Last week on TechEd North America, Windows Server 2012 R2 is announced. Here are some highlights of “Hyper-V – What’s New in Windows Serve 2012 R2” session (MDC-B330):
Generation 2 VM: A generation 2 VM knows that it is virtualized! It can boot ISCSI and synthetic NIC, so no emulated hardware anymore! A generation 2 VM is available for Windows 8 and Server 2012 or higher. Converting a VM to a generation 2 VM is not possible.
Automatic Activation: No more KMS servers in your environment to activate your guest VM’s. Now it is possible to automaic activate your guest VM’s using OEM or volume licenses.
Online VHDX resize: Do you need any more disk space? Increase and decrease the size of the virtual hard disks online. The VM is up and running while performing this action!
Zero downtime upgrade: Upgrade from Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V to Windows Server 2012 R2 Hyper-V without any downtime using cross version live migration.
Faster Live Migration: Live Migration is about 2 times faster now using compression.
Linux guest support: Linux VM’s are fully supported now. Use dynamic memory, online backup, online VHDX resize and better video experience using new video drivers.
Compatibility with Windows Azure IaaS: Windows Azure IaaS uses exactly the same Virtualization as Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V, so VM’s can be moved between your private cloud and the public cloud!
Enhanced VM inteaction: Remote Desktop over the VMBUS, which enables full remote desktop capabilities, copy files, enhanced login, audio redirection, and even more.
There are a lot of more new features and capabilities within the new Hyper-V 2012 R2 release. Hopefully I can see some information in Madrid at the Microsoft TechEd Europe! 🙂