Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V Functional Specification 2.0

Microsoft is working its way to release to manufacturing and subsequently to launch Windows Server 2008 R2 (Windows 7 Server) concomitantly with the Windows 7 client. The R2 version of Windows Server 2008 delivers the second-generation of Hyper-V. In this regard, the Redmond-based company is currently offering for download the Hypervisor Functional Specification v2.0: For Windows Server 2008 R2. The documentation containing the top-level functional specification for Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V went live the past week on the Microsoft Download Center and is now up for grabs for free.

“This document is the top-level functional specification (TLFS) of the second-generation Microsoft hypervisor. It specifies the externally-visible behavior. The document assumes familiarity with the goals of the project and the high-level hypervisor architecture. This document is intended to be sufficiently complete and precise to allow a developer to implement a compatible hypervisor from scratch,” Microsoft explained.

The software giant launched the initial version of Hyper-V in Beta with the RTM/SP1 of Windows Server 2008, and subsequently provided the fully-fledged hypervisor role for the server operating system as an update. With Windows Server 2008 R2, Hyper-v 2.0 will be included by default into the operating system. Customers looking to take advantage of Microsoft's hypervisor can already get started with the test driving, by downloading and deploying the Release Candidate of Windows Server 2008 R2. The Redmond-based company expects the next iteration of the Windows Server platform to RTM by the end of July, and to be launched on October 22, 2009.

“This specification is informal; that is, the interfaces are not specified in a formal language. Nevertheless, it is a goal to be precise. It is also a goal to specify which behaviors are architectural and which are implementation-specific. Callers should not rely on behaviors that fall into the latter category because they may change in future implementations,” the company added.

Windows Server 2008 R2 Release Candidate (RC) is available for download here.