The new HP ProLiant G6 servers let you squeeze maximum productivity and efficiency from your virtual environment. With expanded server support for Microsoft Hyper-V, more memory, processing, and I/O means more virtual machines per server than ever before.

Find out more about the new ProLiant G6 servers at www.hp.com/go/proliant

HP and Microsoft have a long history of working together to provide innovative customer solutions. Click here to see the joint work that HP and Microsoft are doing for Hyper-V R2.

To keep current with the latest information on HP virtualization and products, visit the Virtualization room in the HP Virtual IT Center.

Windows® Server 2008 Hyper-V R2

Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V, the next-generation hypervisor-based server virtualization technology, is available as an integral feature of Windows Server 2008 R2 and enables you to implement server virtualization with ease. Hyper-V allows you to make the best use of your server hardware investments by consolidating multiple server roles as separate virtual machines (VMs) running on a single physical machine.

Administrators want flexibility in allocating computing resources for specific tasks. Virtualization technologies provide this flexibility by decoupling the hardware from the workload being performed. Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V R2 offers a robust, scalable hypervisor-based virtualization platform allowing enterprises to provision and manage virtual server workloads.

Hyper-V in Windows Server 2008 R2 includes five core areas of improvement for creating dynamic virtual data centers:

• Increased availability for virtualized data centers through Live Migration, which allows you to move a virtual machine between two virtualization host servers without any interruption of service
• Improved management of virtualized data centers through the Hyper-V Management Console and support of PowerShell cmdlets
• Increased Performance and Hardware Support for Hyper-V Virtual Machines – up to 64 processors per host, plus second level address translation and core parking for optimum performance
• Improved Virtual Networking Performance through new networking technologies – VM Chimney (also called TCP Offload) and the use of Jumbo Frames.
• A simplified method for physical and virtual computer deployments, including adding, removing, and booting from .vhd files

HP ProLiant and HP BladeSystem servers and StorageWorks storage – part of the industry’s most complete platform designed for virtualization – broadly support Microsoft virtualization technologies, including Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V R2 and Microsoft Hyper-V Server R2. HP ProLiant is Microsoft’s development platform for testing and development of Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V R2.

• HP Insight Control delivers an integrated and easy-to-use toolset to control server and storage infrastructure across an entire Windows Server 2008 environment. HP Insight Control now includes Insight Control for Microsoft System Center , which provides seamless integration of the unique ProLiant and BladeSystem manageability features into Microsoft System Center. HP Insight Control for Microsoft System Center allows you to quickly and reliably configure, deploy and update ProLiant servers, proactively monitor the health of physical and virtual servers and intelligently respond to hardware events, remotely control HP servers in any location using HP iLO Advanced, and safely cap power usage to fit more servers within existing power envelopes.
• The new BladeSystem Matrix converges compute, storage and network resources and can be easily purchased and quickly deployed. You can instantly adjust to dynamic business demands and transform the economics of your data center. And every HP BladeSystem Matrix is pre-configured and installed by HP professionals to quickly get your shared services platform ready for business. Whether you are planning a focused consolidation project or broader datacenter transformation effort, HP BladeSystem Matrix will help you accelerate complex IT projects, simplify daily tasks and continuously lower costs across your data center. Matrix also includes deployment templates for applications such as SQL Server, Exchange Server, SharePoint, and others.
• HP ProLiant BL495c and ProLiant BL490c virtualization blades are the world’s first server blades designed specifically to host virtual machines. They are the ideal platform for virtualized environments that require significant memory, data storage and network connections to optimize server performance. www.hp.com/go/blades
• HP Insight Dynamics provides a comprehensive physical-virtual systems management environment enabling the advanced management of Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V R2 running on HP ProLiant and BladeSystem servers. To find out more about managing Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V with HP Insight Software, download the HP Solution Brief.
• Microsoft Hyper-V Server R2 is a standalone server virtualization product that is supported on a wide range of HP ProLiant servers, providing a cost effective solution for consolidating existing workloads.
• Customers can purchase Windows Server 2008 R2 with Hyper-V directly from HP when they buy a new server, and it can even be pre-installed in the HP factory so that you are ready to go as soon as you receive the server. For more information, please visit http://www.hp.com/go/ws2008R2.

HP ProLiant servers are management-enabled for Microsoft Systems Center and System Center Virtual Machine Manager. In addition, HP torageWorks products will provide broad support for Microsoft virtualization technologies. To find out more about building an Adaptive Infrastructure with HP Management Tools for Microsoft Hyper-V Environments, download the HP Brochure.

Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V R2 uses an advanced feature of processors known as hardware-assisted virtualization. On Intel-based ProLiant servers, this feature, referred to as Intel® Virtualization Technology, or VT-x. For AMD-based ProLiant servers, this feature is called AMD-Virtualization, or AMD-V. Due to the hardware requirements for Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V, not every ProLiant server platform will support Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V. To see the list of supported ProLiant servers, please see the ProLiant and Hyper-V Support Matrix. For additional configuration and installation requirements, please refer to the “Implementing Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V on HP ProLiant Servers” integration note, which can be found here. An updated version of this paper will be available soon for Hyper-V R2.

• Find out how HP customers are realizing the benefits of virtualization on HP ProLiant and BladeSystem servers. Read the case studies for Continental Airlines, Banque du Luxembourg, Jackson Energy Authority, WASSER Studios, Microsoft Financial Reporting Department, Newman Martin and Buchan LLP, and MLS Property Information Network.
• Microsoft has recently released the next update for Windows Server 2008, called Windows Server 2008 R2. The Hyper-V functionality in R2 has been enhanced with new features such as Live Migration, Cluster Shared Volumes, increased hardware support for improved performance, and improved virtual networking support. Get more information on Windows Server 2008 R2 and Hyper-V enhancements here.
• HP ActiveAnswers is the online solutions authority where HP shares its experience and best practices for planning, deployment and operation of Enterprise Solutions. It includes up-to-date technical information, the system configurator, server sizers and storage and performance tools. ActiveAnswers for Hyper-V provides a wealth of information on Hyper-V solutions, such as Architecture, Best Practices, Installation, and Performance. You can also find the HP Sizing and Configuration Tool for Microsoft Hyper-V.
• The Microsoft Assessment and Planning tool (MAP) is an inventory, assessment, and reporting tool that can securely run in small or large IT environments without requiring the installation of agent software on any computers or devices. It can show which servers can be consolidated and virtualized.
• The Microsoft Virtualization ROI Tool was developed to educate and empower your customers to make informed strategic decisions regarding their infrastructure and long term virtualization investments. This tool will support a compelling, credible business case to monetarily quantifying the value of Integrated Virtualization Optimization and the cost-benefit of Microsoft and Partner solutions. The ROI tool empowers the customer and partners to accelerate their virtualization projects by providing a clear analysis of current improvement opportunities and calculates potential benefits.
• The Windows Server Virtualization Calculators provide two ways to estimate the number and cost of Windows Server Standard Edition, Enterprise Edition and Datacenter Edition licenses needed for your virtualization scenarios to help you determine the most cost-effective edition of Windows Server. Note that although this calculator is for Windows Server 2003, it can also be used for Windows Server 2008 and Hyper-V.
• Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2007 (VMM) is a comprehensive management solution for the virtualized data center. Designed to scale up for the largest organizations, VMM provides comprehensive support for consolidating physical servers onto virtual infrastructure, and rapid provisioning and deployment of new virtual machines. To help IT administrators keep organized, VMM features a complete library to centrally manage the building blocks of the virtual data center.