14 DAY TRIAL // On July 8, 2008 Microsoft gave the green light to the automatic distribution of Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V via Windows Update. The hypervisor component of the latest Windows server operating system was finalized at the end of June 2008, and at that time, it went live on the Download Center. Now the Redmond giant is wrapping up with Hyper-V by offering the old bits of the hypervisor to all users of the 64-bit versions of Windows Server 2008. Only the x64 variants of Windows Server 2008 feature the hypervisor role, as the the x86 editions will only receive the Hyper-V Manager console and the Virtual Machine Connection tool.
"On June 26th Hyper-V RTM (KB950050) was released to the Microsoft Download Center. As of this morning the same content is now on Windows Update as a recommended update to all Windows Server 2008 machines," revealed Taylor Brown, Hyper-V Integration Test Lead. Users of Windows Sever 2008 that choose to install the Hyper-V RTM update should be well aware that the integration of the hypervisor is permanent, and that Microsoft does not provide any removal options.
The RTM version of Hyper-V comes with support for a range of guest operating systems including Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2003, Suse Linux Enterprise Server, Windows Vista SP1 and Windows XP SP3. Patrick O'Rourke, group manager, Windows Infrastructure indicated as early as June 26, that Hyper-V RTM was planned for distribution through Windows Update on June 8, and it looks like Microsoft managed to live up to the promise.
"The update will be classified as a 'recommended update', which means it will flow down automatically according to the settings you've selected for your Windows Server 2008 OS. It's also being released to Windows Server Update Services," O'Rourke added.
