Microsoft Virtual Server

Last updated
Microsoft Virtual Server
Original author(s) Connectix
Developer(s) Microsoft
Initial releaseSeptember 13, 2004;19 years ago (2004-09-13)
Final release
Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1 / June 11, 2007;16 years ago (2007-06-11) [1]
Operating system Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista [1]
Successor Hyper-V
Type Hypervisor
License Freeware
Website www.microsoft.com/virtualserver/

Microsoft Virtual Server was a virtualization solution that facilitated the creation of virtual machines on the Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows Server 2003 operating systems. Originally developed by Connectix, it was acquired by Microsoft prior to release. Virtual PC is Microsoft's related desktop virtualization software package.

Contents

Virtual machines are created and managed through a Web-based interface that relies on Internet Information Services (IIS) or through a Windows client application tool called VMRCplus.

The last version using this name was Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1. New features in R2 SP1 include Linux guest operating system support, Virtual Disk Precompactor, SMP (but not for the guest OS), x64 host operating system support, the ability to mount virtual hard drives on the host machine and additional operating systems support, including Windows Vista. It also provides a Volume Shadow Copy writer that enables live backups of the Guest OS on a Windows Server 2003 or Windows Server 2008 host. A utility to mount VHD images has also been included since SP1. Virtual Machine Additions for Linux are available as a free download. Officially supported Linux guest operating systems include Red Hat Enterprise Linux versions 2.1-5.0, Red Hat Linux 9.0, SUSE Linux and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server versions 9 and 10. [2]

Virtual Server has been discontinued and replaced by Hyper-V.

Differences from Virtual PC

Version history

Microsoft acquired an unreleased Virtual Server from Connectix in February 2003. The initial release of Microsoft's Virtual Server, general availability, was announced on September 13, 2004. [4] Virtual Server 2005 was available in two editions: Standard and Enterprise. The Standard edition was limited to a maximum 4 processors for the host operating system while the Enterprise edition was not.

On 2006-04-03, Microsoft made Virtual Server 2005 R2 Enterprise Edition a free download, [5] in order to better compete with the free virtualization offerings from VMware and Xen, and discontinued the Standard Edition. [6] Microsoft Virtual Server R2 SP1 added support for both Intel VT (IVT) and AMD Virtualization (AMD-V). [7]

Limitations

Known limitations of Virtual Server, as of September 2007, include the following:

See also

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References

  1. 1 2 "Download: Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1 - Enterprise Edition". Microsoft Download Center. Microsoft. 11 June 2007. Retrieved 28 November 2012.
  2. ↑ Linux Guest Support for Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1
  3. ↑ "Virtual hard disks". 30 July 2008.
  4. ↑ "Virtual Server 2005". Microsoft Press Release. 2004-09-13. Retrieved 2009-07-02.
  5. 1 2 3 "Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1 Download Frequently Asked Questions". Microsoft TechNet. 2007-06-11. Retrieved 2007-10-15.
  6. ↑ Microsoft Virtual Server is now free
  7. ↑ "Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1 Product Overview". Microsoft TechNet. 2007-06-11. Retrieved 2007-08-24.
  8. ↑ "Benchmarking VMware ESX Server 2.5 vs Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 Enterprise Edition". Virtualization Benchmark Review. 2006-04-19. Archived from the original on 2006-05-03. Retrieved 2009-06-11.
  9. ↑ "Benchmarking Microsoft Virtual Server 2005". Archived from the original on 2006-04-28. Retrieved 2009-06-16.
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