Microsoft Revs Betas of Longhorn, Viridian, Vista SP1

Published: September 26, 2007

by Alex Woodie

Microsoft steered the product previously known as "Longhorn" one step closer to market this week when it declared the availability of the first Release Candidate of Windows Server 2008, or RC0. As expected, the software giant also released the first community technology preview (CTP) of "Viridian," the new virtualization hypervisor for Windows Server 2008, and released the first public beta of Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1).

Two weeks ago, Microsoft said it would deliver Windows Server 2008 RC0 and the first CTP of Windows Server Virtualization (Viridian) "soon," and the company followed up on that promise with the announcement of the new beta releases on Monday.

The deliveries are significant for the software giant for several reasons. For starters, Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server Virtualization have already suffered several delays, which led Microsoft to scale back on its capabilities to meet revised ship dates. Increasing pressure from customers with multi-year Software Assurance maintenance agreements also can't be too far from the backs of Microsoft's product managers' minds. Neither can VMware's continued dominance of the X86-X64 server virtualization market--a market Microsoft desperately wants a piece of with Windows Server Virtualization.

With RC0 out the door, that signifies that Windows Server 2008 is pretty much done. All the engineering has been completed, and no new features are being added at this late stage. Now that the code is for the most part stable, Microsoft wants its partners to start planning for Windows Server 2008 in earnest. And now that the first CTP of Windows Server Virtualization is out there, we'll finally find out whether Microsoft has a shot at following through on all its talk about delivering a hypervisor that's head and shoulders above the rest of the industry.

Microsoft already had to eat a little crow on its hypervisor claims in May when it announced it was cutting some key features from its Viridan project to meet its commitment to deliver the hypervisor within 180 days of the RTM of Windows Server 2008 (which is still its plan, by the way). Features cut from the hypervisor, which XenSource (now owned by Citrix Systems) is helping Microsoft to build, included: support for live migration; support for hot-add of storage, networking, memory, and processor resources; and support for 64-core systems (Nevertheless, the product initially will support only 16 cores, or logical processors, putting it on par with the rest of the virtualization industry.)

Windows Server Virtualization is still expected to significantly improve hardware utilization, however. Some notable features highlighted by senior technical product manager Ward Ralston on the Windows Server Division Blog include: support for multi-processor guests, support for large memory allocation (more than 32 GB per machine), and integrated virtual switch support that enables IT organizations to virtualize most workloads, Ralston writes.

Now that the CTP of Windows Server Virtualization is in the hands of the community, the company is interested to hear the feedback, according to Bill Laing, general manager of the Windows Server Division at Microsoft. "As we continue to talk with customers and partners about Windows Server 2008, one thing is clear--everyone is eager to roll up their sleeves and take a good hard look at Windows Server 2008 RC0, including the Windows Server virtualization CTP," Laing said in a press release.

In addition to the new hypervisor, other new capabilities planned for Windows Server 2008 include the new Server Core option, the new IIS 7.0 Web server, Network Access Protection (NAP), a new command-line interface and accompanying scripting language called PowerShell, stronger password protection, BitLocker encryption, new terminal services gateway enhancements that will eliminate the need for VPN, new Active Directory Rights Management Services to help protect data and ensure compliance, and new clustering capabilities. Microsoft currently expects to release Windows Server 2008 to manufacturing by the end of the first quarter of 2008, which puts general availability in the second quarter.

Also expected to ship during the same general timeframe as Windows Server 2008 is Windows Vista SP1. SP1 will bring a series of new features and better compatibility with third-party providers of security and search software and services. Microsoft recently released the first beta of Vista SP1, which is expected to be available to a private group of about 10,000 testers.

Some of the improvements users will see in Vista SP1 include the capability to turn off Windows' native desktop search functionality and instead use the search product provided by Google, a change that was mandated by the Justice Department.

On the security front, SP1 will deliver new interfaces and APIs enabling third-party security software providers to work with the Windows Security Center and to access the new PatchGuard feature protecting the operating system kernel in X64 versions of Windows. Various other security and performance features are also planned.

RELATED STORIES

New Test Releases of Windows Server 2008, 'Viridian' Imminent

Microsoft Preps Windows Vista SP1

Microsoft Delays Windows Server 2008

Citrix Buys Virtualization Challenger XenSource for $500 Million

Microsoft Slashes 'Viridian' Features to Meet Ship Date

Microsoft Ships Public Beta of Virtual Machine Manager

                     Post this story to del.icio.us
               Post this story to Digg
    Post this story to Slashdot