Apr 4, 2011 12:40 GMT  ·  By

Microsoft recently released the first Beta development milestone of System Center 2012 Virtual Machine Manager, and is also providing early adopters with the guidance necessary to start testing the server-side flavor of Application Virtualization.

The Server Application Virtualization Beta documentation is live on the Microsoft Download Center, a free resource offered by the Redmond company.

Among the hottest features of System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012 Beta is Server Application Virtualization, also referred to as Server App-V.

With Server Application Virtualization, Microsoft is equipping customers with the means to separate “application configuration and state from the underlying operating system in a data center environment,” the software giant stated.

“Server App-V converts traditional server applications into “XCopyable” images without requiring code changes to the applications themselves.”

With the System Center 2012 Virtual Machine Manager Beta bits available for download, Microsoft is inviting customers to test drive the solution, and most importantly provide feedback.

Essentially, testers have the opportunity to influence the evolution of not only VMM 2012, but also of Server Application Virtualization Beta.

The Redmond company in fact even warns early adopters that the final Server App-V might differ from what they get to play around with in the Beta.

However, the core functionality of Server App-V is bound to remain the same, namely enabling customers to migrate their server applications in the Cloud by converting them into XCopyable images.

“The conversion process is accomplished using the Server App-V Sequencer. When the server application is sequenced, the configuration settings, services and resources that the application uses are detected and stored,” Microsoft added.

“ The sequenced application can then be coupled with an OS image and a configuration. The application images and associated configuration can then be deployed to a server or servers (currently via PowerShell but in the future from the VMM vNext console), and run and managed on top of the Server App-V Agent.”

The Server Application Virtualization Beta in VMM 2012 Beta is not identical to the Server Application Virtualization CTP released in December 2010 which allows for server apps to be deployed on Windows Azure worker roles.

Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) 2012 Beta is available for download here.