Microsoft Linux Integration Services 2.1 Hit RC

Version 2.1 of the Integration Services Microsoft is offering for the open source Linux operating system is extremely close to finalization. On May 5th, 2010, the Redmond company started offering Linux Integration Services v2.1 Release Candidate to early adopters running mixed source environments. The RC development milestone of Linux Integration Services 2.1 is available for download via Microsoft Connect. At the time of this article, Connect was down, but the site will undoubtedly be up and running in no time for those that are looking to start test-driving Linux Integration Services 2.1 RC as soon as possible.

“In March, we had announced the beta release of the Linux Integration Services for Microsoft Hyper-V, which added support for SMP-based virtual machines, timesync, and integrated shutdown. Today we're announcing the release candidate (RC) version of the integration services,” a member of the Microsoft Virtualization team revealed.

As it was the case with the previous releases of the Linux Integration Services, version 2.1 comes with support for Windows Server 2008 Standard, Enterprise, and Datacenter (x64 only), Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V Standard, Enterprise, and Datacenter (x64 only), and Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2. In terms of Linux distributions, Linux Integration Services 2.1 RC is designed to play nice with Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 SP3, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11, and Red Hat Enterprise Linux versions 5.2, 5.3, 5.4 and 5.5.

“In addition to the features that were present in the beta release, the following features have been added for this release candidate: Heartbeat: This provides a way for the host to detect if the guest is still running and responsive. Pluggable Time Source: A pluggable clock source module is included for a more accurate time source to the guest,” the Microsoft Virtualization team representative added.