Microsoft opens up the SCVMM 2008 R2 beta

Microsoft announced the latest beta version of System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) 2008 R2, the company’s comprehensive virtualization management solution. The latest release keeps the management application on the heels of the Windows Server 2008 R2 release schedule.

[ For more information about Microsoft SCVMM 2008, read the Infrastructure Planning and Design Guide or find out more about how Microsoft eyes management as the key to virtualization. | And don’t forget to try Microsoft’s offline virtual machine servicing tool. ]

In addition to adding the ability to manage installations of Windows Server 2008 R2 beta, this beta release of SCVMM 2008 R2 also adds the following features:

• Live Migration Support: Seen through the VMM console, this enables administrators to move virtual machines from one machine in a virtual host cluster to another with no downtime. Adding this one feature will bring great changes to the usage of the Hyper-V platform.
• Clustered Shared Volumes (CSV): Helps enable Live Migration, eliminates the previous one LUN per virtual machine restriction, and coordinates the use of storage with much greater efficiency and higher performance.
• Hot Addition/Removal of VHDs: Allows the addition and removal of new virtual hard disks (VHDs) on a running virtual machine. And “live” VHD management allows administrators to take advantage of additional backup scenarios and readily use mission-critical and storage-intense applications.
• Optimized Networking Technologies: Two new networking technologies are supported — Virtual Machine Queue (VMQ) and TCP Chimney — providing increased network performance while demanding less CPU burden.
• Maintenance Mode: Gives administrators the ability to migrate virtual machines off the computer or change them to a saved state to apply updates or perform maintenance on a host server. It also ensures that no new virtual machines are added or started on this host server until it is taken out of maintenance mode.

You can go to Microsoft Connect to enroll for the beta program. Just click on “Connection Directory” and sort by the newest beta programs or search for “System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2 Beta.”