motion video, but also support Silverlight animations and 3D applications, all through the new RemoteFX feature.
Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 SP1 RTM is available for download here.
Windows 7 SP1 RTM and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 RTM are available for download here.